Posted on 02/18/2015 7:39:18 AM PST by Gamecock
As one considers the values of Hollywood and American pop culture, it would be easy to conclude that no one is concerned all that much about morality. The dominant message is that people should live whatever life-style suits their personal preferences. What is right for one person is not necessarily what is right for another.
Or so it would seem.
Just about the time you are convinced that Hollywood thinks morality is relative, a major entertainment figure steps forward and speaks out vigorously about a moral cause. Maybe it’s the environment. Or perhaps its racism. Or maybe the moral cause is caring for the poor. Regardless, it turns out that, in certain instances, morality is absolute after all. In regard to these moral issues, apparently everyone should be on board.
Such was the case with the latest statements by the actress Julianne Moore. The headline I read about her most recent interview said it all:
“Oscar Actress Frontrunner: I Don’t Believe in God; Gun Control a Must.”
Now right off the bat, it is clear that there are some serious problems with Moore’s worldview. First, she stumbles into the very problem mentioned above. How can we take her moral position seriously, when the message of her industry is that there are no moral absolutes? You can’t say, on the one hand, “Live whatever life-style you want,” and then, on the other hand, say, “You must follow this particular moral position” (in this case, gun control). It’s one or the other.
But, the second problem is even bigger than the first. In addition to making moral claims, Moore makes it clear that she doesn’t believe in God. Apparently, then, she has an atheistic worldview. Of course, she is free to have such a worldview, but the problem is that it doesn’t square with her moral crusade for gun control.
Presumably, she is concerned about gun control because she values human life. She believes it is “wrong” to take a human life, and wants to prevent as many human deaths as possible. But, on an atheistic worldview, why is human life more important than any other life? It is just the product of billions of years of mindless evolution. On an atheistic worldview, taking a human life is no different than taking the life of a cockroach. On an atheistic worldview, there is no right and wrong at all.
Later in the interview, Moore admits as much. She says:
“I learned when my mother died five years ago that there is no ‘there’ there,” she reflects. “Structure, it’s all imposed. We impose order and narrative on everything in order to understand it. Otherwise, there’s nothing but chaos.”
Basically, according to Moore, there is no inherent meaning in the universe–meaning is just something we “impose” on a world filled with “chaos.” All good and well, but what then is the ground for her moral claims about gun control and the value of human life? In a world without meaning, why would it matter what one human does to another? It is just one bag of molecules doing something to another bag of molecules.
Of course, Moore might respond and say, “You can still have morality on an atheistic worldview. Morality is determined by what is good for the most people. And gun control is good for the most people.”
But, this just creates a new moral code out of thin air, namely that “Morality is determined by what is good for the most people.” Where does this moral standard come from? Did she just make it up? And why should people follow it? Moreover, how does Moore determine what is good for the most people? What counts as “good”?
In the end, Moore’s worldview faces some serious philosophical challenges. She wants to have absolute morality so that she can declare murder wrong (and thus advocate gun control), but at the same time she provides no coherent basis for what makes something right or wrong. Indeed, she has a worldview that actually destroys the possibility of their actually being any real right or wrong.
When someone has such an obviously incoherent worldview, it makes one wonder how that happens. What leads someone to embrace two obviously contradictory premises? The Bible actually provides an answer for this. The Scriptures teach that men and women are made in the image of God and the law of God is written on their heart (Rom 2:14-15). This explains why Moore insists that murder is wrong (which leads her to advocate gun control).
The Scriptures also teach that unbelievers suppress this truth in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18-23). Even though Moore knows there is a God, she refuses to admit such a thing and tries to live her life without him. Thus, her contradictory worldview is inevitable. She is trying to get away from God, but cannot escape him because the Law of God is written on her own heart.
Of course, it should be noted that Christians agree with Moore’s concern for human life. We agree that it is wrong to murder (regardless of what one thinks about the merits of gun control laws). The difference is that Christians actually have a coherent reason for why murder is wrong, namely because humans are made in the image of God (and thus are different from the cockroach), and because God has commanded us not to murder.
While non-Christians might act moral, and might advocate moral acts, only Christians have grounds for why an act is moral or immoral in the first place.
Another example of why actors should NEVER say anything that isn’t scripted for them. They don’t have enough intelligence to realize how dumb they are.
She’s pretty much been whoring herself out lately to get her retirement balance up before her face goes as wrinkled as a prune. Used to play some good roles, but a personally devoid person. She’s not even smart enough to realize her politics can interfere with her income..... dumbass.
She’s at the point where she should be playing grandma or older girlfriend - or just go the hell away (my favorite).
I don’t even know who Julianne Moore is. Have no idea. I havent kept up enough with pop culture to know who some of these people are. But, she sounds like yet another Hollywood idiot who wants to tell us all how to live our lives.
“We impose order and narrative on everything in order to understand it. Otherwise, there’s nothing but chaos.”
Well, Julianne, it’s easier to impose order on the chaos when you are well armed.
Great article.
I think there’s an explanation here for why liberals have no real confidence in their ideology.
The lack of confidence explains why liberal politicians can never admit what they really beleive.
Someone else found out they were wrong about the entire issue of God: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ff3_1268859617
I don’t know who she is, either. I don’t know one of these idiots from another and I like it that way!! :)
You make a good point, but as reasonisfaith points out in Post 6, this logic is not limited to the lovely*, but airheaded Ms. Moore. This line of thinking is used not only by liberal that surround us every day, but by friends and acquaintances who just don't know how to think and are guided by their emotions.
*
The above thoughts, written by this actress, give evidence of a deeply lost person. Also, it is evidence of a confused person. Chaos is confusion, and randomly imposed 'structure' on chaos only ads to the chaos, if she were being honest.
"Morality" she suggests is just what the majority agrees on at some point in time. That, too, is randomly imposed, so again just additional chaos on the already identified chaos.
The 'majority' agreed on natural marriage, Ms Moore, but I'll bet you disagreed with it and support unnatural same-sex couplings. More evidence of 'order' or of 'chaos'?
There is only one way to achieve an ultimate morality, and that is to have it issued by The Ultimate Being. This is so self-evident, I wonder how it gets missed by so many atheists.
MOST people are very easily persuaded, influenced and subsequently, led!
Too bad for the rest of us.
‘Cause they think they can impose order. We make them uncomfortable with the very truth that they are rebelling against.
Liberals pols never admit what they truly believe
not out of fear or lack of confidence,
but out of an arrogant “I know better” worldview
stemming directly from the assumptions of Humanism.
They know they wouldn’t be elected to implement what they believe,
“because the voters are too stupid to see the superiority of what I believe”.
Am I thinking clearly, Gamey? Isn’t ‘imposed’ order, randomly selected at some time or place, on irreversible chaos, simply an additional chaotic moment in time?
I think your post is spot on.
It’ll preach.
The order she proposes is an illusion.
There IS order in Creation - physically evident in mathematics, space/time, physical causation, physical laws and constants - without which there would be no "thing" at all, even chaos.
She should have noticed this and realized that therefor God the Creator IS and objective truth, e.g. morals and rights - are grounded solely in His will.
Is 55:12 "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."
Bravado often pretends to be confidence! Late theologian and Christian apologist Walter Martin once observed: “There are only two true faiths… worship of God of the Holy Bible and worship of SELF. All the cults, ‘isms’ and New Age thinking are just versions of worship of self. Worship of self is what the Serpent offered n Genesis 3:5”. (I offer Shirley “Confused Brain” MacLaine as exhibit A)... Such is the foundation of modern pop culture (Me Me Me and more Me), ISIS and most “progressives”. This mindset is totally represented by the man these people twice elected president, along with John Stewart, Brian Williams and this misguided babe Julianne Moore.
Proof old signs are gold.
Room for rent NO Actors.
She lost her mom. The world makes no sense to her if it could take her mom from her.
Atheism often is anger, not disbelief.
But of course the day is coming when she and we will also leave this mortal coil; its part of the natural order of things. The difference is that we have come to know that life does not end, that there is a God that made us and loves us, and that there is eternal principle at work behind what sometimes appears to be chaos.
I wouldn’t write her off. She sounds as if she is begging someone to show her she is wrong.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.