For the comparatively short length of my lifetime, subjective thought has dominated and pervaded the public and popular psyche. And according to what I read in history books, it has been this way for quite some time. Most churches and Christians that I have encountered seem to be almost at a loss as to how to confront such a notion. I was in that same boat to for many years, typically just avoiding the ideas when possible so that I wouldn't have to deal with the consequences.
But I feel very differently now. Several years ago stress ,years of ignoring obvious questions to faith, and willful sin caused me to spiral into a state of depression. I was in law school at the time, which completely drowned me in busywork and kept me from coping with my dilemma. For many months, I turned very strongly against my Christian principles and took up a thoroughly subjective (albeit horribly cynical) worldview. My mind has always been a major battlefield for me, but at this point I felt I had lost the war. Or had won it, depending on what vantage point I was under.
Months previously, my wife and I had left the church we were very involved with. Friction, struggles under new ministry leadership, and the typical passionate ebbing and flowing of creative types eventually proved too much. We began questioning all sorts of ideas. We started looking for new congregations that would harbor us during this time of trial. For several weeks we even attended a local "emergent" group, which proved to be extremely helpful, both because it allowed us approval to question basic ideas we'd had and because it showed us that many in that group were not of a similar faith to ours whatsoever (despite using similar language).
What I found in subjectivism was that it became terribly easy to tear ideas and notions apart. My passionate bitterness made it difficult to refrain from rudely scoffing at anyone who had any sense of moral truth or trust in some god they could not see. The problem that revealed itself, however, said to me, "Now that you have torn everything down, what do you have left?"
The only reasonable answer, fully following that line of logic, is nothing. There could be no morality in the land I now lived in. No law had ultimate meaning. No notion of right and wrong could ultimately exist. And yet I had a clear, disturbing knowledge of something, which I suppose now is what caused me such bitterness. I'm convinced that many skeptics and cynics are so vocal because they are simply trying to hear their own voice, to remind themselves that what is plainly in front of them is not there at all.
The most beautiful revelation that I have ever had, however, is that this very line of thought, this dark trek into the most dangerous and unforgiving of mindsets ultimately led me back to Christ, back to an even more orthodox position that I had ever held originally. It was as if my mind had wandered away on a small globe. For all my wanderlust, I could only end up back in the same place. So instead of just talking about my subjective experience, let's talk about how this actually reasons out, how we can go from subjectivism directly to Christ.
Subjectivism can be summed up in the idea that no action or inaction has ultimate meaning or value, but that meaning or value must be derived from the person experiencing it. Most philosophers will go with Descartes long enough to say, "I cannot be sure that this is not a dream. Reality is not undoubtedly true. But I know then at least I think, therefore I am." From there, we can very easily see that many things people believe are true often turn out to be very false. That casts a shadow of doubt on our own security. Mark Twain said in paraphrase, "The very wrongness I'm so quick to point out in the assuredness of others should remind me that I am just as likely to be wrong." Many Christians will take up a partial subjectivism and say, "I've only experienced this... so maybe they've experienced something else and thus believe differently. Who am I to judge that?"
But all of this only dances around the problem. All of those people are not saying that moral absolutes do not exist, but that we do not currently know them or have the faculties to know them. It is typical agnosticism.
This modern age looks then to science and reason as a valuable back door to avoiding God. In this age of enlightenment, how can we deny evolution? With anthropology we see that many people believed many different things. And to all of that I say, "Have you no perspective? Do we not mock psychologists, chemists, and astronomers that published the most inhumane or provenly ridiculous claims not just twenty years ago?" We cannot hold on to science, for while we are closer to knowing great things through it, we can never "arrive" at an ultimate comprehension, and furthermore, science can have nothing to do with questions of things outside of scientific testing (creation, spirituality, etc) or of value. Science is valuable, but it provides no shelter whatsoever in the quest against subjectivism.
But all of this leads us to one place, and that is faith. Perhaps not faith in God, but faith in something. We all accept something completely by faith. You have no amazing reason to believe anything that you experience. You accept it by faith, because it is simply easier that way. The sun will rise tomorrow (God willing), but you cannot prove it. We accept it by faith because it is reasonable knowing what we know. But even those things we know are accepted on faith. And thus we can show that ultimately there is no more or less reasonableness for those that believe in God by faith and those that "believe in science" (whatever that means) by faith. We could even believe in neither, and that is reasonable at this level.
And from here we can press forward into embracing subjectivism in a Christian way. From what I have experienced as a believe in Christ, I know for certain of my spirituality. I know for a fact that sin harms my relationship with God, that the Bible is the Word of God, and that when Christ is glorified my spirit soars. But I cannot convey these facts to you... nor can I rely too heavily on what I feel. I could try to mash these feelings into objective ideas, but that only mutilates the true place of both. There are things in my spirit that I now know in a sense that is altogether different than reason and logic. Furthermore, I can understand why perhaps you disagree or cannot accept that. In my worldview, the unbeliever is spiritually dead until they believe in the atoning death of Jesus upon the cross and are reborn through that faith, so thus the unbeliever cannot grasp what I'm saying.
But that sounds like a terrible cop out, and I understand that.
With this in mind, it seems good to point out that as Christians, we cannot hope to gain converts through reasoning and logic, although we should exercise those gifts wisely because they do have value. Apologetics can reassure us that our faith is sound. We know that historically everything we read about existed, and that is to the thanks of science. But just because it existed does not mean that it was true or right. That is all by faith. On our end of the experience of life, the regeneration of our soul is subjective--it happened when I believed at the age of sixteen or seventeen. From God's point of view, though, it is objective--I was crucified with Christ before the foundation of the world.
We can derive true value from what God values, but that must come to us through an altogether different faculty than what we already possess as humans, namely His Spirit. Now go and try to describe that to someone that doesn't believe in it. It makes us sound like a club of people that all agree to believe in Invisible Bob without any reason to believe in him. And that's just how it has to remain, because the knowledge of God's Spirit is something we can only obtain through experience. And so when it comes down to it, subjectivism reminds us that only one thing is necessary to remind ourselves of when battling subjectivist thought:
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes," (Rom. 1:16).
