'Being on the right side of History' is one of those arguments that seems popular in debates these days. Its deployers seem to give it a great deal of weight and consider being on 'the right side of history' as something intrinsically valuable and a goal worth aspiring to.

But what does being on the right side of history really? From my understanding, it seems to mean that at some point in time a majority of persons decide that a different point of view on something is preferable.

Being on the 'right side of history' thus depends on: 1) what point of history is being referred to, and 2) the assumption that ‘right’ has a definitive answer and there are infallible judge(s) capable of identifying that answer.

The first can vary and carries a great deal of bias and what C.S Lewis called 'Chronological Snobbery' with it because the point in history tends to be that of the speaker and their near descendants' and later in history is considered better - no one speaks of being on the right side of History 200 years ago. Hitching my definitions of what is right to the consensus of the majority of a group of humans seems a very bad idea - I don't need to look very far into the past (or present) to discern that.

The second, completely defining right and being able to judge it comprehensively, is outright impossible for humans. Yet it seems to be humans of the future who are the ones tasked with deciding what falls on the 'right side of History'.

The 'being on the right side of history' argument is deployed seemingly without much thought to these points or a concrete definition of what it means and why that is of any value in arriving at a decision on topical issues.

Despite the skeptical tone I have taken above, as a Christian, I do believe in the existence of a right side of history and in being on it. But that is because my worldview gives me a basis to provide answers to those two points: for the first, I refer to the very last moment in our current human history when Jesus Christ returns, and to the second, he is the perfect judge who has comprehensively defined right and is capable to identifying it. As a Christian I am concerned exclusively with being on the right side of that moment in history. Being on the 'right' side of all other intervening periods seems to be a distraction and is at best utterly useless and at worse utterly destructive.

But there are many who do not share a Christian worldview, or any worldview which allows them to provide answers to those points which stand up to scrutiny. Why they give credence to the 'right side of History' argument and how they go about determining that they have attained it mystifies me.

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