Sunday, December 6th, 2009

“Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as is nothing happened.” -Winston Churchill

According to a recent survey done in 2006 by The Truth Project 91% of young people in the Church today(ages 16-25) do not believe in absolute truth. This statistic is very alarming and disturbing to say the least. I believe the single greatest question a human being needs to ask is this: What is truth? It’s becoming more and more clear that the reason why the church is losing young people to secular humanism is because we ourselves don’t know what we believe in and why we believe it. It all starts with the foundation of what truth is because if there’s no truth then Christianity does not exist. Christianity would be a myth or a bold face lie…

Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Putting it simply the definition of truth is “telling it like it is.” It’s what corresponds to reality. If something is true than it’s true for all people, at all times, in all places. A few more things to keep in mind with the nature of truth:

* Truth can only be discovered and cannot be invented.
* Truth is unchanging despite what we believe at different points in our life.
* Beliefs cannot change a fact no matter how much we cling on to them.
* ALL TRUTHS are absolute truths.
* Finally, contrary beliefs are possible, but contrary truths are not possible.

There are 3 main views that claim is there no absolute truth: skepticism, agnosticism, and relativism. Let’s briefly look at why these worldviews are false:

Skepticism is the belief that we should doubt everything. It is the philosophy of uncertainty. Basically it says to hold off on making decisions because we don’t know what’s true. The problem with skepticism is that it self-destructs. It is impossible to be skeptical about everything because in order to do so, we would have to be skeptical about our own skepticism! In holding off on making decisions about the world you actually make a decision about the world. Making no decision is indeed making a decision.

Agnosticism is the belief that the truth can’t be known and we can’t have any knowledge of God. Once again agnosticism is a self destructing worldview. The very assertion that says we can’t know the truth is an absolute truth statement in itself. If an agnostic can’t know truth, then how does he or she know agnosticism to be true? Basically, an agnostic uses truth to say there is no truth! So agnosticism fails on its own sword before ever getting it’s argument off the ground.

Relativism is the belief that truth exists from only from one’s matter of perspective. This is by far the most popular worldview among young people today. There are three major kinds of relativism: 1) truth is relative to time, 2) truth is relative to people, 3) truth depends on location.  Relativism, just like skepticism and agnosticism self-destructs. The statement “all truth is relative” is an absolute truth statement. By saying that relativism is true for all people in all times and in all places, he or she is using an absolute truth to state that there is no absolute truth. Relativism is simply impossible. In order to affirm their position they must use an absolute truth! Another way it contradicts itself if this: if truth is relative to something else, what is it relative to? It can’t be relative to the relative, and so on. If there is nothing in the real world for a person’s view of relativism to correspond to, there is no test to see whether it is true.

Can truth be known? The process of discovering truth begins with the self-evident laws of logic called the first principles. The two basic ones are: the law of Noncontraction and the Law of the Excluded Middle. The law of Noncontraction is simply what we just covered, statements that don’t contradict one another. Skepticism, Agnosticism, and Relativism all fail to uphold this law. The Law of the Excluded Middle tells us that something either is or is not. For example, God exists or He does not– there is no other alternative. Without these basic laws we couldn’t learn anything. Basically, first principles give us the way to learn about the world around us.

The main way we can draw conclusions about the world is through induction, which is more commonly known as the scientific method.  By gathering information and observing something over and over again we can conclude that some general principle is true. Is this 100% reliable? No. Most conclusions based on the scientific method cannot be considered absolutely certain but only highly probable. The scientific method can be trusted, but only to a certain degree. Since we don’t have infinite knowledge, most of our inductive conclusions could be wrong. We can be sure beyond a reasonable doubt, but not sure beyond all doubt.

So, by these simple assessments you can conclude that: 1) absolute truth exists, 2) truth can be known, 3) not all worldviews can be true.

So again, why is truth so important to us as Christians? Because everything we do and say comes from what we believe. What we believe becomes who we are and directs where we’re headed in life. This all starts with affirming that truth exists. If we prove that truth exists, then we can discover what it is and then live our lives in accordance to these truths. Next week I’ll write the 2nd half of this series on worldviews: what is a worldview, whether or not everyone has one, and why our own worldview is so critically important to our daily lives. Then I’ll discuss the important issue of why truth is so important to Christianity, along with a blog on the true meaning of Christmas. If you have any further questions about this blog or SHOUT IT ministries in general e-mail me or leave a comment on this website. I’ll leave you with this haunting question that really jumped out at me: Do you really believe that what you believe is really real? Stay Tuned. God Bless.

Sources: Geisler, Norman/Joseph Holden Living Loud. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002.
Geisler, Norman I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2004.
www.truthproject.org-statistic is stated in Tour 1: Veritology: What is Truth Video