Truth

1

• Truth Consequences
• Where did it come from,
• where is it now,
• where is it headed?
• January 10, 2004

2
Q. Whats the difference between

• A human being A buffalo?

3
Main difference

• Animals live mainly by instincts
• No care for truth meaning
• Mankind searches for truth meaning (e.g., Is
  God real? Why am I here?)
• These higher purposes guide impulses
• Truth has been an prominent goal for mankind
• ? But where is truth now?

4
Current state of Truth

• 70 of Americans dont believe theres absolute
  truth
• Surrounded by more lies than truth
• Let us begin by committing ourselves to the
  truthto see it like it is, and tell it like it
  isto find the truth, to speak the truth, and to
  live the truth.
• Richard Nixons speech, accepting the
  presidential nomination, 8/9/68

5
And truth seems too exclusive

• People dont like this because
• Insisting on a particular single truth appears
  judgmental
• Accept everyone dont hurt anyones feelings
• Its against the reigning virtue of Tolerance
  today
• Everyones opinions are equally valid
• ? These sentiments arise from

6
Moral Relativism

• Moral Relativism says
• No absolute truth applicable to everyone
• No objective right / wrong
• Moral rules are merely personal preferences
• From cultural upbringing / environment
• ? A challenge to Christianitys truth claims (to
  sin, oughts, etc.)

7
How did it get to this stage?

• Renaissance (1300-1600) Exalt man through art,
  literature, etc.
• Enlightenment (1600-1700) Push God out
  depend on human reason to discern truth
• Industrial Revolution (1700-1800) Human
  productivity advancement no need for God
  independence!
• Dont need God to tell us truth anymore

8
Confidence in mans abilities

• Rationalism Man can understand the world
• Empiricism Knowledge only through senses
• ? Implications for truth
• Scientific truth became absolute public
• Unobservable spiritual / moral truths became
  relative privatized

9
Postmodernism pushed it further

• Objective universal Truth does not exist
• Even scientific truth is true only for that
  time culture
• Thomas Kuhns paradigm shifts
• ? Thus, todays Postmodernism says, Everythings
  a result of ones culture
• and Morality is all relative is determined
  by culture alone

10
But listen carefully

• Morality is all relative is determined by
  culture alone!
• But this statement itself is stated as being
  absolute universal !!
• Also, the statement Everyone must be tolerant
  and accept everything equally
• is so inflexible unaccepting to those with
  other statements!
• ? Thus, Moral Relativism is self-refuting

11
In fact, there are universal norms

• Cultural variation may be on the surface, but
  there is deeper agreement
• e.g. U.N.s Universal Declaration of Human
  Rights--30 moral affirmations voted unanimously
  by all U.N. nations
• Besides, disagreements dont always imply the
  absence of absolute truth
• e.g. Q) How many people are here?

12
Exclusive truths all around us

• Regardless of my own opinions / feelings
• Matters of fact are exclusive
• e.g. Im 5 4 ½ tall. Im not 6 tall.
• Universal constants apply for everyone on earth
• e.g. R 0.0821 Latm/Kmol
• ? But we feel oppressed by it

13
Especially in a world of choices

• You can choose I despise restrictions
• Hate fixed rules universal absolutes
• Burger King Sometimes, you gotta break the
  rules.
• Easy Spirit shoes Conforms to your foot so you
  dont have to conform to anything.
• Nieman Marcus No rules here.
• ? We hate absolute morals that bind would
  rather have moral relativism

14
But moral relativism leads to

• Without absolute truth
• nothing guides our morals
• were just floating aimlessly
• headed nowhere
• lost.
• ? Our hearts cry confirms this progression

15
Lost without a moral anchor

• Dr. Hobart Mowrer (atheist, professor at Yale
  Harvard, American Psychology Association
  president) wrote in American Psychologist
• We psychologists looked upon the whole matter of
  sin and moral accountability as a great incubus
  and acclaimed our liberation from it as epoch
  making. But In becoming amoral, ethically
  neutral and free, we have cut the very roots of
  our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood and
  identity, and with neurotics themselves, we find
  ourselves asking, Who am I, what is my deepest
  destiny, what does living mean?

16
Lyrics of the heart

• Evanescence, Bring Me to Life
• Save me from the nothing Ive become
• Breathe into me and make me real
• Dont let me die here, there must be something
  more
• Linkin Park, Somewhere I belong
• I get lost in the nothingness inside of me
• Just stuck, hollow, and alone
• I will never be anything till I break away from
  me

17
Avril Lavigne, I'm With You

• I'm standing on a bridge I'm waitin in the dark
  I thought that you'd be here by nowThere's
  nothing but the rain No footsteps on the ground
  I'm listening but there's no sound
• Isn't anyone tryin to find me? Won't someone
  come take me home It's a damn cold night Trying
  to figure out this life Wont you take me by the
  hand take me somewhere new I don't know who you
  are but I'm, I'm with you

18

• I'm looking for a place searching for a face is
  there anybody here I know cause nothings going
  right and everythings a mess and no one likes
  to be alone
• Isn't anyone tryin to find me? Won't someone
  come take me home It's a damn cold night Trying
  to figure out this life Wont you take me by the
  hand take me somewhere new I don't know who you
  are but I'm, I'm with you

19

• Oh why is everything so confusingmaybe I'm just
  out of my mind yea yea yea
• It's a damn cold night Trying to figure out this
  life Wont you take me by the hand take me
  somewhere new I don't know who you are but I'm,
  I'm with you

20
Thus, without a moral anchor

• Produced the current independent generation
  feeling lost empty
• Longing to know
• Who am I?
• Where do I belong?
• What is the truth about me?

21
Barna survey indicates

• The common solution is to keep busy and to
  stimulate ourselves with a variety of new
  experiencesthat way we are not so likely to feel
  the pain of those fundamental holes in our life.
  if they fill the gaps with commitments and
  excitement, then theyre less prone to feel the
  emptiness of loneliness and aimlessness. Of
  course, that just prolongs the inner despair that
  eventually cannot be suppressed any longer.
  George Barna survey, 2000

22
More frightening implications

• Without moral absolutes
• Strength might determines whats right
• Our world will be filled w/ fear terror
• Morality becomes a preference
• My preference is equally valid as yours
• e.g. Jeffrey Dahmer
• Rape, molestation, etc. are one persons
  permissible preference

23
History demonstrates this tragedy

• Nietzsches God is dead philosophy (1800s)
• He predicted 1900s would be bloodiest in history
  that universal madness result
• In Europe,deaths due to war(in millions)

24
Where are we headed toward?

• Hitler I want to raise a generation of young
  people devoid of a conscience, imperious,
  relentless, and cruel
• In Auschwitz alone
• 12,000 Jews gassed to death every day
• 14,000 pounds of womens hair left over
• note Nazis were obeying their laws
• ? We must seek after absolute moral laws

25
Conclusion

• Terrible tragic consequences result if were
  severed from are independent of absolute truths
  
• Only absolute truths provide the anchor for our
  restless souls
• Existence of a Moral Law presupposes a Moral Law
  Giver (i.e., God)
• We must seek these truths submit to them no
  matter how we feel about it