True for You, But Not for Me. Part 2

Strong and courageous

Feb 9,2018

In last week’s post we laid the groundwork for a post-modernist world view that only embraces relative truth alone, and is not willing to embrace the possibility of objective truth claims being valid. In this installment, I would like to get into a bit more detail concerning these ideas.

Part of the reason for thinking that objective truth is not possible is the reality that sometimes finding the truth can be very difficult to do. For example, we are currently looking at a political landscape where both the liberal and conservative parties have a very different viewpoint on what is certain and what is the truth. This feeds into the constellation that only relative truth is possible and objective, absolute truth is impossible to find.

But is objective truth impossible to find? Or is it only just difficult to find? I believe that these kind of questions are very important for the postmodernist to ask. Particularly the latter. While objective truth may be difficult to grasp, it is well worth the effort to be willing to explore deeply in order to obtain. That is what forensic science and our criminal justice system are all about. Shouldn’t one be willing to have this same tenacity concerning philosophical and religious issues as well?

Paul Copan (the author that I recommended reading last week) states “[rejecting objective truth] may simply indicate that some or all concerned do not have full knowledge, a clear grasp of the issue at hand. Until a key witness to a murder steps forward, piecing together the evidence in a criminal case may be difficult. Until then, the investigators may have inadequate knowledge, but this doesn’t imply that the murderer’s identity is inevitably elusive or the he doesn’t exist. What we need is more evidence.”

Concerning Christianity, I believe that many skeptics are operating from a perspective of not having adequate understanding, not exploring the eye-witness testimony found in the gospels. While I would admit that there are some folks who will never believe, no matter how much convincing evidence is presented. I am looking for those who are willing to go where the evidence leads them. If you are truly open-minded, there is great value in exploring who Jesus is.

Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free!” John 8:32