(John 18:38, John 14:6, Psalm 119:142)
Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?"
What IS truth?
Maybe a better question is this: Is there truth? Is there absolute truth? Is anything objective? Or, is everything subjective?
These questions used to be simple. When someone would ask you if you woke up this morning the obvious answer would be ‘yes’. But that’s not the case anymore. Now, if someone were to pose this question, it might be an acceptable answer to say, “does anyone ever really wake up?”
As a culture we are obsessed with contrarianism. We are so impressed with our own intellect that we see it as our duty to prove that we are smart enough to invalidate any question which might be posed.
What is truth?
Do we even accept the premise of the question? Do we accept, anymore, that there is such a thing as truth? Is this accurate: 2+2=4? I’m a bit old, and maybe a bit more out of touch, but to me that is definitely a true statement. But, is this accurate: 103-28=75? Again, I would say that the answer would definitely be 75. For real, I got the calculator out and it told me so. But then, this…
I know the arguments in favor of Common Core math. I know that it’s supposed to teach our children to think bigger so when they get to more advanced maths it won’t be such a difficult paradigm shift. But who’s buying that? Is there something bigger at play? Are we, possibly, trying teach our children that there’s no such thing as an absolute? In this culture of post-modern relativism we are being taught to believe that everything is subjective to the viewer's perspective. We are obsessed with it!
We’re pushed to feel guilty if we believe that our individual (or group) morals should be used to hold others accountable. After all, who are we to tell somebody else what ‘good’ is? But is there a difference between me saying that I think that the New England Patriots are evil and so should everyone else, and that I think that murder is evil and so should everyone else? Most people would agree that murder is evil (though, not all people) but slightly less people would agree that the New England Patriots are evil (admittedly, there is still a rather large group of people who would agree that the Patriots are evil and this may have been a not-so-good comparison). But isn’t murder evil? Or, are there circumstances which we should believe that murder is good?
Is evil relative? And, if evil is relative, is there really such a thing as evil?
Can the same thing be said for truth? The very concept of truth would dictate that it would have to be absolute, but have we found a way to make it subjective? When 103 minus 28 no longer equals 75, is any truth absolute?
It wasn’t that long ago that if a person was born with male anatomy and that person decided that the feel like they’re a female and not a male, they would be seen as delusional and not a woman. If I said that I identified as a nuclear physicist (even though I have no training whatsoever) would I have the right to claim that the nuclear power plant who wouldn’t hire me had no grounds to do so? Could I say that they were discriminating against me because of my background? After all, I identify as a nuclear physicist.
I don’t have a problem with men who think they’re women. Actually, out of love, I want them to get all of the help that they need. Just like I would hope that someone would get me help if I told them that I wholeheartedly believed that I was a nuclear physicist, despite the lack of any corresponding proof.
In the end we have to finish where we started, “What is truth?”
I will offer the following as my proof:
Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth.
And
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
This was originally posted on my personal blog, linked below
