Full-Proof Ministries

How do you view truth?  Do you see it as relative – varying according to the perception of the beholder?  Or do you see truth as absolute – the same for everyone, everywhere?  Do you see truth as unwavering regardless of societal changes or technological advances?

I’m currently reading through Volume 1 of Dr. Norman Geisler’s Systematic Theology.  The section I covered today was entitled “Logic: The Rational Precondition.”  In this section, Dr. Geisler presents several schools of thought regarding truth, subdivided into two categories – relative views and absolute views.  Arguments for the theory of relativism vary in the particulars of their approach, but arrive at the same conclusion – relativism.  Many of them seem logical enough at the outset, but fail under closer scrutiny.

Dr. Geisler begins by naming the most obvious fallacy of this sort of reasoning – that it is a self defeating statement.  Think about it, if someone tells you that truth is relative, what do they mean by truth?  What do they mean by relative?  Obviously they believe their statement to be a true one, but is it absolutely true?  Would that then make at least that particular truth absolute, thus defeating the premise it attempts to prove?  Logically, this statement breaks down before it even gets started, but for those not convinced, we’ll continue….

Have you ever heard someone use the phrase “Perception is reality?”  This phrase comes out of the relativistic school of thought and puts the emphasis not on the truth or fallacy of a thing itself but on the beholder’s perception of it.  Under this theory, any thing could mean any thing to any one at any time in any place. A simple truth-statement like “That sweater is blue” suddenly means nothing when another person’s perception of the same sweater is that it is gray or black.  Arguments like these are made all the time to prove the relativism of truth.  But is relativism truly warranted…even in cases of seemingly subjective things like colors?

Well, what is color?  Colors are simply differing frequencies of light being reflected from a given object.  While our individual perception(s) of those frequencies may range dramatically and seem to prove the thesis in question, we know that our perception of those frequencies can only be as accurate as our eyes are able to communicate those perceived frequencies to our brains.  That’s as far as relativism can take us.  However, the light being reflected is only capable of traveling at one frequency.  It is our faulty perceptions that skew otherwise objective data.  While an object may seem to be any number of colors, we know that the frequency of light reflected from it can only be one – thus, a seemingly relative truth does in fact have an absolute, objective reality.

Here’s another example, taken directly from Dr. Geisler’s Systematic Theology:

If a teacher, facing her class, says, “The door to this room is on my right,” when it is on the left for the class, the this truth would seem to be relative to the teacher since it is false for the class.  However, this is not so, since the referent in the statement is the place from where the professor stands, not from where the class sits.  That the door is on the professor’s right is really an absolute truth, for it will never be true for anyone, anywhere, at any time that the door was on the professor’s left.  It will always, everywhere, and for everyone be true that the door was on her right. – Geisler, Norman, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, pg 119 (Minneapolis:  Bethany House, 2002).

Jeff Whittum is the Founder and Director of Full-Proof Ministries. Challenged by a close friend, Jeff set out to discover the intellectual basis for his faith. This led him to a deeper and more substantiated faith in Christ, ultimately founding Full-Proof to reach others who are searching.

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