I have come to a conclusion: We live in a backwards world.
I recently was sitting in a local bookstore when I overheard this phrase from the mouth of a teenager walking past me with her boyfriend: "I would rather go to hell! It sounds like more fun..."
Wow! What a depressing statement! This just proves to us that the hellfire and damnation idea won't fly any more; people would rather go to hell than heaven! We live in a world that often values the opposite of what we value. I believe our world is backwards now. Up has become down and down has become up, and we live a a world of confusion invented by the Cheshire Cat.
Think of it this way: What was once right has now become wrong, while what was once wrong has now been accepted as right.
Sex before marriage used tobe shameful; now "kids will be kids." As Bristol Palin reminded us, "You can't expect teens to not have sex! They are gonna do it..."
Christianity and Christians were seen in respect. Even if people didn't agree with us they at least respected our moral code. Now we are seen as hateful, intolerant, and evil.
Liberals can push for their agenda, but when conservatives do the same thing it is seen as hate-mongering.
When I was young we had a moment of silence each day in school. You could pray, think, zone out, whatever, but it was there. Now it is "unconstitutional," and a violation of First Amendment rights.
According to our society, there is no such thing as absolute truth. (Well, don't ask a scientist or accountant...) Truth is relative. For the first time in Western history and thought, nothing can be determined or believed to be true. It is all subjective
Can you see now why we are backwards? What was once regarded as truth is now regarded as evil. What was once right is now wrong, and what was once respected is now held in disdain.
I want to continue a thought I began a couple of weeks ago. Sorry it has taken so long to get back to it, but things have been HECTIC with all the various things that have come up.
I think we are happy settling for little-t truth these days. As we are constantly bombarded and reminded by our culture, all truth is relative. Your truth may not be my truth, and vice versa. Yet a problem seems to exist within these mantras: universal truth does seem to exist.
For example: 1. Every culture in the world believes that murder is wrong. Now, the interpretation of murder is different in each culture, but every culture agrees that murder is wrong. In some states in the United States, we execute a person for the vicious murder of another person. We call this justifiable execution. War against enemy combatants is called "the elimination of a target or threat." In many African tribes, murder is reserved for people of one's own tribe. If you kill someone outside of the tribe that isn't murder, because that individual isn't a real person.
2. Child rape is wrong. Every culture in the world values their children and wants no harm to come to them. Each culture has a moral rule against child rape. Some cultures tend to ignore their own rules (tribes of the Trobriand islands, some Afghan tribes, etc.) But most people believe that taking the innocence of a child is wrong.
Morality isn't subjective or totally culturally driven. There are universal standards that exist. Thus, not all truth can be relative; some things are universal.
Some would point to the inconsistencies between the two aforementioned rules as proof that morality is relative. Each culture calls things differently and has their own inherent rules... Thus, isn't it all relative to their experience.
I would argue that they are making a little-t truth out of a Big-T Truth. God said, "Do not murder." Yet it seems to be the second sin committed by mankind. Cain tried to justify his actions, just as cultures try to justify their own thinking. The Truth gets ignored for the truth. (Yes, the words and capitalization are intentional...) Just because we distort Truth doesn't mean that that Truth doesn't exist.
Truth is universal, applying across time and space. Yet there is a place for interpretation within our own cultural contexts. "Do not commit adultery" can now apply to internet pornography. Jesus' appeal to turn the other cheek can apply to nuclear proliferation or economic recessions. These Truths are universal, and yet we are called to apply them in our own circumstances.
Little-t truth should be the application of Big-T Truth; yet so often we allow it instead to replace it.
In John 18, Jesus stands in judgment before Pilate and speaks these words: “My kingdom is not of this world…You are right in saying that I am a King. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Pilate’s response is pretty telling: “What is truth?”
I want to start there tonight, because the idea of truth is the foundation for everything that we are going to do.
So… What is truth? And how do we know?
Postmodern thought tells us that there’s no such thing as objective truth. It simply doesn’t exist. How many of you have ever heard the phrase, “Well, they may be true for you but it isn’t necessarily true for me”? Postmodern thought has made truth relative. Truth is no longer based on the objective study of facts and information; instead, truth is about what makes us happy. What is true for one person isn’t necessarily true for anyone else.
In 2005, Stephen Colbert introduced a new word to the American populace: truthiness. His argument is that truthiness is anything we want to be true, regardless of the facts. Truthiness is something we know from our gut, by feelings of intuition, without the backing of facts and opinions. Colbert states: “It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty.” He goes on to say, “So, what is important? What you want to be true, or what is true? Truthiness is 'What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.'
It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.”
Colbert also created another word: Wikiality.Reality that is edited by the masses. “Any user can edit any entry, and if enough people believe it then it becomes true.” He encouraged his readers to log onto Wikipedia and edit the Elephant entry to contain the erroneous fact, “Elephants are reproducing at a three times greater rate than they did before.” And people believed it!
We live in a world that likes truthiness more than truth. We prefer Wikiality to reality. As long as we want to believe it, than it really is that way. But there’s one small problem. Wikiality is based on group consensus, not on fact. Group consensus told us that blacks were not real human beings and, thus, could be enslaved. Group consensus told us that it was a good idea to put Japanese Americans into containment camps during WWII, and Arab Americans into internment camps in 2001. Groupthink is not reality; it is Wikiality. The difference between truth and truthiness is facts.
So, what is truth? How do we know? Is it what people tell us? Is it what we instinctively feel? Do we find it in our textbooks, professors, or friends? What is truth, and how do we discern TRUTH from FALSEHOOD?
It is a question of epistemology: “How do we know what we know?”
The problem isn’t just in determining between truth and lies; it is bigger. Sometimes we have to determine between truth and Truth.
Let me see if I can explain. When I was growing up and taking science class, we were taught that the smallest complete particle was the atom. Although it was made up of different parts, the atom was the smallest complete particle that couldn’t be divided down any more. But now we know about the existence of neutrons (complete particles), quarks, etc. Was my science teacher lying to me?
Or compare it to the way life came into existence. My biology textbook told me that scientists had recreated the exact conditions of the earth at the beginning and were able to create amino acids from goop. What they never bothered to tell me was that the earth has now been proven to NOT consist of the very atmospheric conditions that they postulated; yet the ideas were still thought of as fact.
Now I am not saying that these things aren’t true. They do seem to be truth, at least when they taught them to me. But these truths are changing and modifying based on new information we are learning and receiving. This truth is open to debate and change. We are constantly changing our truth.
But I believe that there is a greater Truth out there. Let’s call it Big-T Truth. This is truth that is never changing; it is non-negotiable. Things like: I exist; I think and feel; I need community to achieve my potential. These are Big-T Truths that even the secular, or pagan, world would agree with.
But I think there are greater Big-T Truths out there. Things like,
God exists.
God created.
God’s love for you is limitless.
God’s love for you is never-ending.
Jesus lived.
Jesus died for your sins
Jesus is resurrected and will return.
You have a chance at eternal life; you can’t earn it, but you can receive it.
These are the Big-T Truths that never end. They won’t change. God will ALWAYS love you, regardless of how bad you screw up. God created the universe by his power. Jesus lives and is returning. These things will never change!
How do we discern this big-T Truth? Can we trust that these things are, indeed, true? Well, through both a priori truth and a posteriori truth. We know it through reason, through our understanding of the world. Also through the knowledge of others who came before us, and our understanding of their thoughts, And we understand it because of our own experience, our interaction with these thoughts and realities.
What are more of these Big-T Truths? (Please give me feedback.)
