If you haven't heard it already, such ideas come across in statements such as these:
- It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere....
- That may be true for you, but it's not necessarily true for everyone...
- There is no such thing as absolute right and wrong, it's just a matter of what society decides....
Before we go further in this discussion, I want to let you in on a dirty little secret about people who say they believe that "there is no such thing as absolutes" -- Nobody....yes, I said NOBODY - really believes this....no matter what they may say.
In many places in the Bible, we are told that our ACTIONS are the best indicator of what we really believe. Interestingly enough, this is also true for those who don't claim to be Christians, or who claim that absolute truth doesn't exist. Let me show you what I mean....
The next time you interact with someone who tells you there are no such things as moral absolutes, listen very carefully to them over a period of time (especially if they're a professor). Without exception, you'll find that they will eventually take issue with some social condition (poverty, the plight of a particular minority, corruption in government, etc...). When this happens, wait and see how long it is until phrases like "It's not fair" or "people shouldn't be treated like that" come out of their mouths.
Why is this important? Because - if there are truly no moral absolutes, then we can never say that something "shouldn't" be done or that something "isn't fair".
Take slavery for example. If there are no moral absolutes, and all morals are relative, then there was (and is) nothing "wrong" with slavery! In that case, if person A believes that slavery is just fine and has 7 slaves on his farm, then his opinion that slavery is OK is JUST AS VALID as the person who believes that slavery should be abolished. (Remember the line "It may be true for you but.....")
The obvious question comes up....what about the people being enslaved? Isn't that unfair to them? Well, if there are no such things as absolutes, how can we decide what "fair" is? The bigger question is... I thought there were no moral absolutes...right? Now all of a sudden we're saying (or implying) that the person with the whip or the gun is not doing the "right" thing by using his/her power to enslave others. Sounds to me like we're comparing the slave owner's actions against some "standard" that we're all supposed to know about....
Using one of our other statements above, I'm sure the slave owners during the American Civil War SINCERELY believed in their right to own slaves. So is it really true that it doesn't matter WHAT you believe as long as you're SINCERE?.....hmmm....
In the book, "I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist", the authors tell a story about an ethics professor who was grading a term paper for one of his students. The student's paper was on the subject of how there was no such thing as moral absolutes. He wrote that all of our values were merely opinions, similar to people liking one flavor of ice cream over another.
The student turned in the paper in a classy looking blue folder. The professor read the report, and handed it back to the student at the next class period with a big "F" on the cover. Underneath the "F" the professor wrote "I don't like blue folders". After class the student came to the professor's office, furious that he had received an "F" merely because of the color of his folder. "You can't do that," he yelled at the professor, "That's not right! My report was well researched and thought out....", and on and on the student went. The professor said nothing, but just smiled, when all of a sudden it dawned on the student what he had just said. Regardless of what he SAID he believed in his term paper, in reality HE BELIEVED that it was wrong or unfair (which requires a belief in the absolute idea of "fairness") to be given a failing grade based on the color of his report cover.
So, when you run into people (especially those with lots of letters after their names, like PhD, MA, etc..) who tell you that the idea of absolute truth is "old fashioned" and "outdated", be very careful to watch what they DO and how they REACT rather than what they SAY.
I once had a discussion with someone who said they didn't believe that there were moral absolutes, but that morals always changed from situation to situation. Just to make my point, I asked him the question "Is it ever morally OK to kill a child for the mere fun of it"? He looked at me a little funny then thought for awhile and said, "Well....no". I pointed out that if it was that easy to find one moral absolute, there were likely to be a lot more that are easy to discover.
So, the next time someone tells you there is no such thing as moral absolutes, ask them which of the following 3 moral absolutes they have a problem with:
- It is morally wrong to hate or kill another person solely because their skin is different color than yours.
- If two people are equally skilled at a job, it is morally wrong to pay a woman less than a man for no other reason than the fact that she is a woman.
- It is morally wrong to kill another human being merely for personal enjoyment
Most people, when faced with the 3 statements above, will have a hard time reconciling what they SAY they believe about absolute truth with what their heart KNOWS to be true.
You may have noticed that I haven't spent a lot of time mentioning God in this post. It's not that I don't think that God has a place in the discussion of truth - actually quite the contrary. But, you'll find that in our culture, you often need to get people to examine their basic assumptions about truth up front, or they'll just throw out God and Bible altogether as being unimportant or irrelevant to the conversation.
If, on the other hand, you can show them that there really IS absolute truth, then the next question is how do we discover what it is?
And that, my friends, is what starts us on the path to knowing the Truth....the Truth that will set you free....
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