Is there Truth?

This week I saw something that I haven’t seen in many years. Eight strangers picked to live in a house…MTV’s The Real World. …Taking eight strangers and forcing them to live in a mansion with one computer, one car, no cell phones, four bedrooms and one communal bathroom is anything but the real world, but that’s a different story, for a different day. Here’s a quick synopsis of the episode…There was an army veteran, a post-operation trans-gendered woman(?), an extremely metro-sexual Mormon, a muscle-man who’s life consisted of eating and working out, a dancer, a tattooed, artsy girl who looked freakishly like Julia Styles only with black hair, a black woman who didn’t seem to be in any of the scenes and a Cuban, gay, animal trainer. Everyone one of them had some version of this as their herald: “You need to be open-minded. You need to not be judgmental.” But at the same time they said that mono-theism, the belief in only one God, totally kills the party and ruins a society (sounds a little close-minded and judgmental to me).

Basically what they were saying is that what is right for you, and what is right for me, are totally different and we need to be accepting of your beliefs and my beliefs, that is, unless your beliefs are that my beliefs are wrong, then we don’t need to accept your beliefs, we need to condemn them for being intolerant and close-minded and judgmental. We need tolerance!

In a sense, The Real World producers were right; this is a picture of American society, at least in terms of people’s views of Truth, people’s understanding of epistemology—the branch of philosophy that deals with one’s understanding of Truth & Knowledge, does it exist, how can one come to know it? This can be seen even more clearly in an event that made history on January 20, 2009. The Inauguration of America’s first African-American President, President Barack Obama. Of course, this is not a political blog, and it is not my intent to comment on my, or any other’s political views. My one desire is to point out that Inauguration Day was highlighted by the word “tolerant.” This is to be the administration of tolerance! The modern American is to be characterized by an epistemological stance of relativity, subjectivity, individuality, plurality, TOLERANCE! We are to accept other’s beliefs as equally true and equally valid as our own in spite of the reality of the world, the fact that there is a single Truth.

A Christian begins a study of Theology with one belief. We believe there is Truth. And this Truth comes from the only source of Truth, God, the creator of all things (including Truth). If there is one solitary idea of Truth, then everyone’s views of what that Truth is, when they contradict each other, cannot be equally true, nor equally valid. For a Christian epistemology, the law of non-contradiction applies, which means that if what you believe to be true directly contradicts what I believe to be true, then either you are wrong, I am wrong, or we both are wrong and there still remains a Truth which is based on God and which can be learned.

There is Truth. God is the source of that Truth and because he is a God who communicates to his people, that Truth can be known. And we can achieve objectivity in our understanding of Truth. Truth isn’t what I feel might be true, nor what my culture tells me to believe as truth, nor is Truth determined by my circumstances. There is Truth, and it is not only a possibility to find said Truth, but it is the Christian’s responsibility to come to know Truth and to replace lies for Truth and in such, come to know the giver and standard of Truth, who is God.