Skepticism
Skeptics, unlike agnostics, don’t say that truth or God cannot be known. What they do say is that we should doubt or question everything. Skepticism is nothing more than the philosophy of uncertainty[7]. As a skeptic, I would say, truth and/or God do exist, truth and/or God can be known, but I doubt, question, and am indecisive about both. Skepticism by implication, teaches people to procrastinate in making any decisions and to set aside those things that need to be decided on. There are several problems with this philosophy as well:
(1) Skepticism refutes itself as well. Is it possible to be truly skeptical about everything? If skepticism is true, then I should by definition doubt, question, and be indecisive about skepticism as well, shouldn’t I? How is it that I should be skeptic of everything but skepticism itself? I wouldn’t be a very good skeptic would I?
(2) To procrastinate in making a decision about anything is to actually make a decision about it. If you are a skeptic and decide not to make a decision about God, you’ve just made a decision; the decision was not to decide (that is a decision, right?).
(3) Skepticism prevents people from being proactive and assertive in doing what they know needs to be done. It causes us to suppress the truth by making us question it (I am talking about the things all humans inherently know to be true in their very soul). It paralyzes us from moving either left or right because we just don’t know.
Relativism
This is perhaps the most popular philosophy about truth in society today. Relativism states that absolute truth that applies to everybody, everywhere, always, is non-existent.
In his book The Closing of the American Mind, professor Bloom stated, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely sure of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.”[8]
Relativism is the most widely accepted philosophy about truth among our high school and college students. There are though, several problems with relativism:
(1) Relativism, as the previous three philosophies considered, is a self-refuting philosophy. They use an absolute truth statement when they say that “all truth is relative.” These philosophical arguments about truth are at best hypocritical arguments. Relativists claim that what they believe is absolutely true for all people, everywhere, always, and that any other view is untrue. But how can this be, how can everybody else’s views be false and theirs true if according to them there is no such thing as absolute truth because all truth is relative? Wouldn’t the statement “all truth is relative” be itself untrue and relative? It is a self-refuting and circular argument. To say that there is no absolute truth by saying that that philosophy is absolutely true is illogical and defies all common sense.
(2) Truth must have by definition “something fixed and absolute by which to correspond in the real world”[9]. If, according to relativists, truth is relative, then truth must be relative to something else. The question is what is it relative to? Well, it ends up being relative to the relative to the relative, and so on (with no end to what it’s relative to). The problem with that is that if there is nothing in the real world for a person’s view of relativism to correspond with, there is no test to see whether it is true. At some stage it has to point to something that is not relative to prove its truthfulness, but since it can’t, then relativism cannot be true.
In writing about relativism, Cornish states that in these postmodern days “Truth is no longer considered the same for all persons, at all times, in all places. Pick your own truth; one version is as good as the next.”[10]
Ironically and without realizing it, every time a relativist says “there is no such thing as absolute truth,” for that moment he has stopped being a relativist because for that moment he has believed in absolute truth. Every time they argue their position, they are arguing it from an absolute truth position, a position that they argue doesn’t exist.
[6] J P Moreland, Love Your God With All Your Mind (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1997), 146.
[7] Norman Geisler & Joseph Holden, Living Loud: Defending Your Faith (Broadman & Holman: Nashville, 2002), p. 33.
[8] Ibid., p. 32.
[9] Ibid., p. 34.
[10] Rick Cornish, 5 Minute Apologist Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2005), p. 31.
Skeptics, unlike agnostics, don’t say that truth or God cannot be known. What they do say is that we should doubt or question everything. Skepticism is nothing more than the philosophy of uncertainty[7]. As a skeptic, I would say, truth and/or God do exist, truth and/or God can be known, but I doubt, question, and am indecisive about both. Skepticism by implication, teaches people to procrastinate in making any decisions and to set aside those things that need to be decided on. There are several problems with this philosophy as well:
(1) Skepticism refutes itself as well. Is it possible to be truly skeptical about everything? If skepticism is true, then I should by definition doubt, question, and be indecisive about skepticism as well, shouldn’t I? How is it that I should be skeptic of everything but skepticism itself? I wouldn’t be a very good skeptic would I?
(2) To procrastinate in making a decision about anything is to actually make a decision about it. If you are a skeptic and decide not to make a decision about God, you’ve just made a decision; the decision was not to decide (that is a decision, right?).
(3) Skepticism prevents people from being proactive and assertive in doing what they know needs to be done. It causes us to suppress the truth by making us question it (I am talking about the things all humans inherently know to be true in their very soul). It paralyzes us from moving either left or right because we just don’t know.
Relativism
This is perhaps the most popular philosophy about truth in society today. Relativism states that absolute truth that applies to everybody, everywhere, always, is non-existent.
In his book The Closing of the American Mind, professor Bloom stated, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely sure of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.”[8]
Relativism is the most widely accepted philosophy about truth among our high school and college students. There are though, several problems with relativism:
(1) Relativism, as the previous three philosophies considered, is a self-refuting philosophy. They use an absolute truth statement when they say that “all truth is relative.” These philosophical arguments about truth are at best hypocritical arguments. Relativists claim that what they believe is absolutely true for all people, everywhere, always, and that any other view is untrue. But how can this be, how can everybody else’s views be false and theirs true if according to them there is no such thing as absolute truth because all truth is relative? Wouldn’t the statement “all truth is relative” be itself untrue and relative? It is a self-refuting and circular argument. To say that there is no absolute truth by saying that that philosophy is absolutely true is illogical and defies all common sense.
(2) Truth must have by definition “something fixed and absolute by which to correspond in the real world”[9]. If, according to relativists, truth is relative, then truth must be relative to something else. The question is what is it relative to? Well, it ends up being relative to the relative to the relative, and so on (with no end to what it’s relative to). The problem with that is that if there is nothing in the real world for a person’s view of relativism to correspond with, there is no test to see whether it is true. At some stage it has to point to something that is not relative to prove its truthfulness, but since it can’t, then relativism cannot be true.
In writing about relativism, Cornish states that in these postmodern days “Truth is no longer considered the same for all persons, at all times, in all places. Pick your own truth; one version is as good as the next.”[10]
Ironically and without realizing it, every time a relativist says “there is no such thing as absolute truth,” for that moment he has stopped being a relativist because for that moment he has believed in absolute truth. Every time they argue their position, they are arguing it from an absolute truth position, a position that they argue doesn’t exist.
[6] J P Moreland, Love Your God With All Your Mind (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1997), 146.
[7] Norman Geisler & Joseph Holden, Living Loud: Defending Your Faith (Broadman & Holman: Nashville, 2002), p. 33.
[8] Ibid., p. 32.
[9] Ibid., p. 34.
[10] Rick Cornish, 5 Minute Apologist Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2005), p. 31.
Comments
Post a Comment