Subjectivism
This argument states that if you hope to ever discover truth, you must rely on your feelings and emotions to do so. In other words, if it feels right, if it feels good, then it must be true. There are several problems with this philosophy as well:
(1) Feelings and emotions are constantly changing, how can we possibly make them the test by which we determine whether something is true or not. If truth is subjective, then truth would be continually changing since our feelings and emotions are continually changing. Just think of how ludicrous that would be. Think of how often we would have to change our minds about any given thing in a week’s time. Many certainties such as the law of gravity or the law of thermodynamics would have to be revised often depending on how a given scientist feels. Why bother printing textbooks, after all, the authors’ feelings and emotions may change a month after the book has been published requiring it to be recalled and re-written, again and again!
(2) What if a lecturer made a statement in an auditorium full of people and hundreds of people felt differently about the statement he made. How would we determine what the truth of his statement is since everybody’s subjective feelings differ? Whose feelings are right? According to subjectivism, the only conclusion we can reach is that the statement is true, but only to him and those who may agree with him, even though the statement may be objectively true. According to subjectivists, there is no such thing as objective truth, can you imagine the nightmare that scenario creates? The deny something we all, either consciously or unconsciously, know to be true, not that objective truth can exist but that it does. The point is, nothing could ever be true if truth is determined by our feelings, emotion, and intuition!
(3) We all know that bad news can be true, or is it? Nobody likes or feels good about bad news, and if truth is only what makes us feel good then all bad news must be untrue. I suppose, then, that the next time someone’s boss tells that person he is being laid off from work, he should dismiss it as a false statement and still show up to work the next day as if nothing had happened. Insane! Geisler states, “In short, feelings can be a result of or reaction to truth, not a basis of truth.”[11]
Cornish states, “As with all good things, emotions must be kept in proper context. But in much of our culture, our feelings overstep our God-intended bounds because we rank them over reason. Emotions cannot determine truth or decide right from wrong. Feeling good does not suggest that something is true, and feeling bad does not indicate it’s false. Emotions contain no content, no information by which to evaluate truth or falsehood. Our reasoning capacity performs that function. Emotions are the part of the soul that appreciates and responds to life. Expecting them to identify truth is like asking our ears to smell a flower. They can’t because ears weren’t made for smelling.”[12]
Pluralism
In writing about pluralism, Guinness stated, “There is no truth, only truths. There is no grand reason, only reasons. There is no privileged civilization (or culture, beliefs, norms, and styles), only a multiplicity of cultures, beliefs, periods, and styles. There is no universal justice, only interests and the competition of interest groups. There is no grand narrative of human progress, only countless stories of where people and their cultures are now.”[13]
Moseley writes, “…pluralism is the cultural doctrine that each community’s ideology or religion is equally legitimate or ‘true.’…Therefore, no idea or system of morality can lay claim to a higher authority. All philosophies are on equal ground, so they should all be given equal validity. …No unifying principle exists, so no unity is possible.”[14]
Copan states that pluralism “maintains that no religion can be considered superior to another. To make an exclusive claim is deemed ‘intolerant’ or ‘arrogant’ by the pluralist.”[15]
The problem with this philosophy is that since all ideologies and religions are equally legitimate and given equal validity, no ideology or religion can ever be wrong or untrue. That would mean that if you took two truth statements, one from one religion and one from another, and they both contradicted each other, they would both still be true. Now, since there are hundreds of ideologies and religions around the world, most of whose truth statements contradict each other, pluralism would argue that all those hundreds of contradicting truth statements would still be true.
Pluralists would argue that when it is all said and done, it doesn’t matter what you believe because at the end all religions will lead all people to the same place, namely heaven. But what about those religions that deny the existence of God or heaven and hell? If their religion is as legitimate and valid as all others and their claims are as true as all others, then how will we know where we are going to end up, since many disagree about the existence of God and in the existence of a place called heaven? If my claim that God and heaven exist are true and their claims that God and heaven don’t exist are also true, how then do we reconcile these completely opposite statements?
Pluralism cannot be true because among other things, it fails to reconcile the simple fact that two or more contradicting statements about the same subject can’t possibly be true (the law of non-contradiction). Rather than uniting, pluralism divides, as does relativism. Pluralism ends up being just another self-refuting claim by arguing that in essence there is no contradiction in contradicting statements. To say that all ideologies and religions are right and true is obviously untrue.
[11] Cited in Geisler & Holden, Living Loud: Defending Your Faith (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2002), p. 36.
[12] Rick Cornish, 5 Minute Apologist Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2005), p. 36.
[13] Os Guinness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds; Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About It (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 105.
[14] N. Allan Moseley, Thinking Against the Grain (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2003), pg. 68.
[15] Paul Copan, “True For You, But Not For Me (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1998), p. 73.
This argument states that if you hope to ever discover truth, you must rely on your feelings and emotions to do so. In other words, if it feels right, if it feels good, then it must be true. There are several problems with this philosophy as well:
(1) Feelings and emotions are constantly changing, how can we possibly make them the test by which we determine whether something is true or not. If truth is subjective, then truth would be continually changing since our feelings and emotions are continually changing. Just think of how ludicrous that would be. Think of how often we would have to change our minds about any given thing in a week’s time. Many certainties such as the law of gravity or the law of thermodynamics would have to be revised often depending on how a given scientist feels. Why bother printing textbooks, after all, the authors’ feelings and emotions may change a month after the book has been published requiring it to be recalled and re-written, again and again!
(2) What if a lecturer made a statement in an auditorium full of people and hundreds of people felt differently about the statement he made. How would we determine what the truth of his statement is since everybody’s subjective feelings differ? Whose feelings are right? According to subjectivism, the only conclusion we can reach is that the statement is true, but only to him and those who may agree with him, even though the statement may be objectively true. According to subjectivists, there is no such thing as objective truth, can you imagine the nightmare that scenario creates? The deny something we all, either consciously or unconsciously, know to be true, not that objective truth can exist but that it does. The point is, nothing could ever be true if truth is determined by our feelings, emotion, and intuition!
(3) We all know that bad news can be true, or is it? Nobody likes or feels good about bad news, and if truth is only what makes us feel good then all bad news must be untrue. I suppose, then, that the next time someone’s boss tells that person he is being laid off from work, he should dismiss it as a false statement and still show up to work the next day as if nothing had happened. Insane! Geisler states, “In short, feelings can be a result of or reaction to truth, not a basis of truth.”[11]
Cornish states, “As with all good things, emotions must be kept in proper context. But in much of our culture, our feelings overstep our God-intended bounds because we rank them over reason. Emotions cannot determine truth or decide right from wrong. Feeling good does not suggest that something is true, and feeling bad does not indicate it’s false. Emotions contain no content, no information by which to evaluate truth or falsehood. Our reasoning capacity performs that function. Emotions are the part of the soul that appreciates and responds to life. Expecting them to identify truth is like asking our ears to smell a flower. They can’t because ears weren’t made for smelling.”[12]
Pluralism
In writing about pluralism, Guinness stated, “There is no truth, only truths. There is no grand reason, only reasons. There is no privileged civilization (or culture, beliefs, norms, and styles), only a multiplicity of cultures, beliefs, periods, and styles. There is no universal justice, only interests and the competition of interest groups. There is no grand narrative of human progress, only countless stories of where people and their cultures are now.”[13]
Moseley writes, “…pluralism is the cultural doctrine that each community’s ideology or religion is equally legitimate or ‘true.’…Therefore, no idea or system of morality can lay claim to a higher authority. All philosophies are on equal ground, so they should all be given equal validity. …No unifying principle exists, so no unity is possible.”[14]
Copan states that pluralism “maintains that no religion can be considered superior to another. To make an exclusive claim is deemed ‘intolerant’ or ‘arrogant’ by the pluralist.”[15]
The problem with this philosophy is that since all ideologies and religions are equally legitimate and given equal validity, no ideology or religion can ever be wrong or untrue. That would mean that if you took two truth statements, one from one religion and one from another, and they both contradicted each other, they would both still be true. Now, since there are hundreds of ideologies and religions around the world, most of whose truth statements contradict each other, pluralism would argue that all those hundreds of contradicting truth statements would still be true.
Pluralists would argue that when it is all said and done, it doesn’t matter what you believe because at the end all religions will lead all people to the same place, namely heaven. But what about those religions that deny the existence of God or heaven and hell? If their religion is as legitimate and valid as all others and their claims are as true as all others, then how will we know where we are going to end up, since many disagree about the existence of God and in the existence of a place called heaven? If my claim that God and heaven exist are true and their claims that God and heaven don’t exist are also true, how then do we reconcile these completely opposite statements?
Pluralism cannot be true because among other things, it fails to reconcile the simple fact that two or more contradicting statements about the same subject can’t possibly be true (the law of non-contradiction). Rather than uniting, pluralism divides, as does relativism. Pluralism ends up being just another self-refuting claim by arguing that in essence there is no contradiction in contradicting statements. To say that all ideologies and religions are right and true is obviously untrue.
[11] Cited in Geisler & Holden, Living Loud: Defending Your Faith (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2002), p. 36.
[12] Rick Cornish, 5 Minute Apologist Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2005), p. 36.
[13] Os Guinness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds; Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About It (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 105.
[14] N. Allan Moseley, Thinking Against the Grain (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2003), pg. 68.
[15] Paul Copan, “True For You, But Not For Me (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1998), p. 73.
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