Truth

Dr. Norman Geisler and Dr. Frank Turek make some important points regarding truth in their book I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Crossway Books, 2004). Some of their material is quoted below:

"We demand truth in virtually every area of our lives. For example; we demand truth from:

1. loved ones (no one wants lies from a spouse or a child)
2. doctors (we want the right medicine prescribed and the right operations performed)
3. stock brokers (we demand that they tell us the truth about companies they recommend)
4. courts (we want them to convict only the truly guilty)
5. employers (we want them to tell us the truth and pay us fairly)
6. airlines (we demand truly safe planes and truly sober pilots)

We also expect to be told the truth when we pick up a reference book, read an article, or watch a news story; we want the truth from advertisers, teachers, and politicians; we assume road signs, medicine bottles, and food labels reveal the truth.
In fact, we demand the truth for almost every facet of life that affects our money, relationships, safety, or health.
On the other hand, despite our unwavering demands for truth in those areas, many of us say we aren't interested in truth when it comes to morality or religion.
In fact, many downright reject the idea that any religion can be true.
As the reader has probably noticed there is a huge contradiction here. Why do we demand truth in everything but morality and religion?
Why do we say, 'That's true for you but not for me,' when we're talking about morality or religion, but we never even think of such nonsense when we're talking to a stock broker about our money or a doctor about our health?
Although few would admit it, our rejection of religious and moral truth is often on volitional rather than intellectual grounds-we just don't want to be held accountable to any moral standards or religious doctrine.
So we blindly accept the self-defeating truth claims of politically correct intellectuals who tell us that truth does not exist; everything is relative; there are no absolutes; it's all a matter of opinion; you ought not judge; religion is about faith, not facts!
Perhaps Augustine was right when he said that we love the truth when it enlightens us, but we hate it when it convicts us"(IDHEFA:35-36).

What is Truth?

"Very simply, truth is 'telling it like it is.'
Truth can also be defined as 'that which corresponds to is object' or 'that which describes an actual state of affairs.'

There are Many Truths About Truth. Here are Some of Them:

1. Truth is discovered, not invented. It exists independent of anyone's knowledge of it. (Gravity existed prior to Newton.)
2. Truth is transcultural; if something is true, it is true for all people, in all places, at all times (2+2 = 4 for everyone, everywhere, at every time).
3. Truth is unchanging even though our beliefs about truth change. (When we began to believe the earth was round instead of flat, the truth about the earth didn't change, only our belief about the earth changed.)
4. Beliefs cannot change a fact, no matter how sincerely they are held. (Someone can sincerely believe the world is flat, but that only makes the person sincerely mistaken.)
5. Truth is not affected by the attitude of the one professing it. (An arrogant person does not make the truth he professes false. A humble person does not make the error he professes true.)
6. All truths are absolute truths. Even truths that appear to be relative are absolute. (For example, 'I, Frank Turek, feel warm on November 20, 2003' may appear to be a relative truth, but it is actually absolutely true for everyone, everywhere that Frank Turek had the sensation of warmth on that day.)

In short, contrary beliefs are possible, but contrary truths are not possible. We can believe everything is true, but we cannot make everything true" (IDHEFA:36-38).

The Roadrunner Tactic:

"If someone said to you, ‘I have one insight for you that will absolutely revolutionize your ability to quickly and clearly identify the false statements and false philosophies that permeate our culture,’ would you be interested? That’s what we’re about to do here. In fact, if we had to pick just one thinking ability as the most valuable we’ve learned in our many years of seminary and postgraduate education, it would be this: how to identify and refute self-defeating statements. An incident from a recent talk-radio program will demonstrate what we mean by self-defeating statements.

The program’s liberal host, Jerry, was taking calls on the subject of morality. After hearing numerous callers boldly claim that a certain moral position was true, one caller blurted out, ‘Jerry! Jerry! There’s no such thing as truth!’

I (Frank) scrambled for the phone and began to dial furiously. Busy. Busy. Busy. I wanted to get on and say, ‘Jerry! To the guy who said, ‘there is no such thing as truth’-is that true?’’

I never did get through. And Jerry, of course, agreed with the caller, never realizing that his claim could not possibly be true-because it was self-defeating.

A self-defeating statement is one that fails to meet its own standard. As we’re sure you realize, the caller’s statement ‘there is no truth’ claims to be true and thus defeats itself. It’s like saying, ‘I can’t speak a word in English.’ If someone ever said that, you obviously would respond, ‘Wait a minute! Your statement must be false because you just uttered it in English!’

Self-defeating statements are made routinely in our postmodern culture, and once you sharpen your ability to detect them, you’ll become an absolutely fearless defender of truth. No doubt you’ve heard people say things like, ‘All truth is relative!’ and ‘There are no absolutes!’ Now you’ll be armed to refute such silly statements by simply revealing that they don’t meet their own criteria. In other words, by turning a self-defeating statement on itself, you can expose it for the nonsense it is.

We call this process of turning a self-defeating statement on itself the ‘Road Runner’ tactic because it reminds us of the cartoon characters Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. As you may remember from Saturday morning cartoons, the Coyote’s one and only quest is to chase down the speedy Road Runner and make him his evening meal. But the Road Runner is simply too fast and too smart. Just when the Coyote is gaining ground, the Road Runner stops short at the cliff’s edge leaving the passing Coyote momentarily suspended in midair, supported by nothing. As soon as the Coyote realizes he has no ground to stand on, he plummets to the valley floor and crashes in a heap.

Well, that’s exactly what the Road Runner tactic can do to the relativists and postmodernists of our day. It helps them realize that their arguments cannot sustain their own weight. Consequently they crash to the ground in a heap. This makes you look like a super genius!” (IDHEFA:38-39).