Relativism

Relativism. It’s the idea that nothing is absolutely, completely true all of the time and in all places. If nothing is absolutely true, as relativism claims, then how can Christianity be true?

But relativism doesn’t hold water—it isn’t true. It can be demolished by its one foundational claim: There is no such thing as absolute truth.

How can relativism be dismantled by that one statement? Because “there is no such thing as absolute truth” is an absolute statement. But if there are no such things as statements that are absolutely true, as relativism claims, then “there is no such thing as absolute truth”—an absolute statement itself—can’t be absolutely true either.

But the proof that relativism is bogus is way more extensive than that. The reality is that there is such a thing as truth—absolute truth. Truth exists. And we can know it. In fact, God wants us to know it. It’s why Jesus came to earth: “For this reason I was born . . . to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37).

What is truth? Truth is the way things really are regardless of how anybody feels about it. To combat relativism, we need to know what truth is. Norman Geisler and Frank Turek list several characteristics of truth in their book I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be an Atheist:

“Truth is discovered, not invented. It exists independent of anyone’s knowledge about it. (Gravity existed prior to Newton.)”
“Truth is transcultural. If something is true, it’s true for all people, at all places, at all times. (2 + 2 = 4 for everyone, everywhere, at every time.)”
“Truth is unchanging even though our beliefs about truth change. (When we began to believe that the world was round instead of flat, the truth about the earth didn’t change, but our belief about it did.)”
“Beliefs cannot change a fact, no matter how sincerely they are held. (Someone can sincerely believe that the world is flat, but that only makes that person sincerely mistaken.)”
“Truth is not affected by the attitude of the one professing it. (An arrogant person doesn’t make the truth he professes false. A humble person doesn’t make the error he professes true.)”

Where did relativism come from? Why does it exist? The bottom line of relativism is this: It’s just a philosophically worded excuse for people to live the way they want to and write God off. Because if nothing is absolutely true then there’s no right or wrong. It’s just what works for you. A lot of people want to live the way they want to so they choose what they believe based on how they want to live. All the while, Truth still exists. And He wants people to know Him.

[From Youthwalk Devo]