What is Truth?

Relativism says the only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth. Is that logical?

What is truth? Pontius Pilate asked Jesus Christ that question (1) right before he sentenced Christ to be executed. I always thought Pilate's question was ironic, because Pilate was asking a man who himself claimed to be the Truth (2).

Secularism has something to say about truth too. Namely, the truth of the matter is there is no way to know the Truth. Isn’t there a contradiction in that statement? More on that later…

Secularists (a.k.a. relativists) believe that what people believe as truth is strictly a result of the social environment in which they were raised, or “conditioned”. Therefore, the truth is relative according to one’s own conditioning and no one should claim they can know the Truth. Relativists argue that no one can judge whether one assertion about spiritual and moral reality is truer than another.

Timothy Keller, in his book entitled “The Reason for God”, pointed out that there is a significant problem (contradiction) with this view. Specifically, when relativists insist that no one can determine which beliefs are right and wrong, they are in fact making a comprehensive claim about everyone that they presume to be "true." When relativists state that no belief can be held universally true for everyone, they are ironically claiming that their (the relativists) belief is universally true for everyone! In other words, all beliefs except theirs are relative. The relativists claim to know an absolute truth...that all truth is relative. The contradiction (if it isn’t obvious) is that to make that claim, relativists have to exempt themselves from their own statement (that there is no way to know the truth) to make their statement true. But by what (or whose) authority do they make their claim, and why should we believe them any more than anyone else?

These topics make my head spin, but they are important and many people struggle with them in this age. Yes, our cultural biases make weighing competing truth-claims difficult. But we all make truth-claims, including relativists, and therefore we have no alternative but to try to evaluate them responsibly.

What are your thoughts about Truth? Is it knowable? Even if it is, does it matter? Is it worth pursuing? I believe it is. As a Christian, I believe we can know the Truth because the object of my faith (Jesus) assured us that we can know the truth and it will set us free (3). A long time ago I read and believed the words of Jesus (who claimed to be the Truth), who said seek and you will find (4). Does that sound like an invitation? It is! I accepted his invitation and have never looked back.

(1) John 18:38; (2) John 14:6; (3) John 8:32; (4) Matthew 7:7-8.