Words'nTone

I just recently heard a rather simple, yet poignant and very personal reason that truth matters.  Bottom line, we expect people to be truthful to me--to us, personally.  The example stemmed from an answer given to comment made by a skeptic who doubts Christianity’s validity, yet posits a postmodern worldview where the universe is closed and truth is in the beholder.  “Truth simply does not matter.” But of course it does.  “When your wife says she loves you, don’t you want her telling you the truth,” asked the apologist.  I would have added, when a friend or business associate tells you something you expect it to be the truth, don’t you?  Of the cashier at a store or your bank statement!  If truth doesn’t matter, why do we have so many laws to protect us from untruth, or maliciousness, or libel, or fraud?  No one likes being lied to, mislead, or deceived.  Why all the courtrooms?  Truth matters.

Now what I take the person to mean is that ultimate truth does not matter.  What we want are the penultimate truths we need in order to survive and even enjoy a measure of happiness as a species.  But truth as a category for a worldview, an ultimate truth, is not needed.  Oh, really?

But this playing with truth categories is a farce, a difference without distinction.  Really, for many it is an excuse for a lifestyle, or a simplistic reason to exclude the ultimate claims of a Creator on one’s life.  Or, even just a commentary one one’s own dislike or distaste (or even hatred) for Christians and things Christian.  Sometimes it is simply a reason to continue to be mad at God, or even just to be mad and distrustful in general.  Such wordplay on truth--penultimate or ultimate--allows one to demand truth from people, but allow personally to be excused of ultimate accountability from a Creator.  If one is to posit the need for relational truth, immediate penultimate truth for the sake of living in this world, then we should be perplexed at whose truth matters: where is the line that is to be drawn that distinguishes between penultimate, relational truths and ultimate, worldview truth(s)?  Such a demand for personal and relational truth, while denying ultimate truth, puts the realm of truth back into personal choice and preference.  And we’re back to the foundation again—what objective, unchanging truth(s) determine what is right and what is wrong so we may judge what and which truth (and falsehood) matters to us personally, or even corporately.  This leads us, again, to point out the reasonableness of belief in a Creator-God outside of this known universe and that denying God’s existence is, well, still unreasonable.  “Truth to me works as long as it is personal truth that supports one’s self-interests.” To promote any form of truth demands some form of objectivity, however.  Or this demand for personal and relational truth is just purely self-interest and has nothing to do with actually truthful or factual statements.  So, it is either the truthfulness of wife’s statement, “I love you” or it’s only a empty statement to make the one who demands it to be true to feel good about what has been stated.  Shallow comfort, really.  Personally, I’d prefer some factual basis for such a statement.  You see truth matters…to everyone…even if the God-denier denies it.  He or she cannot live without it, nor would they want to.

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