“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32
Does Truth exist? This question is fundamental to all of life. Our lives tell us pragmatically that truth must exist. No one actually lives as if truth does not exist. In order to think meaningfully, we must believe that it is possible to think properly. That is to say, we can think in accordance with reality. In order to define reality, truth must exist. Remember truth is that which defines reality. 1 When we define something, we are telling what is true of that thing. Once we define it, we can begin to manipulate the object in our thoughts. However, imagine if everyone defined everything randomly. Consider even a state where the same person defined the same thing differently each time they thought about it. Or consider a state where every time you thought of something you found it did not reflect reality, but then you would not know what reality was because that would assume truth existed. In such a state, we could never come to meaningful communication.
In order to communicate with each other, truth must exist. To communicate, we must believe that there are words and words mean something (the words are true to their meaning and true in defining their object). Imagine trying to communicate when the words have a different meaning every time (not just to separate people, but the same person using the same word yet meaning something completely random each time). Meaningful communication would be impossible. So fundamentally truth must exist for meaning to exist. Truth must reflect reality. Truth allows us the privilege of putting things in order and relating them to each other. Without truth all is meaningless chaos.
So if truth must exist, then what should we expect truth to be like? Truth must be universal. It must be everywhere and it must mean the same thing. Truth must not be influenced or forced to change by any power. Truth must understand and know all that is so that it can define all that is and make judgments and comparisons between all that is. It must understand the origin of all things. It must have a single source so as not to conflict with itself. It must be able to judge properly between certain courses of action to determine if they are good or bad. It must acknowledge pain, evil, and suffering to exist – as we find these in our experience (what we would call reality). It must have an answer for why they exist (remember truth is responsible for defining all things).
Now let’s consider what life would be like if truth did not exist. All would be meaningless, including us and our existence. Communication would be impossible. Right and wrong would categorically cease to exist. We should expect to find meaningless chaos everywhere. Do these observations line up with what we experience daily? Can you live with these parameters? A resounding “NO” is the answer. People may claim truth does not exist to meet their purposes, but no one actually lives out the ramifications of truth not existing. They do not want you to steal from them or hurt their loved ones. They want to communicate (even if it is to try to convince you that truth does not exist).
C. S. Lewis points out that men cannot argue or convince each other their point is right with out assuming there is right and wrong.2 How could there be right and wrong unless the truth exists? What does truth have to say about our actions? Where does truth come from? If we look back at what we expect truth to look like, we find that it looks exactly like the Scripture tells us God looks like. God is universally present. God does not change. God has all power and is sovereign. God knows all there is to know. God knows why all things exist (He created them). God is able to judge properly all actions. God acknowledges evil exists (and gives remedy for it – both in creation and in mankind).
Now if we assume God does not exist, we have a problem of gigantic proportions to solve in the question, what is the proper source of truth? Some suggest truth is relative that each man or woman makes their own truth, but then how do we define truth where these ideas clash? Does might make right (Hitler, Stalin, etc)? Does majority make right (if the majority decides you should be killed and that is right – are you OK with that)? It makes sense that there must be some absolutes, some rules, some truth that must govern they way we act. Where do we find such absolutes? The Christian finds them in God and in His Word, by which a sustainable society can be formed. If we assume God does not exist and truth is relative then how do we arrive at a meaningful discussion of ethics (what should be right and wrong)? Aren’t all things acceptable? Can’t someone just kill you because it is survival of the fittest? Or can’t someone just kill you because they want to and it seems to them to be the right thing to do? C. S. Lewis again points out that no society is known where the ultimate goal is to deceive everyone you can. 3 How could friendships and meaningful relationships thrive if one is always in fear of deception or worse, physical harm, just because someone else thought it was the right thing to do? Clearly ethics must be founded on some absolute truth.
Philosophy calls the answers to these kind of questions the universals. Universals tackle the big questions of life. Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? What is right and wrong? We cannot clearly answer what is right or wrong unless we understand the meaning of life. Once we understand the meaning of life we can then define what kind of actions are right or wrong. If we are just here by some accident of genetic mutation (evolution), then life has no meaning and right and wrong cannot be meaningfully established. If God exists and created us then He defines meaning of life and what is right and wrong.
Ravi Zacharius proves this point in his Foundations of Apologics: God, Evil, and Suffering video:
“When you say there’s such a thing as evil, you’re assuming there’s such a thing as good. When you say there’s such a thing as good, you’re assuming there’s such a thing as a moral law on the basis of which to differentiate between good and evil. But when you say there’s such a thing as a moral law, you must posit a moral lawgiver. Objective moral values only exist if God exists. Objective moral values exist, hence God exists. Objective moral values hold true at all times, for all people, in all circumstances. Just like gravity is true whether you believe in it or not, so moral law is true whether you believe in it or not. This delivers us from subjectivity. Objective moral values transcend us. They affect us whether we believe in them or not. They exist independently of our agreement. How can there be incontrovertible values of worth, if you yourself are worthless? Questions of evil and good [right and wrong] come from a person. Personhood is essential to the raising of the question. You cannot raise this question apart from personal worth and personal value. You assume in the question that the questioner is worthy of raising the question. People are of essential worth and that’s what makes the question of good and evil worth asking. If values are intrinsic to personhood, how can there be an ultimate objective moral value without a person from whom that value comes? It is not possible to raise the question of value and worth, without finding implicit in that question the value of personhood itself, and if the personhood has come from time plus matter plus chance [evolution], there is no essential value and worth of that person. It [the person] has to be the created entity of a valuable person himself or an entity that is intrinsically valuable.” 4
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” – John 14:6
“By claiming to be the truth, Jesus implies that all He affirms is true and that nothing He says is false. If it is true that the foundational pursuit of life is meaning, then that meaning must be within the confines of truth, and that truth cannot be found apart from Jesus.” 5
“In the beginning God…” – Genesis 1:1
Lord Jesus Christ, we know You are the answer to all of life’s questions on meaning, truth, origins, morality, and destiny. Help us to trust fully in You. Help us understand the logical consistency, empirical adequacy, and experiential relevance we have in You as the object of our faith. Help us to know You better and experience the truth in our relationship with You. Transform us into Your likeness. We love You, Lord! Amen!
Footnotes
1 Webster, Noah. American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 ed.
2 Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity (1952).
3 Lewis.
4 Zacharias, Ravi. Foundations of Apologetics: God, Evil, and Suffering (Norcross, GA: RZIM), 1 DVD.
5 Zacharias, Ravi. Can Man Live Without God (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 1994), 103.
References
All Scriptures not specified are quoted from the NIV. New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.
