Truth Part 1

After completing a certificate from Biola University in Apologetics (defending the faith), I’m finally trying to get thoughts on paper that I can understand and teach my girls.

 Why stand for truth?

1)    Truth promotes LOGIC

When I explained to my girls, ages 10, 9 and 6, the idea that some people don’t believe truth exists, they looked at me as if I’m from another planet.  They’ve learned enough math to understand 1+1=2  is always true.   If they would answer differently on a test, they would get it wrong.  They couldn’t argue, “Well teacher, in my opinion, 1+1 = 3.” Math demands absolute truth. 

However, Douglas Groothuis, in the book To Everyone an Answer: A Case For the Christian Worldview states, “The postmodernist deconstruction of objective truth and rationality amounts to this: truth does not lodge in statements that correspond to reality.  Truth is a matter of perspective only; it is something that individuals and communities construct primarily through language.”

 In simple words, people today will argue, “We cannot know if anything is 100% true or not.  What is true for you may not be true to me and that’s ok.  With no truth, every word we say is really only opinion and should not be stated as fact.” 

I modeled the following argument  to the girls. A “no truth” person argues, “There is no absolute truth.”  Another person asks, “Really? Is that true?”  The “no truth“ person says, “Absolutely.”  My nine-year-old started laughing.  She understands the contradiction of the “no truth” statements.   She understands Aristotle’s  law of non-contradiction, “opposite assertions cannot be true at the same time” (Metaph IV 6 1011b13–20)*2,  without knowing the brainy term.  In other words, a statement cannot be both true and false at the same time.  The “no truth” person breaks the philosophy law of non-contradiction.

Do you stand for truth? Why, or why not?
Sources:

*1) Douglas Groothuis, “Facing the Challenge of Postmodernism” in Francis J. Beckwith, William Lane Craig, and J.P. Moreland, To Everyone an Answer: A Case For the Christian Worldview , (Downers Grove, Illinois:IVP Academic, 2004) .

*2) Malpas, J., "Donald Davidson", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2003 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2003/entries/davidson/>.

For Truth Part 2

Linked to:

big enough logo? :)