Is There Truth?

In Ben Stein's documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", Mr. Stein addresses the fact that many professors have been fired from universities or high ranking positions in science, just for mentioning intelligent design as a plausible possibility. Then he interviews many high profile evolutionists and asks them many questions about the controversy. Most of them, if not all, said that there could never be anything else besides evolution, and they believed it whole-heartedly, too, but with reservations. They did not want evolution questioned. They saw it as a step backwards, and commented repeatedly that they saw intelligent design as nothing more than a mere attempt to reconnect church and state.

In the documentary, Ben Stein asks Richard Dawkins, a self proclaimed atheist converted by evolution, about the origins of life, and Dawkins admitted that there could have been an intelligent force behind it all - maybe aliens from space! My, how Richard Dawkins has a strange way of being open minded. I guess since he has already closed his mind to God, he can't go there anymore. He just cannot bring himself to face the possibility that he might be wrong. Open to aliens and closed to God, and all to defend his precious faith in evolution.

So, that is the background for today's blog. And now I offer a challenge: Ask yourself why you believe what you believe, and how can you know that you believe the truth?

Now you might be thinking, "How can anyone really know what is true? Truth is relative." Well, I will ask another question for you to ponder: Have you ever been angry at anyone? Why? Did they hurt you? Were they mean to you? What did they say or do that got your blood to boiling? I hope you're not boiling now that I asked you to remember it, but I asked for a reason. What made what they did "wrong"? Couldn't it have been right for them? You remember the old song, "...feels so right, can't be wrong...." We have been told that some things are absolutely wrong, but what makes what any of us believes "the truth"? What makes something right or wrong?

I will illustrate the difficulty in determining right from wrong with two scenarios.

Is it wrong to steal?
Scenario 1-A: Is it wrong for a poor street child who grabs a piece of fruit from a marketplace stand? If you were the child, you would justify your stealing because you were hungry. You would be inclined to excuse yourself for stealing. If you owned the fruit stand however, you would want to be justified and would seek the offender because if you let one go, he would spread the news and soon you would be the most robbed fruit stand in the city.
Scenario 1-B: Is it wrong for two teenagers to shoplift Christmas presents at the mall? If you were the teens, you would feel justified because you deserved to give good gifts to those you loved. You would also feel justified because the prices the stores charge are like highway robbery anyway. You're just doing to them first. If you were the store being robbed, you would feel the injustice, and would have those children, once caught, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law to set a harsh precedence to discourage others from stealing. If you did absolutely nothing, you would eventually be known to all who had it in their hearts to steal.
Question: Are you inclined to justify either of these thieves? If so, why not justify those being robbed? You would be hard-pressed to convince those robbed that they were not wronged.

Is it wrong to murder?
Scenario 2-A: Is it wrong for a brother to a kill a sibling out of jealousy? If you were the murderer, you would justify your murder because it made you feel powerful to put your sibling lower than you. If you were the sibling, you would feel the pain of the hatred as well as the injustice of having someone end your life. You only wanted to be liked.
Scenario 2-B: Is it wrong for a man to kill a foreign soldier after seeing his young daughter killed by a ground assault on "an insurgent stronghold"? If you were the man, you would feel justified because of the immense anger at the undeserved death of your little girl. If you were the soldier, you would have felt justified for throwing the grenade in the direction of the gunfire.
Question: Are you inclined to justify either of these murderers? If so, why not justify those being murdered? You would be hard-pressed to convince those murdered that they were not wronged.

Either there is a God or there isn't. But whether you believe in God or not, you will no doubt continue to cherish the God-given knowledge of injustice. There are some universal things that, no matter who they happen to, the recipient feels the injustice, where the heart cries out for justice. Rape, murder, abuse, being spit upon, torture - these are all things that bring out the worst in the perpetrator. They are known by their hatred and disregard for life. They flaunt their self-fulfilled sense of superiority over another. They defame and tear down. But more than anything else they are known by their justification of their..., what should we call it? How about sin?

The Creator of you and me established Himself as God and Judge of all mankind. It is amazing how it always comes back to God. If you do not accept God's authority as your Judge and Creator, then you will no doubt be one of those people who justifies their sin; maybe not to the extent of Richard Dawkins, but on the same path. It is for those who try to disprove and dismantle God, that He Himself gives the gift of the knowledge of injustice. Although they wish truth were relative, and regardless of how they have convinced themselves how right they are, their clock is still ticking down, and they have to work ever harder to justify their beliefs, actions, and choices. What they have is not true relativism. Instead what they have is only "relativism on demand": Quick to justify their own actions, but feeling superior to those they disagree with.

Take to heart where you stand in all this. Do you justify your sin? Are you avoiding church? If so, why? Have you been adopted by the living God? Are you angry with him for something from the past? Don't just trust your feelings. Question your beliefs. God wants to free you from the chains that bind you. Jesus chose to take your place on the cross. He really does care about you.

Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?"

Psalm 44:20-22: "If we had forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart."

Proverbs 16:4: "The LORD has made all for Himself. Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom."

Psalm51:6: "Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom."


--Johnie