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"What is truth?" - John 18:38
Some people believe that truth is relative, meaning that it is changeable and not absolute for every age and every society/culture. But Jesus said:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." - John 14:6
So as you can see there are two views on truth; 1. Truth is relative, or 2. Truth is absolute. If truth is relative, then no one is wrong because everyone can create their own "truth". This is the view that truth is all-inclusive. The absolutist view is that truth is exclusive. Jesus clearly stated the exclusivity of truth in John 14:6. So which is right?
The view that truth is relative violates a law called the "Law of non-contradiction". It basically says that no two contradictions can ever be true at the same time, in the same sense. Sounds simple so far. If truth is relative then nothing is false and everything is true. But if we lived in such a world, would the following statement be true?
Everything is false.
Either way you judge this statement, in doing so, you violate relativism in favor of the law of noncontradiction and the view that truth is absolute. To argue against the law of noncontradiction is to argue for it. This is why the eastern way is silence because soon as one speaks, this philosophy is disproven.
I am convinced that the primary reason people embrace relativism is that it makes them "feel good" because they don't have to be wrong and no one else has to be in error either. This also allows for a life of ease where one doesn't have to worry about such things as eternity, morality, God and other "repressive ideas." Therefore, I believe that relativism is held merely as a justification for all lifestyles and beliefs (except for the belief that it is errant).
It is because of the belief in relativism that people call anyone who is an absolutist, "intolerant". God forbid that someone actually believe in something!
My final thoughts on this subject (and Ravi Zacharias does a much better job at discussing this subject) are that semantically, what this subject really boils down to is not; relativism vs. absolutism, but rather the question of whether truth is relative to man or relative to God. You see even the Christian is a relativist. The difference is that the nonchristian believes that truth is relative to man, while the Christian believes truth is relative to God. Because the Christian God is absolute, truth is absolute. Because man (or some other god which one may believe truth is relative to) is not absolute, truth is always changing.
Ravi Zacharias - An article on truth, law of non-contradiction, postmodernism, Aristotle, reason