Eight Quick Facts About Truth

Truth is something so critical to know.  Relativism is destroying our nation.  "What's true for you may not be true for me" is a common myth.  Now, if we're merely talking about preferences, that's one thing.  But things such as moral law is entirely a different thing.  Unfortunately our nation resounds with Isaiah 59:14: "And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter."
 
John 8:31-32: "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  There is an "if": if you continue in God's Word, the Bible.  
 
I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek is an excellent book. They talk a lot about truth.  Here are eight facts about truth: 
1. Truth is not dependent on our feeling or preferences, because truth is truth whether we like it or not.
2. We legislate morality, but who will be the authority of moral law? Every law declares a certain behavior is right and its opposite is wrong.  That is the definition of morality. We should find truth and legislate it, such as legislating that murder is wrong, businesses have to be honest, doctors have to do no harm, etc. How our leaders define truth for public policy dramatically affects these laws.  Our nation used the Bible as our moral authority, and rightfully so since this is His universe and we are His creatures.
3. You demand truth every day from your bankers, doctors, spouses, children, business associates, etc.  True/false tests are a demand for truth placed on the students by their teachers.  So for those who don't think truth is important, I would say they are not being very truthful with themselves.  
4. Truth is discovered, not invented.  Even if no one knows about it, like the law of gravity or that the earth is round, it still exists.  Truth is transcultural, true for all people, in all places, at all times.  Mathematical equations are a common example.
5. Truth is unchanging, even if what you think about it changes. It is true whether or not you believe in it.  It doesn't matter how sincere you are in your disbelief about the law of gravity, for example, it is still what it is and your misinformation or lack of belief does not change what it is.  
6. Your attitude about truth doesn't matter.  A humble person isn't necessarily right and an arrogant person isn't necessarily wrong.  
7. All truths are absolute truths, even if they appear to be relative.  For example, "I feel hungry today" may appear relative, but it is true for everyone everywhere that the person claiming to be hungry has a sensation of hunger today.  In their book on pg. 38 the authors note: "Contrary beliefs are possible, but contrary truths are not possible.  We can believe everything is true, but we cannot make everything true."
8. Truth is absolute, exclusive, and knowable.  To deny absolute truth and its knowability is self-defeating because if you say there is no truth, the question comes up, "Is THAT true?"  If you say all truth is relative, the question comes up, "It THAT a relative truth?"  If you say you can't know truth, then I'd have to ask you, "Then how do you know THAT?"  Because these statements contradict themselves, they are false, and moral relativists are defeated by their own logic (Geisler and Turek, p. 49).