Most people today claim philosophy does not impact their lives, nor do they believe in having a philosophy at all. Agnostics and atheists alike fight for their belief in nonbelief, and their desire to be contemptuous in believing nothing. No matter what we have a philosophy, because this is the core of any person. If a person is a Stoic, they would act differently than a Platonic. Whether or not they claim the philosophy, they will still act the same way. This is similar to me believing I don’t have an ethnicity, I may not claim my ethnicity doesn't change where I am from. These are easy examples but there are large implications for different secular philosophies. Most people who do not claim a philosophy struggle to accept this simple fact, but having a philosophy is not a bad thing. If a person desires to spend all of his time at work instead of his kids, this would be a bad thing to do. The only way to know this would be inherently wrong is to have a philosophy, which directs our morals and beliefs. Postmodernism, which is the absence of absolute truth, declares we can’t know everything out there so we are all right in our beliefs, which is what most secular people believe. In a sense, we have fallen back into Nihilism methodology and this belief was also fought by Plato in his Dialogues. The battle for absolute truth is the biggest philosophical problem since the beginning of time. If absolute truth isn’t true, where do we draw the line between good and bad, murder and manslaughter, theft and taking back what you are owed? On the flip side, if absolute truth is true, what is it, and can it be obtained?

From my own perspective on the issue of Truth, I believe the belief in Absolute Truth comes from if a person believes in God. If someone believes in the Orthodox Christian God, the belief in Truth becomes easy to conceptualize because John 14:6 specifies Jesus is truth. If Jesus is truth the entire Godhead is truth because the Godhead is of the same nature. From these foundational beliefs it can be inferred that if God is Truth, anything of God is of truth. If God being Truth is tied to his nature, then Absolute Truth is real but cannot be reached. Our limited human knowledge forces us to attempt to obtain this Absolute Truth but ultimately we cannot obtain it, only we can focus our eyes on Him and allow ourselves to receive the Truth that God wants us to receive. If God is Truth, he is the truth bearer. Some big verses to prove my previous claim are:

“For the Lord gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

-Proverbs 2:6

“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to

give you a future and a hope.”

-Jeremiah 29:11

“Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His

judgments and unfathomable His ways!

-Romans 11:33

These verses unpack the true volume of knowledge and wisdom, and how he is the deliverer of knowledge and wisdom. If God isn’t Truth, it means he isn’t omnipotent, which declares God not being God. From the Christian perspective Absolute Truth as Plato proclaimed 400 years before Christ has walked amongst us, not only as a Proclaimer of the Truth but as an Incarnation of the Truth.

The most common perspective I have heard from Atheists, who disagree with Absolute Truth, is cultural moral relativism. This is best defined as morality being defined by the culture as a whole, unto which no culture is greater than another and morality cannot be relative on the individual level only the cultural level. Absolute Truth cannot exist on the Secular level because Absolute Truth needs to be given by someone who knows all, for truth is only given by someone who is smarter than the truth. In a sense a teacher gives a law to their student, he must be greater than the student if the law is true, because you cannot teach something you don’t comprehend. The critique I have of cultural moral relativism can be compressed into one simple word, paradox. Absolute Truth given by an all-knowing teacher is the only belief that doesn’t inherently produce a paradox. Some paradoxes that need to be considered are: How can culturally relative truth be influenced by Globalism and how do we determine who morals to follow, are you allowed to keep your culturally relative morals if you immigrate to another area or do you need to change to the common cultural morals, do we go to war if genocide is being committed but is being accepted as culturally moral. These are simple questions that could be answered but I don’t believe they all can be answered without attempting to establish an Absolute Truth without knowing it. Some quotes that attempt to back up cultural moral relativism to prove I’m not deceiving the reader are the following[a]:

“Morality differs in every society, and is a convenient term for socially approved habits.”

-Ruth Benedict (Patterns of Culture, 1934)

"The notion of right is in the folkways. It is not outside of them, of independent origin, and brought to test them. In the folkways, whatever is, is right."

-William Graham Sumner

The second most common perspective derives from Buddhism. This is that truth is on an individual level and that Truth exists outside of us. They believe that truth is a way to oppress people and do not hold factual beliefs unless through meditation. They believe that Absolute Truth is revealed through meditation but the incarnation of truth differs from person to person. So in a way, Truth exists outside of us, but the way it is perceived changes depending on the person. This is similar to cultural moral relativism but with the major distinction of Absolute Truth existing but it is impersonal. As Christians, we have a personal Truth, through the Incarnation of Christ, but they believe only through works can Truth be revealed to us. One major quote that points to this common belief says, “The Buddha's Teaching is the Ultimate Truth of the world. Buddhism, however, is not a revealed or an organized religion. It is the first example of the purely scientific approach applied to questions concerning the ultimate nature of existence. This timeless Teaching was discovered by the Buddha Himself without the help of any divine agency.”.

In conclusion, belief in God declares Absolute Truth, but if a person does not believe in God Truth cannot exist. From its core Truth has to be personal because it needs a person to give the Truth, and Truth needs its teacher to be above the student. Thus, Truth needs to be revealed to us by a God that knows everything. Jesus is not only Truth, not only personal Truth, but he is the physical incarnation of Truth that has been revealed to us through the cross. Through the cross and His resurrection, we not only can affirm his teachings as the Truth, but He is the Incarnation of the personal Truth delivered to us so that God can save us from ourselves.

Bibliography:

All scripture from NASB 2020:

"Holy Bible, New American Standard (2020)" & "NASB2020" & "New American Standard Bible (2020)”

[a] Rachels, J. (1999). The Challenge of Cultural Relativism. https://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Rachels--Cultural%20Relativism.htm

Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera, K. (n.d.). The Ultimate Truth. What Buddhists Believe. https://www.budsas.org/ebud/whatbudbeliev/56.htm