There is Truth

Modern man is a product of that historical period known as “The Enlightenment.” He says, “Yes, there is truth,” but goes on to proclaim that science, with its refined tools for observation and experiment, is the one and only pathway to truth, so God is out of a job. But as modern man continued to pursue this vision into the 20th century, his most revolutionary scientific discoveries began to cast a shadow of doubt over his inflated aspirations. The aftermath of the truth-shattering scientific revelations of the last century is our contemporary postmodern culture in which the truth pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. Postmodern man says that there is no such thing as absolute truth; everything is relative. The phrase, “True for you but not for me,” is bandied about with reckless abandon, the speaker seeming to say, “I am now privy to the one and only absolute truth, which is that there is no absolute truth.” He fails to see the contradiction in his own statement of faith.

The faith of both modernism and postmodernism has failed because both have rejected the One and only source of absolute truth. God himself is that source, and He has made himself known – first through creation, then through the Old Testament scriptures, and finally through His Son who is the “spitting image” of the Father. But the fact that God has put His Truth out there for all to see does not mean that all will “see.” To those who continually refuse to “see,” God is either completely shrouded in mystery or He doesn’t even exist. But He makes Himself known to those who love Him and are called to His purpose. Jesus Christ said, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (John 14:21). Jesus goes on to tell his disciples that he will continue to reveal himself to them after he has left this world. He says, "All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you (John 14:25-26).

However, our postmodern secular culture does not want to be reminded of the absolute truth God has revealed and continues to reveal. So it has set up a dichotomy between science and religion, fact and value, and has relegated religion and value to the “private sphere.” But these two “magisteria,” as Stephen J. Gould has called them in his theory of NOMA, cannot be kept separate. They often overlap. In my next meditation I will explore the fact that this dichotomy of fact and value is false. Values cannot be kept out of science and facts cannot be kept out of religion.