Is Truth Relative? If so, what do we use as a benchmark for knowing this to be true?

Question

If truth is not relative, how do we know this?

The question comes from so many in our culture (American) stating something similar to 'you have your truth and I have mine' as if there is no truth more true than any other truth.

Answer 1

OK here is a quick philosophy/theology background for truth.

When asked what is truth, Jesus said nothing. Why? That would be my answer as well.

However, truth has two forms: objective truth or relative truth. The truth you speak of is relative. An example of objective truth is in the Christian bible, God is spirit (wind). There is no proof that God exist in the Christian bible, it is assumed. If you believe that the Christian bible is the word of God as spoken but they prophets, then God is spirit (wind) is an objective truth. Moreover if you do not believe in the bible, you still have the objective truth that God is spirit since the notion of God comes from the bible and in the Gospel of John 8:21-25 you find God is spirit (wind).

Oh by the way, we worship God in spirit and in truth. What kind of truth is used in worship: objective or relative?

Now that you have objective truth and relative truth, maybe you should focus on something else. Try 1 Cor 10:23-24 with emphasis on verse 24.

Answer 2

I guess there are different kinds. First there is the logical truth, where you take a set of axioms and then use the rules of logic to construct theorems and arrive at conclusions, which you call truth. Math is an absolute truth, as long as you agree with its axioms, and so is most of science. The second kind is human-created truth. Is Bush a good president? Various people would give different answers and insist that theirs is the only correct one. I guess in such a case the opinion of the majority becomes truth, in true fasion of sophistry. Try reading Plato's Republic, he loves tricking people into believing contradictory things by using philosophy.

Answer 3

Truth is relative, which is why it's better to have facts. There are MAJOR distinctions between the two. A truth often exists as you wish it to exist; it's an extension of your desire or your fear, or something equally subjective. Facts exist regardless of how you feel about them.

For a homophobe, it is absolutely true that gays and lesbians are something foul.

For the white racist, it is absolutely true that non-whites are something less than whites.

For the believer in one religion or another, it's absolutely true that their god(s) and goddess(es) exist.

The list goes on, but ultimately the real benchmarks for determining what is true delves deeply into the domain of facts. The oceans are salty, whether you like them that way or not. Insects have six legs, whether you like six legged things or not. All humans are at least HUMAN regardless of how you feel about them, and because these "truths" are self evident on many distict levels, they actually transcend truth and become Fact.

I come to this conclusion because of the offensive "truths" stated above. Gays and lesbians are not categorically foul, just as straights are not categorically ideal. It doesn't matter what homophobes think...their thoughts/impressions of gays/lesbians do not define gayness or lesbianism.

Whites are equal in desriability and non-desirability to any non-white group, regardless of what white racists take as true

ALL god(s) and goddess(es) exist, AT LEAST on the level of abstract nouns and mythological characters, regardless of what athiests, agnostics, or members of competitor-religions may take as truth.

And so the benchmark for determining what is true must--in substantial ways--lie within the domain of what is an undeniable fact, and in our day to day dealings, we should be both willing and able to make these distinctions.

And having said all of that, I kinda like Infidel-E's answer.

Answer 4

The last Schwarz report that was recently out had the perfect explanation of how relativism actually is the ultimate in absolute truth - this report is much too lengthy to place here, however it can be obtained at www.schwarzreport.org. It is a higher level collegiate reading, but well worth wading through and rather entertaining!

Answer 5

I think that truth is not always fact. My truth is right and your truth is just as right and mine, because of our know life experiences and emotions we could be right and still be on different sides. So I think truth is personal and relative to the person. It is the perception that is different.

Answer 6

Some truths are relative.

I wrote a bunch more, but it didn't make much sense. So I'm going to just quote a Rush lyric that this question reminds me of.

Truth is after all a moving target
Hairs to split and pieces that don't fit
How can anybody be enlightened?
Truth is after all so poorly lit

Answer 7

There's a difference between truth and reality. Reality is how things actually are. But reality is not attainable by human beings, and even if we ever happened to know reality, we wouldn't actually know that was reality, so it's the same.

And truth is personal. It's the part of reality you have, and you consider to be right. So there is not one truth. There are many truths.

So, truth IS relative, and reality ISN'T, but you don't really know reality.

Answer 8

Some truth may be relative, but absolute truth is not.
I Corinthians 13;8a, Love never fails!!!!!

Answer 9

There is absolute truth. People don't like it, so they make up their own.

Answer 10

Truth is like the color brown, it is not a color in the rainbow, yet we see brown almost every day, in the color of our feces.