Testing What Is True
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Now let’s take the test together. We’re going to divide all truth claims into two sides. On one side, we’re going to put all objective claims. And on the other side, we’re going to put all subjective claims. Now, remember objective claims are simply the stuff that’s true for all of us, whether we like it or not because our opinion has nothing to do with it. It’s rooted in the object we’re describing and subjective claims of course, are simply matters of opinion. They can vary from person to person because the person decides, the subject decides, whether it’s true. I’m going to give you a claim for this test. You guys tell me if it’s objective or subjective. Are you ready? First claim, Jim’s car is white. Objective or subjective?
Objective.
Objective. I mean, I can’t change my opinion. I can think, well, my opinion is it’s blue. If I go outside and it’s white, it’s white. So this goes over on this side. Make sense? That’s an easy one. That’s easy because it involves a claim about something physical. I could see a car it’s physical, right? How about this? White is the best color for cars.
Subjective.
Right. These are easy, they’re involving subjective… I mean, I’m sorry, they’re involving physical properties. Now let’s talk about this, little bit different, this is an abstract, this is not about a physical reality. This is about an abstract reality about mathematics, one plus one is two.
Objective.
Objective or subjective? How many say it’s subjective? Someone on the very back. You probably have a math knowledge, right? You probably have some reason theoretically, why this may not be true. Got it. And we can argue about that, and I’m more than happy to do that. And what scenarios might this be not true? Those are qualifications, but I think we could say that for all of us in our practical daily experience, if you have two pencils, one in each hand, you put them in your pocket and I asked you “how many pencils do you have in your pocket?” You’re going to say “two.” And it really isn’t a matter of your personal opinion, but it’s more difficult because we can make a case about abstracts, that makes it a little more difficult than about physicals. Let’s go one more step, what about this claim?
Subjective.
Now, some of you are thinking that this is so patently false. It has to be objective. How many of you actually like math is most exciting subject? Okay, these are all the weirdos and freaks, and in the room right here. No, I’m only kidding. We need lots more people doing math than we need people doing probably other things. But this is definitely a matter of opinion, it goes on subjects aside. Now we’ve talked now about abstracts, we’ve talked about physicals. Let’s take another step, because I think now it gets a little dicier, it’s harder. What about this claim?
Objective.
How many say subjective? Raise your hand, don’t be afraid. So how many say objective? Raise your hand. How many say subjective? Raise your hand. So there’s some division here, now again, you don’t know the answer to this. This could be a false claim or it could be a true claim, but can my opinion change how many pushups I can do? I mean, honestly, if you said, “Jim could do a thousand pushups” and I have the opinion, “I can do a thousand pushups.” Can my opinion make it so? No. Can your opinion make it so? No. Therefore, we know this is an objective claim, although you’re not quite sure whether it’s true or false and by the way, if it could be true or false, you know it’s objective. That’s one of the definitions. So this goes on this side. What about this?
Objective.
We’ve moved from physical claims to abstracts. Now we’re into metaphysical claims, “The nature of reality.” How many of you think this is an objective claim? Raise your hand. Okay. Somebody, how many think it’s a subject of claim? Raise your hand. It’s not like we’re in a religious environment. The right answer is always Jesus. Now, it’s not like that. You can actually have a different answer because a lot of you are not raising your hands, I’m noticing. Either you have no arms or you’re not quite sure. Right. But you know, can your opinion change that? I could be wrong? I could say God exists and I could be completely wrong, but my opinion’s not going to make it. So one way or the other, I can’t think about it harder and make it so or think about it less and make it not. This is a truth claim that is objective in nature. It may be false, we can talk about that. We’re doing that in the next session, but it is an objective claim. What about this one?
Oh, now you guys are not sure right now. A lot of or not sure. It’s fine, how many of you just right now, are just not quite sure. Raise your hand. Don’t be afraid to, this is the place to do it. I get it. Now, remember I gave you a litmus test, to ask, can your opinion make it so or not so?
No.
No. This could be a false claim, but it’s an objective claim. That’s either true or false. Your opinion can’t change it. This is the thing you’ve got to realize folks. We have a claim about Jesus, that is an objective transcendent, truth claim. We could be wrong about it, but if we’re right about it, you dare not sit on this and do nothing with it. This is not like your opinion about desserts. If this is an objective claim and you think it’s true, shame on you, if you’re not telling other people about it. It’d be like having the cure to cancer, but not wanting to really offend anybody with it.
If this is a true claim, it’s an objectively true claim. Make sense? Goes on this side. What about this one? Oh no, no. Now we’ve gone from physical claims, to abstracts, to metaphysical claims, to the hardest and most difficult category of truth claims, moral truth claims. Are there any objective moral truth claims? Think about it, cultures have divided on what they thought was right and wrong for all of history. Now we’re going to say something is morally true or false and we’re going to claim it’s objective. Is it really objective? What do you think? Is this an objective claim or a subjective claim?
Objective.
How many of you really aren’t sure when it gets to these moral claims? Raise your hand. Yeah, I think this is really, I mean, if we’re honest with ourselves, I think because we get in this setting at summit, it’s like, “Yep. That’s objective. Everything’s objective. I’m confident, it’s objective.” But in reality, we’re not sure about moral claims. We know from surveying the culture we’re not sure about moral claims. Now let me just offer this to you, if there is a single objective, transcendent, moral claim we can agree on, then we’re stuck with the objective transcendent nature of moral claims. If you’re wondering, are there such things? You simply have to think about hypotheticals. Is it ever okay to torture babies for fun? Did Scott talk about this?
Yes.
You know that’s at least one objective transcendent moral claim we can agree on, but I would offer this. You might say, “Well, how about stealing? You should not steal.” Really? You can’t think of a situation in which you might be morally virtuous to steal something? If I’ve got a guy sitting across from me, he’s got the code that’s going to kill a billion people and I can simply steal it off of his textbook, so he can’t set the bomb off. Would that not be the morally virtuous thing to do? But if you add a single expression to the end of any of these moral claims, you’ll see, they’re all objectively transcendent. If you say, “Is it ever okay to steal for or the fun of it?” No. Now you’ve removed every single exception.
Is it ever okay to kill? Yeah. There are times when it’s okay to kill, in California killing is self defense, killing has saved the life of an innocent. These are called, “Justified homicides.” No one’s going to take you to trial for those cases, but is it ever okay to kill for the fun of it? No. Never has been in any culture any time in history, on any place on the planet. That is a transcendent objective moral truth claim that has always been true, anywhere you examine it. Is it ever okay to lie? Well, Rahab lied, she’s in Hebrews 11 as a hero in the faith. Why did she lie? To protect the lives of two innocence who were in her hiding. But is it ever okay to lie for the fun of it? No, that’s a transcendent objective truth claim. Here’s my point, this is either true or false, but it is an objective claim.
It’s not a subjective opinion. We could disagree about whether it’s true or false, the same way we disagreed about whether Jim can do a hundred pushups. But it’s an objective claim. All moral claims are objective claims. Do you realize that? It ought to changed the way we behave. You realize how bad the culture is when it comes to this? We stink. George Barna has done a survey of the culture non-Christians and asked them, “Are there any objective moral truth claims?” Here’s what he discovered, in the culture as far as adults go, only 22% of adults say there any such thing as objective moral truth. That means that 78% of the culture around us rejects objective moral truth.
Everything’s a matter of perspective, a matter of how your family raised you, “Might be good for you, it’s not good for us.” And when it comes to students in the culture who aren’t Christians, it’s pretty bad. Only 6% of teenagers think there any objective moral truth claims, and in the church, it’s not much better. As far as adults in the church, it rises a little bit to 34%. That means still you’ve got 66% of Christian adults do not think there are objective moral truth claims. What do you think they think of when they read what Paul’s writing in the letters? What Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, do they think these are opinions?
And when it comes to the church, in terms of students, you only get a 3% rise. Only 9% of Christian students in youth groups believe there are objective moral truth claims. We have got to fix this problem. This is a problem, and you ought to know better now. We talked about it, you should at least know why these claims are objective. You may not agree with them. It’s up to you, it’s your duty to sort them out because they are objective claims.
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