Reality and Relativism

I think I'll start this blog with a quote I heard just today. Albert Mohler came and spoke in chapel at The Master's College this morning. He said that he saw it as a new challenge, preaching to a room full of students ready to leave for Spring break. ;) What followed was an excellent sermon out of John 6, when Jesus tells the multitude that His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink. Out of all of it, one thing he said stood out to me:

"The secular world thinks 'truth' is just a compliment you can pay to an idea."

Isn't that so true, but I had never thought of it that way. In a postmodern world, truth is not a separate entity. It does not stand apart, and it is not immutable. It is as fluid as culture, as the mood we wake up with on a given day. How does one live in a world like that? Honestly. How hopeless would it be to never know if there is a God, to never be sure of what you believe? In a relative universe, no one is ever wrong, but those who believe it pay a high price for that "security." If you are never wrong, then you can never be right, either.

In reality no one lives like that. Even a Postmodernist doesn't wake up in the morning and wonder if they will step out of bed and hit the ceiling instead of the floor. They trust that gravity will still keep them glued to their carpet, inside their slippers, like it has every morning before. No one fears that they will suddenly become allergic to oxygen. Everything will go on as it has gone on, and people will continue to trust the basic laws of the universe. We are wired that way. Relativistic thinking, though it has invaded top universities, is anti-intellectual. It's dearest belief is self-defeating. If all truth is relative, then isn't that statement (that all truth is relative) relative also? In the end we are left running in circles through a morass after something that never existed in the first place. "Truth" is not a compliment you can pay to an idea. As Jesus said, "Your [God's] word is truth" (John 17:17). The world will groan and crumble away; this is the only foundation we have to hold on to.