(October 3, 2015 at 4:50 pm)Delicate Wrote: In a different thread, an atheist indicated that absolute truth is a difficult view to give up. He's right.
But it's worse than that: It's impossible to give up absolute truth.
The reason is, in any conceivable universe, operating under any given specification of natural laws, if we reject absolute truth, we reject the ability to say anything meaningful about these possible universes. The very claim "In universe1 there are no absolute truths" is either true or false, and absolutely so. Once you jettison absolute truth, your statements about this possible universe become meaningless.
But the problem goes further than that. If you simply want to reject absolute truths in our world, you demolish the foundations of reason and science, which are irreparably dependent on absolute truth.
Hitting closer to home, the claim "There are no absolute truths" held as a claim cannot be rationally affirmed or denied if it is true.
Thus, atheists cannot escape absolute truths, on any level.
Unlike some of the atheists here, I'm not gonna say that "absolute truth" does not exist. For all I know, it does. I'm not sure what exactly is meant by "absolute truth," but I think what's generally meant is "objective truth," and as long as something can be demonstrated by evidence I don't have that much problem recognizing that it is probably objectively true (at least until it is contradicted by other evidence or a more thorough explanation of current evidence).
Where I, as an atheist and a skeptic, run into problems is when somebody then goes on to say that because objective/absolute truth exists, Jesus is the absolute truth because the Bible says that he's "the way, the truth, and the life," and we can believe what the Bible says because the Bible is absolute truth. Neither of those claims can be demonstrated by evidence, so claiming that they are absolutely or objectively true is just...well...false.
Verbatim from the mouth of Jesus (retranslated from a retranslation of a copy of a copy):
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you too will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. How can you see your brother's head up his ass when your own vision is darkened by your head being even further up your ass? How can you say to your brother, 'Get your head out of your ass,' when all the time your head is up your own ass? You hypocrite! First take your head out of your own ass, and then you will see clearly who has his head up his ass and who doesn't." Matthew 7:1-5 (also Luke 6: 41-42)
Also, I has a website: www.RedbeardThePink.com
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you too will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. How can you see your brother's head up his ass when your own vision is darkened by your head being even further up your ass? How can you say to your brother, 'Get your head out of your ass,' when all the time your head is up your own ass? You hypocrite! First take your head out of your own ass, and then you will see clearly who has his head up his ass and who doesn't." Matthew 7:1-5 (also Luke 6: 41-42)
Also, I has a website: www.RedbeardThePink.com
