Author Iain Mackenzie in The Dynamism of Space explains that humility and not pride is needed when we encounter truth. He affirms that the truth of an object resides in that object before I began speaking about it, while I’m still speaking about it, and long after I finish speaking about it. Thus the ‘truth of that object will remain exactly what it is in its integrity whatever I say about it’.2
In our search for truth, if we proceed with humility we will find it and its splendour. But if we proceed with pride we will be blinded to the truth and will not recognise it as such.
Free Will Determinism means that what we do was determined from what has happened before. But we are not determined by the past as we have the control of the present situation. Therefore if something goes wrong due to my decisions then I am responsible.
St Thomas viewed the will as a tendency, an appetite and a drive towards the good. The first, tendencies derive from different levels. A stone has a tendency to fall when dropped while the plant has a tendency to nourish itself. Then we progress to the animal such as the cat or dog which feels the thing it is going for as if it is missing or lacking something. Therefore the discomfort becomes an urge to do something about it. Then we advance to the human and the drive for the good which is voluntary, rational and free. The rational level involves a drive for all good. For example humans passionately aim for happiness, love of the truth and also have a drive for more and more knowledge. The intellect and will are complimentary: the intellect moves the will by putting something in front of it to choose; and the will moves the intellect by commanding it what to do.
Even when we choose something bad we do so for the good it will bring us. That good may be good in a warped way, such as abusing alcohol makes us feel good but only temporarily as the next morning the head feels like it has been run over by a steam roller. The Catholic view is that freedom should be in the pursuit of the good and happiness will follow as a fruit. In the case of getting drunk we do the opposite by making happiness serve freedom as the happiness is short-lived, the pounding headache hits with a slamming force and our conscience is impeded. Therefore with free will we have the choice of choosing what is good for others and ourselves. It brings to mind the Scripture that we are to love the Lord our God with all our soul, mind and strength and to love others as ourselves (Luke 10:27; Matthew 22:37 and Deuteronomy 6:4). If we only seek to love ourselves we see the repercussions of the short term advantages. We may see the weight piling on, the bad way others treat us due to our selfishness and that others are hurt by that selfishness. True freedom is found through God’s love; we are drawn to love because of God’s love.
It is remarkable that in a world which has greed, sorrow and pain it is possible to rise above difficulties in one’s life. We have the free will to choose whether to let such things keep us down or whether to make a difference in our own life and in the lives of others.
Our identity is based on our freedom. It is what makes me, me. Without free will we would not be humans, we would obey our Creator without questioning, and so be like mere robots. Life would definitely not have the same pleasures that we experience as a result of free will. We choose to love someone, and when they choose to respond we are left with such a wonderful feeling and the relationship blossoms and deepens as a result of true, self-giving love. Without free will we would not have that aspect of intimacy; we could not respond freely to God’s offering His love to us, the offering of a loving relationship with Him. We could not have the experience of growing in love whether within a human relationship or loving God and we would not be able to praise, command, counsel or exhort others. Nor could we truly love ourselves. Free will is a beautiful gift from God. It makes up our essence, who we are.
Relativism The theory of relativism says that truth is not objective, but subjective. It claims, ‘Whatever is true for you may not be true for me’. Nor can you can judge one morality against another. If you say, ‘all is relative’, or ‘relativism is better than absolutism’, or ‘truth is subjective not objective’, you are stating something that assumes an absolute value that contradicts relativism.
The British broadcaster, Bryan Magee in The Story of Philosophy highlights the flaw in this theory and illustrates the universality of truth. He says that one can’t insist that something can be the right thing to do for them and yet wrong for someone else in identical circumstances. In other words if it is right for me it must be right for anyone else in the same position. He concludes that as the empirical world is governed by scientific laws so our moral lives are governed by universal moral laws. Both scientific and moral laws have universal application. Therefore ‘morality is founded on reason, as science is founded on reason’.3
But there is an advantage in following relativism; you can never be wrong – how convenient! Whenever you have a discussion, you can be pig-headed and say, ‘truth is relative’ or, ‘you are right and I am right’. Therefore with this line of reasoning, Hitler was right to do what he did, as his truth was to rule the world with his world view, at the expense of the dignity and lives of others. Clearly relativism defies logic.
The disadvantage of the theory of relativism is that if it were true you could never learn anything, because this involves moving from a false belief to a true one. Once again this defies logic. However truth can appear to be relative or subjective when taken out of context or by reinterpreting its meaning.
Skepticism The theory of skepticism is the philosophy that we should doubt whether anything can be known. But this philosophy is like a house built on unstable foundations such as sand; with the slightest shake the philosophy crumbles. Geisler and Brooks share a witty and hilarious example about a philosopher who had a brilliant way to deal with skeptics:
When encountered by people who claimed to doubt everything, he would ask, ‘Do you doubt your own existence?’ If they answered yes, then he would point out that they must exist in order to doubt and that certainty should remove their doubts. If they answered no, then he could show them that there are at least some things which are beyond doubt. To counter this assault on their doctrines, the skeptics decided to simply remain silent. Then they would not be caught in this trap. The philosopher was not shaken though. At that point, he simply said, ‘I guess there is nobody here after all. I may as well go talk to somebody who exists.’ And he walked away.4
Another example given is a great rebuttal when a strong skeptic or relativist tries to come at you with their point of view. Even those who claim there is no moral order expect to be treated with fairness, honesty, courtesy and dignity:
If one of them raised this objection and we replied with, ‘Oh shut up. Who cares what you think?’ we might find that he does believe there are some moral ‘oughts’. Everyone expects others to follow some moral codes, even those who try to deny them. But moral law is an undeniable fact.5
In other words even the skeptic or relativist believes in truth; if they do not perceive something as true then they reject it – just as they may reject that truth is absolute.
Experience There are many truths that we learn by experience. We learn something is hot, by ‘trial and error’, usually a painful one. When growing up we also learn that most things have consequences; if we disobey our parents or break the law we will be punished by being grounded or fined for our misdemeanour. We also learn truths by observing others – we may observe our brothers or sisters getting in trouble for doing something wrong, so we learn we should not emulate what they did if we are ever faced with a similar situation or we learn how not to get caught. We also learn from good experiences, such as, what we can do to please our parents or friends, and what is helpful for them. We learn how to love through our growing up years; even if they are tough times there is always some aspect of love to be learnt.
There are other truths that we can learn from experience. The written word has enabled us to learn from the experiences of others. Science has been able to take gigantic leaps, especially in the last century, due to the writt
en word. Just think where we’d be scientifically if we didn’t have the written word to build on – we would not have so many incredible scientific discoveries. Most of the famous pioneers were able to build their ideas from the written word, the ideas of others. The prime example for Christians of the written word is Sacred Scripture which contains so many experiences from others, and is a living Word – that is, God still acts through that Word. He longs for us to read it so that He can speak through that Word. To open up the meaning of Sacred Scripture, that is to help us to interpret it, is one aspect that God intended for the Church; the Early Church Fathers, also known as the Apostolic Fathers, a group of early Christian writers and include successors of the Apostles, also help us to understand the living word. They testified to the faith of the Early Church (dating from the Apostles to circa AD 749), that is they share their lived witness.
Does Truth Reflect a Creator? When someone says there is no God, this does not rule out the existence of such a Being. It is only someone’s lack of knowledge of God’s existence or their perception that’s wrong; we can’t stop God existing by ignoring Him or denying Him. God has revealed that He exists through natural and supernatural revelation.
When we look at the concept of truth, through creation we observe the laws of nature that govern us and morality too has laws of truth that govern us. If we break the moral laws there will be repercussions, either for ourselves, for others or both. We can see evidence of God’s personality: God is by His nature moral; and we are moral creatures who live by moral choices, our consciences train us to make the right decisions in relation to what is right or wrong. God is also a good God because He has created everything that is good. Because a cause can’t give something it doesn’t have itself then God is also good. Therefore God is a loving God who created us as out of the great expression of His heart, out of love.
As well as God being moral we can also reason that God is truth, peace, joy, mercy, etc, for these are all good in themselves. Let’s go to His Word to explore references to His truth, including truth about the nature of God and humanity’s longing for truth. Let’s also look at an example where God is revealed as truth: Jesus said to Thomas, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).’
So Jesus is saying that He is the truth. Since He is the Son of God, and Second Person of the Trinity then He has a divine nature and is the source of truth and so truth itself.
Scripture that Attests to Truth At the heart of my previous two books was the theme, freedom; the truth indeed will set you free! In the Gospel of John Jesus says that His followers remain in His word and will be His disciples knowing the truth which will set them free. (See John 8:31-32.)
St Paul attested to us humans being able to recognise truth. How else could we freely love truth? Remarkably, he relates truth to the religious concept that time had a beginning:
Paul, a slave of God and apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God’s chosen ones and the recognition of religious truth, in the hopes of eternal life that God, who does not lie, promised before time began, who indeed at the proper time revealed his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted by the command of God our saviour (Titus 1:2).
Some people who try to disprove the existence of God, claim that God can’t do everything. They say: ‘He can’t make a stone bigger than He could lift which would mean that He is not all-powerful.’ They are only partly right. Hebrews 6:17-18 says that God can’t do anything against His nature; particularly He can’t contradict His nature of goodness, and so truth. Therefore He can’t lie.
Scripture also reveals Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. The First Letter of John also holds to the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit to be truth.
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth….Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son (1 John 5:6,10).
Now let’s return to the idea that God is a moral Being and refute the claim that He can’t do certain things and so is not all-powerful. The moral law is integral to God’s nature, part of his essence. Therefore it is impossible for God to will something that is contrary to His nature; God can’t will evil arbitrarily.
God has given us a wonderful pillar of truth. Let’s see what Sacred Scripture says is the pillar of truth: I write this to you in the hope that I may be able to come to you soon; but in case I should be delayed, I want you to know how people ought to behave in God’s household – that is, in the Church of the living God, pillar and support of the truth (1 Timothy 3:14-15).
The Church consists of the people of God and the angels, in fact all creation centered on Christ. The Church has her own special existence as a supernatural mystery, her origin is from God. Thus we refer to the Church as a person. Each one of us, laity and clergy, each in our own and irreplaceable way, contribute to the ‘larger personality’ of the Church. The Church continues to exist because the Holy Spirit enlivens, energises and unifies her.
Summary In this chapter we have pondered that truth is indeed objective and universal, while the perception of truth is subjective. We are faced with moral truths which do not change of themselves – the perception has changed for humanity’s convenience or gain, e.g. views on abortion, euthanasia, active homosexuality, and sex outside of the covenant of marriage. Relativism is a weak theory as truth is objective. Therefore what is true for you is also true for me in the same type of situation. As moral beings we reflect the source of moral goodness, God.
Due to free will we can let a good be the servant of happiness which is short-lived. But we should let happiness be servant to goodness for sometimes we must suffer in order to reach happiness later. For example, a woman in childbirth must undergo pain in order to see the new life come into the world. Moreover we are called to pursue the ultimate happiness and good, to pursue God and thus become more like Christ.
An intriguing venture you can undertake is to scrutinise all the Churches, that is Christian denominations, and discover whether any have not changed their core moral truths such as those pertaining to the sanctity of life.
Experience can lead us to truth; it gives us knowledge and truth. It’s the same regarding morals as we can also learn from experience and knowledge. For example, someone intentionally hurts us and hopefully we don’t want to do the same to someone else. Hence we think twice when faced with a similar situation.
Knowledge of the truth also comes from reading God’s living word, Sacred Scripture, in which truth and the source of truth are revealed, and we can come to true humility by embracing the truth. Therefore we can reason from divine revelation that Jesus Christ is truth. So it is true that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, and that God created humanity as the crown of creation, a splendid gift of His tremendous love.
Notes 1. www.anglican communion.org/resolutions/1930/1930-15.htm. 2 Iain Mackenzie. The Dynamism of Space (Norwich: The Canterbury Press, 1995), p. 31.
3. Bryan Magee. The Story of Philosophy: The Essential Guide to the History of
Western Philosophy, (London: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 1998), p. 137. 4. Geisler and Brooks, When Skeptics Ask, p. 266.
5. Ibid., p. 87.
CHAPTER 12
REVELATION The Greek etymology of revelation is ‘drawing back the veil’. There is a certain amount which is shown to us and also more that remains hidden. God has revealed His nature and even His will for the human race. How could we know much about God if He did not reveal Himself to us? Proverbs states, ‘To conceal a matter, this is the glory of God, to sift it thoroughly, the glory of kings (Proverbs 25:2).’ Then how glorious it is to know more about our God, ourselves and our world more and more.
Thus revelation is God’s self-communication as truth; God speaks His truth to us in love through natural and supernatural (divine) revelation:
Can we see God’s hand in the splendour and magnificence of creation? You may remember that our universe has an estimated 100 billion galaxies and has been fine tuned to support the existence of life. We can also detect design within nature itself. Together with all the other evidence of the existence of a Creator such as Intelligent Design, fine tuning of the universe to support life, magnificence of the universe and love in human interpersonal relationships it is clear that God has revealed Himself naturally to us.
God left the ability for humanity to discover the laws of nature through reason and thus intellect. Hence mankind was able to uncover some wonderful inventions, such as discovering the laws of mathematics, physics, electricity, and the combustion engine, etc. Without mathematics you would not have the amazing pyramids or any of the most complex buildings, as engineering itself would be virtually impossible. These laws of nature are not here by chance.
Only a good God would reveal His nature and allow the laws of nature to be discovered by His esteemed creation. Hence this is one part of the evidence that humans are the pinnacle of creation. Animals can’t discover these laws – they don’t have the intellect to do so – but we can. God has allowed for truth to be discovered in science and other areas of knowledge, for example, beauty and love (natural revelation) and the queen of the sciences, theology (a reflection of supernatural revelation).
God even more clearly reveals Himself to us through supernatural revelation. He speaks to mankind in a way that we can understand. He revealed Himself first of all to Adam and Eve, our first parents. God ‘aroused in them the hope of being saved’1 by promising redemption. Through Abraham His will was to make a great nation (Genesis 12:2) and His plan of salvation was also communicated to the patriarchs and the prophets. The latter, especially Daniel and Isaiah received specific prophecies regarding the Messiah. God’s public revelation culminated in the sending of His Son to die for each one of us. Thus Christ is the ‘mediator and fullness of all revelation’.2 Because God died for you, me and everyone then God reveals Himself as a personal and loving God.
God: Fact or Fiction?: Exploring the Relationship Between Science Religion and the Origin of Life Page 15
