Absolute Truth. What is Truth? Randall Niles looks at Unchanging Truths in a Changing World.
Absolute Truth is defined as inflexible reality: fixed, invariable, unalterable facts. For example, it is a fixed, invariable, unalterable fact that there are absolutely no square circles and there are absolutely no round squares.
While absolute truth is a logical necessity, there are some religious orientations (atheistic humanists, for example) who argue against the existence of absolute truth. Humanism's exclusion of God necessitates moral relativism. Humanist John Dewey (1859-1952), co-author and signer of the Humanist Manifesto 1 (1933), declared, "There is no God and there is no soul. Hence, there are no needs for the props of traditional religion. With dogma and creed excluded, then immutable truth is also dead and buried. There is no room for fixed, natural law or moral absolutes." Humanists believe one should do, as one feels is right.
You can't logically argue against the existence of absolute truth. To argue against something is to establish that a truth exists. You cannot argue against absolute truth unless an absolute truth is the basis of your argument. Consider a few of the classic arguments and declarations made by those who seek to argue against the existence of absolute truth
"There are no absolutes." First of all, the relativist is declaring there are absolutely no absolutes. That is an absolute statement. The statement is logically contradictory. If the statement is true, there is, in fact, an absolute - there are absolutely no absolutes.
"Truth is relative." Again, this is an absolute statement implying truth is absolutely relative. Besides positing an absolute, suppose the statement was true and "truth is relative." Everything including that statement would be relative. If a statement is relative, it is not always true. If "truth is relative" is not always true, sometimes truth is not relative. This means there are absolutes, which means the above statement is false. When you follow the logic, relativist arguments will always contradict themselves.
"Who knows what the truth is, right?" In the same sentence the speaker declares that no one knows what the truth is, then he turns around and asks those who are listening to affirm the truth of his statement.
"No one knows what the truth is." The speaker obviously believes his statement is true.
There are philosophers who actually spend countless hours toiling over thick volumes written on the "meaninglessness" of everything. We can assume they think the text is meaningful! Then there are those philosophy teachers who teach their students, "No one's opinion is superior to anyone else's. There is no hierarchy of truth or values. Anyone's viewpoint is just as valid as anyone else's viewpoint. We all have our own truth." Then they turn around and grade the papers!
Visit http://www.AllAboutPhilosophy.org/absolute-truth.htm to investigate truth vs. relativism, and ask the question, "What is Truth?"
Also, go to http://www.RandallNiles.com/videos.htm to watch more videos examining the notion of Absolute Truth!
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@OooGodOfWarooO it takes humans to create those numbers, 2 can mean 4 in which case your wrong. just as words that once exsisted still exsist with diffrent meanings. without humans... 1+1 has no relivence. science is true to the extent we undestand it, language, history, physics... all maybe true, but only to the extent we understand it. we claim that we are free... but is it not freedom to an extent?
compendiumgravemind 3 months ago
@exPastor1 retard much? how is truth an opinion? 1+1=2 that is not an opinion but the truth. Its not what i think but it's what was proven to be.
OooGodOfWarooO 6 months ago
Agh... what is truth anyway? Us acknowledging the existence of objective reality in NO way means that there are objective values or ideas. The presenter is deceptive in that he makes an observation on the arrangement of matter or energy in the universe (one could say this is objective), and then muddles up the ending with a vague statement on how there may be other, super secret truths out there. Yes, there may be. But so what? The onus is on the presenter to prove that they are true.
anonymouse27 7 months ago
"If you believe the truth is relative then you believe all views are correct. And if you believe all views are correct then you believe my views are correct. And since I believe truth is absolute, you must therefore believe truth is absolute" Quote by Plato.
We do not have to speak it or know the truth, it's there if we do not know it does not mean that there is no truth, we don't have to know the truth for it to be truth as it is an independent notion.
Chessiere 10 months ago 2
@exPastor1 Is that true then?
PSYCHOsPHILOSOPHY 10 months ago
The term absolute truth is only meaningful if you have evidence or proof-- otherwise everyone will claim the have the truth ( otherwise why believe something if you think it is false)
badpanda84 11 months ago
This video is WAY too close minded.. and the message being sent is almost as if "science is the truth"..
makki9119 11 months ago
i know what truth is....and its not a proper noun. nor is god
sethmusic 1 year ago
This statement is a self refuting statement. Because if there is no such thing as absolute truth, then what you are saying is that relative truth is an absolute truth, which means there is an absolute truth.
Think about it "The truth of life is that there is no truth."
nebula88 1 year ago
This is a gross misrepresentation of Dewey. For Dewey, there is no such thing as knowledge in general, only knowledge in particular. It is a great mistake to then take this as saying truth is relative. Truth is an adjective we know how to use, it is not relative to anything, and doesn't need an immutable designation, we know how to use the word.
6inches2theleft 1 year ago