Transcript Slide 1

Ethical Answers in an Unethical World
What is Truth?
John Oakes, PhD
Nov. 20, 2009
Rutgers U.
Is Anything True Anymore?
You are Invited!
2010 International Christian Evidence
Conference
Concordia University Irvine, CA
June 12-14, 2010
Evolution: Four Views
Also…
Apologetics Research Society Presents
January 2010
Certificate Program in Christian Apologetics
Classes on DVD
For information: [email protected]
Jesus Christ: “I came to testify to the truth.”
Pontius Pilate: “What is truth?”
The Problem as I See It

The Secularization of Culture
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The Loss of Morality

The Loss of God

The Loss of the Intellectual High Ground
at the University to Non-Believers.
The Culprits: The Leading Philosophies of Our
Day

Naturalism/Scientism/Materialism

Postmodernism:
The Loss of Truth
Delos B. McKown:
“Christianity is scientifically unsupported
and probably insupportable, philosophically
suspect at best and disreputable at worst, and
historically fraudulent.”
World View


The perspective one uses to process and
interpret information received about the
world.
James W. Sire “A world view is a set of
presuppositions (ie. assumptions) which
we hold about the basic makeup of our
world.”
James W. Sire, TheUniverse Next Door
What Makes for a “Good” World View
1.
It is “true”
2.
It successfully answers the important
questions humans ask
3. Those who ascribe to it are better human
beings for having taken this as their world
view.
Questions That Need an Answer
1. What is the prime reality? (What is the
nature of God?)
2. What am I?
3. What happens to a person at death?
4. Why is it possible for us to know anything
at all?
5. How do we know what is right and wrong?
6. What is my purpose in life?
7. What is the nature of my relationship, with
the “prime reality?”
Naturalism/Scientism/Materialism
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The belief that the only reliable or valid
instrument to deciding the truth or even
the value of any proposition is the
scientific method.
No basis for ethics or morality, no
supernatural, no God, no truth (except
that found by science), no consciousness,
no “I.” Justice is a figment of our
imagination.
Richard Dawkins

In the universe of blind physical forces and
genetic replication, some people are going to
get hurt and other people are going to get
lucky: and you won’t find any rhyme or reason
to it, nor any justice. The universe we
observe has precisely the properties we should
expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no
purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but
blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows
nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its
music.
Thomas Huxley
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We are as much the product of blind forces as is
the falling of a stone to earth, or the ebb and
flow of the tides. We have just happened, and
man was made flesh by a long series of singularly
beneficial accidents.
A Question for Huxley: If you believe in
scientism, then in what sense is it beneficial that
we exist?
Postmodernism: The Loss of Truth

Truth, if such a thing exists, is the
property of culture. There is no absolute
truth. All truth is relative. It is created by
societies. There is no ultimate moral
authority or moral absolute.
A (ridiculously) Brief History of Science:
Roger Bacon (1214-1292)
Bacon’s advice:
To study Natural Philosophy, use;
“External experience, aided by
instruments, and made precise by
mathematics.”
Predictions Based on Christian Theology:
1. The universe will follow a single, unchanging
set of laws.
2. The universe will be understandable to
human beings.
3. The universe will be describable by
mathematics.
4. The universe will be designed so that we can
observe it
- (“The Priveleged Planet” Gonzalez and Richards)
Assumptions of Science
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There exists a single, unchanging set of
laws which govern all events in the
physical universe.
The Human mind are able to understand
the workings of the physical universe.
The laws which govern the universe are
describable by mathematics.
Basic Assumptions of
Science

Assumptions are accepted without proof

Form the basis of all scientific thinking

In other words, the basic assumptions of
science are accepted on faith.
Galileo
“For the Holy
Scripture and the
phenomenon of nature
proceed alike from the
divine Word, the former as
the dictate of the Holy
Spirit and the latter as the
observant executor of
God’s commands.”
Isaac Newton
1642-17
The Universal Law of
Gravity.
The Mechanical
Universe
Is God the “Primary
Mover?”
18th Century Skepticism
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If the Universe works like a
machine, why invoke God?
Voltaire: Religious Skepticism
David Hume “Extraordinary
claims require extraordinary
proof.”
Can we really know anything
absolutely?
David Hume
1711-1776
19th Century Materialism/Naturalism

Pierre-Simone La
Place 1749-1827
About God:
“I have no need of
that hypothesis”
The 20th Century

Science appears triumphant

Scientism proposed. Beyond Morality. Eugenics.
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Quantum Mechanics. Is determinism reality?
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WWI WWII Hiroshima Modernity loses its
luster. Humans are not getting better and better.
Scientific Materialism cannot answer our deepest
questions. Scientism is hubris.
Enter, Postmodernism!
A Response to Naturalism/Materialism/Scientism
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It is a faith/religious belief based on
circular reasoning.
It cannot answer the questions human
beings care about.
It is patently and demonstrably false.
As a world view it is does not tend to make
its followers “better.” If fact it is downright
dangerous.
Scientific Materialism
 Only
that which can be observed and measured
through the technique of Scientific Method is
real, and everything else is unreal.
Materialism

“We exist as material beings in a material world, all
of whose phenomena are the consequences of
material relations among material entities." In a word,
the public needs to accept materialism, which means
that they must put God in the trash can of history
where such myths belong.”
Richard Lewontin
Retrospective essay on Carl Sagan in the January 9, 1997 New York Review of Books,
Circular Reasoning
Unprovable assumptions of science.
The universe is ordered and essentially unchanging.
The universe is observable and understandable.
The universe is governed by mathematically precise
laws.
None of these assumptions can be proved by
experiment. In
a sense, science is not scientific.
Questions Science Can Answer
 When?
 What?
 Where?
 How
many?
 By what means?
Questions Science Cannot Answer:
(That Christianity Does Answer)
– Why am I here?
– Is that the right thing to do?
– How valuable am I?
– Does God exist? Does God act
(theism)?
– Will that God respond if I pray?
– Do supernatural events (miracles)
happen?
Materialism is Patently False
If Materialism/Naturalism is right then;
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“I” do not exist. Consciousness is just random
moving around of chemicals.
No soul, no spirit, no non-physical reality.
Belief in God is just a “meme” the unfortunate
accidental result of brain evolution.
Life has no value. Human beings have no value.
What is value?
Love is chemicals moving around (vs. God is love)
If the Materialist is right, then…

Religious thought is absolute nonsense.
Prayer is chemical moving around in your
brain.

Art, Literature, Music have no intrinsic
value.
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Justice is a meaningless word.

Human rights have no basis.
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Etc….
Scientism is Patently False Because….
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The universe was created.
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Life was created.
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The Anthropic Principle. The universe is
ridiculously well fine-tuned for us to exist.
No one in their right mind can deny the
existence of right and wrong
The Bible is inspired by God.
Naturalism does not tend to make its believers
better people. Dangerous?
If the naturalist is right then:
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Good and evil are meaningless ideas.
Our purpose, if it exists at all, is to pass on
our DNA.
Any kind of sexual behavior is as right as
any other. Stealing is probably good.
There is nothing inherently evil about
genocide.
Racism, slavery etc can be defended.
If the Materialist is Right Then…
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Violence selfishness greed are acceptable behavior.
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Justice is a meaningless construct.
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The words “ought and should” are meaningless.
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There is no such thing as sin or wrong behavior.
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Consider the only societies in human history
controlled by atheists. French Revolution, USSR,
Communist China, Khmer Rouge, North Korea….
Is this where human beings want to head?
No wonder intellectuals (over)reacted
With the result being postmodernism!
Now, let us discuss postmodernism.
Postmodernism/Cultural Relativism
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Positive Contributions
– Importance of groups and relationships between
groups.
– Gives honor to culture, beauty, wonder,
imagination.
– More accurate description of history (including the
history of science).
– The Western mindset is not the only valid one.

Problems
– Very confusing.
– No world view is preferred.
– The idea of truth, for all practical purposes,
disappears.
Postmodernism: Cultural Relativism
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Reality is a social construction.
Truth: It is true for you, but it is not
true for me.
Meaning, if it exists, lies in a
community of believers.
Self is a construction of our society.
No rational way to discover which is
the best world view.
Theories of Truth
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Correspondence Theory of Truth: A
statement is true if reality corresponds to
that which is predicted by the statement.
Relativism (postmodernism): A claim is
made true for those who accept it by that
very act (of accepting it).
Truth is either discovered or created.
 Truth is either absolute or relative.

If The Postmodernists are Right Then…
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Reality is a social construction.
Language creates reality.
“It is true for you, but it is not true for me.”
Truth is found in an accepted narrative.
No universal trans-cultural standard of truth or
value.
No authorial prerogative. The truth of a text is
determined by the culture reading the text.
There is no such thing as the book of Romans.
– Methodist Romans, Lutheran Romans, Buddhist Romans,
Atheist Romans.
Can You Accept This???
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Consciousness is social, not individual. Self is a
construction (mother, British, grad student…)
No rational way to decide which is the best or
true world view.
All truth is relative. All truth is cultural.
Individual has no authority to determine what is
true.
Problems With Postmodernism

Self-refuting.
– If nothing is true, then postmodernism is not true.
– Its authors insist on authorial privilege.
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I do not care what they say, some things are
just true.
Either God is real or he is not. Even if I cannot
prove it one way or another.
If you culture told you it was safe to jump off a
cliff, would you jump?
Scientism is Bogus, But Science is Not

The naturally convincing explanation of the
success of science is that it is gaining a
tightening grasp of an actual reality. The goal of
scientific endeavor is to gain an understanding of
the structure of the physical world. The
conclusions are always tentative, but they are
dictated by the way things actually are.
What is Wrong With Postmodernism?
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It does not agree with reality—with the
world as it is. Our understanding of truth
may be relative, but truth is not.
It can be dangerous.
– Which is better, the Nazi culture or
Christianity? On what basis?
– Sin is a cultural creation. Why prefer one
moral system to another?
– Why listen to reformers like Jesus Christ or
Siddhartha Buddha? By definition, our culture
is always right!
The Christian World View
1. The physical world is: (Genesis 1)
a. real
b. created
and
c. essentially good.
2. There exists a parallel unseen spiritual reality which is not
limited to or defined by the physical reality.
3. The creator of both the physical and spiritual realm is the
God who is revealed and who reveals himself in the Bible.
4. Human beings have both a physical and a spiritual nature,
but the spiritual nature is more essential as it is eternal.
5. Although the physical world is good, evil does exist. Such
evil is the result of freedom of will given to created beings
and their subsequent decision to use that freedom to “sin”
(defined as transgressing the will of God).
6. There is a definite right and wrong for human behavior
which is determined by God.
Christian Theology Answers the Big Questions

How did I get here?
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Why am I here?
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Where am I going?
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Why are human beings able to comprehend the
universe?
Why is there pain and suffering and evil in the
world?
Christianity Offers Solutions to the Big Problems of
Human Beings
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The Problem of Sin (the substitutionary death of
Jesus)
– Romans 7:24,25
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The Problem of Suffering (compassion)
– Matthew 9:35-36
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The Problem of Death
– 1 Corinthians 15:54-56
The Christian World View Has Given Us:

Science
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Abolition of Slavery (Wilberforce)
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Civil Rights
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Women’s Rights
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Christian groups do a majority of all benevolent
work in the world (James 1:27, Micah 6:8)
So, What is Truth?
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John 14:6 I AM the way the TRUTH and the life.
no one comes to the Father, except by me.
Why are Postmodernism, Scientism, Animism,
Polytheism, Pantheism, Dualism and every other
ism wrong?

Genesis Chapter One
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Because Jesus is truth.
Two Possibilities:
not…..
Either Jesus is truth or he is
How Do I Know Jesus is Truth?
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Fulfilled prophecies of the Messiah.
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John 6:48
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John 11:25 I am the resurrection and the life.
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I am the bread of life.
John 2:19 Destroy this temple and I will raise it
in three days. Jesus was resurrected from the
dead.