Truth

My brain has been doing its usual over-analysing thing over the last few days. I had a conversation with my sister about relativism, I’ve been reading a blog about Catholicism, and I’m trying to become more self-disciplined (something I have always struggled with). Now, these subjects are not really related, but I’m going to blog about them anyway.

Relativism. I just don’t get it. How can two opposing statements both be true? It just doesn’t make sense. I understand tolerance. I believe that everyone has the right to believe whatever they want. But deluding ourselves into thinking that not only can we believe whatever we want, but also that, no matter how opposing our views are, they are all true, because all truth is relative (what works for me is true and what works for you is true) is surely just that: self-delusion.

Who gets to decide what is actually true? Lets take the above theory, that truth is relative, and ponder it for a moment. I am certain that I am typing this post using a keyboard which is plugged into my computer. What if someone came in and was certain that actually I was just thinking this post and magically transferring my thoughts to the computer using nothing but the power of positive thinking… Can this person possibly be correct? I’m fairly sure that the answer is no.

So, common sense comes in somewhere along the line. If certain things are true and other things are not true in the physical world, then doesn’t the same rule apply in the spiritual realm?

Back to my question then: who gets to decide what is true? This brings me to a blog I’ve been reading: “Et tu?”. This is a wonderful, insightful blog, by a woman who used to be an atheist and became a Christian a few years ago. I love reading her blog. She wrote a post about why she became a Catholic. Fascinating. I am not one of these Christians who believe that Catholics aren’t real Christians, that they’re not saved, or anything like that. I have known some very devout Catholics, who had a sincere faith in Christ Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. Jennifer F. mentions how she struggled to understand the Bible when she was searching for God. How do we know which bits of the Bible have a literal, concrete meaning, which can be applied directly to our lives, and which bits are metaphorical, with a general meaning? She says how she found Christians who could defend their beliefs using scripture, but two Christians could both defend their differing views using different Biblical quotes. Therefore, how do we know how to use the Bible? This is what she discovered:

“Around this time someone told me that one of the Christian denominations claimed that God did leave us this “answer key” I’d been yearning for. I found out that the Catholic Church claimed to be a sort of divinely-guided Supreme Court, that God guided this Church to be inerrant in its official proclamations about what is right and wrong, how to interpret the Bible, how to know Jesus Christ, and all other questions of God and what he wants us to do. I heard that it claims that God speaks to us through sacred Scripture and through the sacred Tradition of his living Church.”

This seriously got me thinking. I just don’t understand where the Biblical precedent is for a “divinely-guided Supreme Court” that is “inerrant in its official proclamations”. To me, the Church (that is the body of Christ, the worldwide community of believers in Christ Jesus) will always get some stuff wrong. The concept of the now and the not yet. We have God’s Spirit with us now, to give us understanding and to guide us, but there are many things about God that we will not understand until we are in His presence after this life ends. Jonolan has also covered this topic recently, in his post “The God Delusion”:

“Now please don’t get me wrong, I do not deny the existence of a god-head. I deny Man’s understanding of it. I believe that Man cannot - not in any meaningful way - understand the divine. We see the God(s) through the lenses of our own inadequacy.”

There have been some fascinating comments about this post - go and have a look for yourselves. Now for myself, I believe that although we cannot understand the divine fully, God has given us Scripture so that we can learn about Him, and he gives us His spirit to help guide us (amongst other things). But it isn’t so very clear cut. Christians disagree on many things; homosexuality, divorce, drinking, sex, contraception, abortion, etc. We can’t all be right. See, once again, how I don’t subscribe to relativist beliefs. How then, do we come to an understanding of God’s will (preferably without having to resort to the age-old tactic of “I’m right, you’re wrong”)?

I welcome comments on this topic. I hope that if people find my blog who are either Catholics, or believe in relativism, that they will not be offended by anything I have written. I just want to understand, and I hope that people will feel comfortable enough to comment. If not… then I’ll keep reading around and maybe I will understand eventually.

Here is a quote, which I find to be very helpful in my thought process:

In essentials unity. In non-essentials liberty. In everything love.
Augustine.

PS. You may have noticed that I have not written about self-discipline. It really wasn’t related so I’ll leave that for another time.

PPS. I also hope that nobody thinks that I am confusing Catholicism and relativism - I’m not; I just find both subjects relevant to the common subject of truth.