One downside to that diversity is that it has become so ingrained into our lives and so pervasive in our upbringings that we have found it more and more difficult too determine what we belief in relation to others. We recognize the value of varying viewpoints but are less and less and able to identify our own in relation those around us.
A discussion I have been having with my students is the concept of truth. What is truth? What purpose does it serve? How do we recognize it? These questions are fundamental to our pursuit of knowledge but also our understanding or our own identity. Even more important, these questions point directly to the knowledge that informs our sense of faith.
I began by asking the most basic question to these students: where does truth come from? They responded by stating that truth was either facts or opinion. It was facts when it related to science or medicine, things like the the law of gravity and the existence of a circulatory system. But truth is just opinion when it comes to ideas of right and wrong. They gave the primary example of religion and ethics. In other words what is right and true for one individual may not be right for all people. All are equally true. This view is relativism at its core.
It is convenient to roll our eyes at arguments of truth, especially when it comes to issues of faith which have produced profound suffering and confusion. However, to ignore the argument is to condemn ourselves to a perpetual limbo of uncertainty. It takes a great deal of courage to take a position and defend it as just or true. It takes an even more ardent spirit to declare that you know the truth when someone is arguing with great intensity that they also possess the truth and it is not the same as yours.
My view has been and continues to be that there is one truth. This truth is not based on politics, economics, or the society in which I live. Rather this truth is based on the person of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of the one living God. This in itself is a provocative statement because it flies in the face of every other competing theology or way of interpreting the world. My discussion here is not to present all the facts as to why Jesus Christ is as he said "the way, the truth, and the life", but rather to present the dilemma that so many of us face on a daily basis.
If we contend that truth is ultimately relative, that what is good for one might not be good for another, then we open ourselves up to the possibility of justifying the greatest atrocities. An example I gave in class are the women who under the Taliban who were killed simply for attending school. The men who committed those heinous crimes believed themselves to be right and justified according to their beliefs. However, I along with many others consider them to be wrong and unjustified. Relativism at its core would tell me that I cannot judge their society or place my own standards of morality and ethics upon them. When faced with a practical example that violates our innate knowledge of right and wrong relativism crumbles.
In the end, as Christians we must learn to educate and evangelize without passing judgement. We must demonstrate love and the truth of the Gospel with humility because we did not receive this knowledge and grace on our own but rather it has been a gift to us from others and firstly from Christ himself. Our pursuit of the truth must be one of our deepest motivations as individuals seeking the best for ourselves. If we do not seek the truth we will be left where all things are true and as a result the truth will elude and never set us free.
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