The Twilight Zone original series had some good episodes, but one of my favorites was The Obsolete Man (script). In it, Burgess Meredith plays a librarian in a totalitarian nation. They've eliminated books (and God) and are now going to execute a "librarian" because the role is no longer necessary. He's obsolete. The character is interesting. He argues that the state "has one iron rule: Logic is an enemy, and truth is a menace." I'm pretty sure the authors of the episode didn't know they were being biblical (Rom 1:18).
It doesn't take a totalitarian state to arrive at this. Consider ... advertising. We have "truth in advertising" laws, but they're practically meaningless these days. They make subjective claims like "no ANNOYING ads" where "annoying" is undefined and can't be proven, thereby nullifying the "no ads" claim. You'll see something like "Up to 50% off" which simply claims that nothing will be more than 50% off, and is not a promise of storewide savings. "Results may vary" and "clinically tested" are intentionally unclear. There is a gap between actual truthfulness and practical honesty (what a normal person would assume). Here's the thing. Our world has discounted the concept of "truth" as an objective thing. We're fine with "my truth" and "your truth" ... sometimes ... but refuse to believe that there is actual truth. Our culture, not just our government, has begun to view truth as a menace. AI, for instance, is programmed to ignore the concept as relative. AI is trained by observing, and the "trainers" don't believe in objective truth, so neither does the AI model. (I asked one AI if this was true and it said it was. Funny, right?) Humans hold opposing statements in each hand and accept them both, so AI does the same. Then some lawyers, for instance, ask for cases that support their position, the AI manufactures them because ... no one said they had to be true.
Jesus told Pilate, "Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice," to which Pilate responded, "What is truth?" (John 18:37-38). It's not a new problem. But Jesus said, "I am ... the Truth" (John 14:6). He said God's word is truth (John 17:17). We know objective truth exists. Jesus said, "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth" (John 18:37), so anyone who rejects the truth ... can't handle the Truth.
There was a time in my young adulthood, when I was faced with the truths about God and His Word, that I resisted this new higher (highest, actually) authority. I thought, “Geesh, I just got out from under my parents’ authority and my school’s authority, and now I have not only my boss’s authority but also God’s?! So much for my newfound independence!” It was “an inconvenient truth,” alright. But over the decades, that trustworthy authority and ultimate Truth has become my anchor, allowing me to keep my footing as the myriad winds of change blow all around me. I’m truly glad I am not forming my own truth--I don’t trust my feeble brain for good results there.
ReplyDeleteI mention books often in my comments, and I have read and/or own quite a few on the matter of “truth.” My best study was through John MacArthur’s book, The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception. I thought this quote from the book is relevant to today’s post: “The moment you begin to ponder the essence of truth, you are brought face-to-face with the requirement of a universal absolute--the eternal reality of God.” As I mentioned above, I learned that resisting this reality--as people do in their false “wisdom”--is entirely foolhardy.
I simply can't understand the idea that truth is relative. If it is relative, then in what basis can anyone argue for anything? The while typing is absurd. But we humans are really good at holding on to absurd claims like, "I will be there Most High."
ReplyDeleteThat was meant to say, "I will be the Most High."
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