The Seven Deadly Spins--Skepticism about Morality

 It’s often said in our culture today, “You shouldn’t push your morality on others.” If this statement was simply used to argue that we should use persuasion rather than threats of force when we discuss morality, no one should object to that. But more often, there’s an unspoken claim that lies behind this statement; a claim that sounds something like this: “You shouldn’t push your morality on others—because what’s right and what’s wrong is just a matter of personal opinion.” Increasingly, our culture asserts that morality is a realm in which there are no objective standards that apply to everyone. We are told that each person must decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong and to tell another person that he’s done wrong would just be, well, wrong! It seems that the only sin in our society today is to tell another person that he’s sinned.

 It's not hard to see that this claim is self-contradictory. If you believe morality is relative to each person’s opinions and you say, “You shouldn’t push your morality on others,” you are really saying, “It’s wrong to tell someone else that he’s wrong!” Yet that’s exactly what you are doing by making this claim. Since this claim contradicts itself, it should be no surprise that we quickly abandon it when someone does us wrong. If you were (God forbid!) mugged in a parking lot somewhere, you wouldn’t think to yourself, “How unlucky that I ran into someone who has a different opinion about mugging!” No—you would think that this person has done wrong and that your assessment is not simply a personal opinion. You would think that this person had violated a true standard that applies to both of you and that he should have known about this standard and followed it. What’s more, you would be convinced that this man had done you wrong even if mugging was legal—so your conviction isn’t based on whatever the law happens to say but on something else, something more fundamental in reality than even the laws of a society.

 You would be right, of course, yet the idea that morality is relative still persists in our culture like a stubborn stain that won’t come out in the wash. On a spiritual level, it’s not hard to see why this persistence exists: we are sinners and we don’t want anyone telling us we’re wrong—not even God! On an intellectual level, I think there are two main reasons why moral relativism persists. First, we seem to assume that if there are objective standards for morality, then moral decisions ought to be easy. It might seem that our moral choices should be crystal clear if certain actions are always right and other actions are always wrong—yet our moral choices are not always easy to figure out, so we may question whether objective moral standards exist. But we need to understand that there’s a difference between recognizing moral standards and applying them. It’s one thing to acknowledge that the standard “do not murder” applies to all people at all times; it’s another thing to sort out whether a certain instance of killing is murder or if it is something else—like justifiable self-defense. But we must recognize that a difficulty in applying a standard doesn’t prove that the standard is non-existent.

 A second reason why moral relativism persists is the connection between morality and politics. Many moral issues have become hot-button political topics today. As free citizens of a republic, we correctly object to the idea that the government would have the power to tell us what is right and wrong. Yet it’s easy to take this line of thinking too far and say that if the government doesn’t have the power to tell me what is right and wrong, no one else should either—it should be entirely up to me. Here we must simply recognize the vast difference between human authority and divine authority. A human government cannot define what is right and wrong because it is also supposed to be subject to the true standards of right and wrong. But divine authority is different. God has the authority to tell us what is right and wrong because He is our Creator. He knows how and why He made us, so He can tell us what is good for human nature and what is evil for it, and He can declare what would move us toward our true purpose and what would move us away from it. This connection is why many people have seen the moral order to offer a powerful argument for God’s existence—for if objective moral standards exist for humans, God is the only one who could be their source. So ultimately, if you want to deny that objective moral standards exist, you must deny that God exists. I hope you’ll agree with me that that price is far too steep to pay.

The Seven Deadly Spins--Skepticism about Truth

 It’s true—our society is pretty confused these days about truth and whether we can know it. Some speak of “your truth” and “my truth,” as though truth is no different than one’s personal opinion. Others are even more skeptical, declaring that there simply is no truth to be known—expect perhaps in a discipline like science.

 The roots of modern skepticism go back to Rene Descartes, a French mathematician and philosopher who lived from 1596 to 1650. Descartes wanted to have the same kind of certainty for all of his knowledge that he had for his knowledge about math (think of how certain you are that 2+2=4). As a thought experiment, he decided to temporarily doubt everything about which he could entertain a doubt. So he doubted the existence of God; he doubted what his senses told him about the world; he even doubted whether a world existed outside his mind at all! As he kept up this process of doubting, he realized that the one thing he could not doubt was that he was doubting! And if he was doubting, he was thinking; so he announced his famous but little-understood statement, “I think, therefore I am.” He believed that he could then carefully analyze his own thoughts to prove that God exists and that the world his senses told him about exists. Later philosophers would disagree with details of Descartes’ project, but many would adopt the idea that doubt should be the starting point of all investigation. In other words, it would be said that any claim to know truth should be doubted until it can be proven beyond any doubt.

 This mental posture of doubt about truth has wreaked havoc on our society today. For one thing, it has contributed to the nastiness and cynicism in our current political climate—for if politics is not the practice of discovering true principles for human well-being and using them to govern, then what is it? It would seem to be nothing more than the pursuit and use of power—one group seeking to impose its arbitrary will on everyone else. And indeed, that is exactly how many people view politics today! Gone are any reasonable and friendly discussions about policy in the pursuit of truth, because according to skepticism, there is simply no truth to be discovered in such discussions.

 And as a pastor, I certainly have to point out the terrible effects on Christian faith when skepticism reigns supreme. What would it mean to say “It is true that Jesus rose from the grave” if we cannot know anything about truth? It could mean nothing more than “It is meaningful (or inspiring or comforting) to me to believe that Jesus rose from the grave.” But as the Apostle Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, if Christ’s Resurrection is not a fact of history, then our faith is empty and pointless and we are still lost in our sins. “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

 We would do far better to reject skepticism and affirm what virtually all people in all times and places have known—that there is such a thing as truth, and we can know what is true. Indeed, it’s undeniable that we know truth, for if you say “We cannot know truth,” what you’re actually claiming is: “Here’s one thing we know about truth—that we cannot know truth.” Skepticism is therefore self-defeating and cannot possibly be…true. Ironic, isn’t it? So if we really can know truth, then we have a foundation upon which to build truth claims. We can begin to show that it is true that God exists, that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for our sins and rose from the grave, and that the Bible is the Word of God. Rest assured that we really can know truth—no doubt about it!