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!