I am noticing something in our culture that has caught my attention. I am watching to see where this all ends.
.
What I see is a battle between truth and passion. It appears to me that passion has gained an equal footing with truth. In other words if someone is passionate about what they believe then their view is accepted even if it's not true.
.
Truth as an absolute has lost its place in our culture. Now passion has replaced it.
.
So, I'm wondering....am I the only one who sees this or do you see it too?
8 comments:
So, who gets to decide what "truth" is? Your question is based upon a presupposition that you actually KNOW what truth is. As a Christian you use the Bible as your standard of truth, but you have to realize that is a belief you hold about the Bible, not a fact that can be proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. Each person walking the planet has their own belief system and standard for analyzing truth statements. Christians use the Bible, Muslims use the Koran, Hindus us the Vedas, etc... Even within Christianity you are going to have many different interpretations of what the Bible actually says. Fundamentalists will insist upon a literal translation of every single word, while liberals will say it was meant to be more allegorical, etc….
Round and round we go, each person thinks their way is the right and only way. They validate their beliefs with presuppositions that their standard for analyzing truth is the right and only standard. IE: The passionate Muslim reading his Koran tonight is saying the same thing about you as you are saying about him.
Anon.,
you read a lot into my observation, but I don't disagree with your comments. this would be a great visit to have over a cup of coffee...thanks for your thoughts.
Faster Pastor here from Melbourne. Liked this post. Certainly a good one for any thinking person. Anonymous has obviously thought about it a bit. There has to be truth somewhere. It's just that many people toss it out the window because they have difficulty finding it in the world we live in. It's out there some where. I like what Blaise Pascal said a few years ago. "Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists."
Faster Pastor endeavouring to finish well.
This is a BIG question and there's not room enough in blogger to exhaust this. One thing that I would say is that if there is no sense of absolute truth (regardless of WHAT you say is your SOURCE of truth) Everything can't be true. A relativistic perspective of truth will break down every time. Because regardless of culture, there are some things that are just right and wrong. (i.e. sexual molestation of a child) If we draw that conclusion, then we are led to ask the question, where does that truth come from. Truth is not universal, it has a source. We can't all be right. The $64 question, which is right?
Great thot's anon! Keep searching! A great text for more investigation is Lee Stroebel's A Case for Faith.
Mike Messerli said...
Great comments, all. The concern I have is our willingness to give passion an equal weight with truth itself....as mentioned, truth can be known, and passion alone is no substitute for it.
Would this not be similar to what Paul is talking about in Romans 10? Romans 10:2 "For I bear them witenss that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge."
Maybe this isn't where you were going with this post, but I'm curious as to your thoughts on this new movie "The Golden Compass." The word is that it's "anti-God" and that as a Christian, I should not let my kids go see it. I'm not asking you to say "yes or no". What I'm seeing on email is a lot of passion a movie I should prevent my children from seeing. I do realzie that Pullman is atheist and that is TRUE, but I have to take this argument further and wonder does that mean I should boycott atheist businesses? Atheist musicians?
Just wondering what your thoughts were on this! Thanks for indulging me!
Schweers Mom,
There is a lot of discussion on this, I guess I need to post something, but here's the basics- the author admits to being agnostic, not sure if he's an atheist. the books are anti-religion and portray an upside down world. if your kids want to go I would encourage you to go with them and then have a discussion afterwards. But it is clear that these movies are not like the Harry Potter books. This film is definitely anti-religion. How much of that comes through in the movie I don't know, I haven't seen it yet.
Post a Comment