Relativism
Pete Jackson
What is relativism? No, it's not the name of a syndrome caused by having too many aunts,
uncles and cousins - that's just plain madness.
Relativism is a way of looking at the world that says two main things:
1. Truth is relative - There is no absolute truth
Basically, no one way of looking at the world, or understanding ourselves and the universe
is true for everybody. You have your truth and that's true for you. And I have my truth and
that's true for me. But you can't go saying that your truth, your way of looking at the world
and understanding reality, is true for me too, and say that I should change my truth to be
like yours. We each have our own opinion, but that's all it can ever ever be, opinion.
Not true in an absolute sense, for everyone, in very circumstance.
It's like the title of an album by the Manic Street Preachers - 'This is my truth, tell me yours'.
And because nothing is true in an absolute sense then there's a second thing that relativism says:
2. Morality is relative - There are no absolute standards of right and wrong
I can say that I think it's wrong to do something. But that only applies to me.
I can't say that that thing is wrong for you to do. I can't go around thinking that my
ideas about what is right or wrong are correct for everybody in every circumstance.
Relativism is great. Really great for Marmite.
Let me explain.
'Marmite is great'
That's true for me. But it's not true for my wife Claire. This is what's true for her:
'Marmite is foul and makes your breath smell like a sewer'
That's true for Claire, but it's not true for me.
It's relative. It's a matter of opinion and either opinion is as valid as the other.
When it comes to the issue of 'Marmite, fair or foul?' there are no absolute truths,
no absolute right or wrong options.
Now that's a bit of a daft example, and there are many other things like that where it is
true that there is no absolute truth, it's just about opinion, what one person thinks is true
over what another person thinks.
But there are some problems! For example:
What about theft?
Is it only true for some people and not for others that stealing is wrong? Is the car thief's opinion that it's ok to steal just as valid an option as any other?
Or what about murder?
Or genocide?
Surely it's always wrong. It's wrong in an absolute sense isn't it, on every occasion,
for everybody, it can't just be something that's true for me and not true for somebody else.
We can't live like that.
We don't live like that: I mentioned the Manic Street Preachers and their album, 'This is my truth,
tell me yours'. On that album there is a song written about the Hillsborough disaster. The songwriter addresses the South Yorkshire police, who he believes are responsible for the deaths of so many on that dreadful day, like this;
'South Yorkshire mass murderers, how can you sleep at night?'
Despite the title of the album, they evidently believe that some things are wrong, wrong not
just in their opinion, but wrong enough to trouble the consciences of those that do them,
wrong in an absolute sense perhaps?
There are other problems too, but time is really short.
Let's look into what Christianity, and into what the Bible has to say about relativism.
1. We can know THE truth
There is a right way of looking at the world and ourselves, at reality. There is such a thing as absolute truth, that's true for everybody.
2. We can know Right and Wrong.
There are absolute standards of what is right and what isn't right, standards that apply
to everyone. The attractive thing about relativism is that it allows us all to have our opinions,
but also insists that we have to be humble enough to admit that we haven't always got it right and
that we're just human along with everyone else and therefore how can one human opinion be more true
that just another human opinion?
And that would be true wouldn't it, if all we had to go on for right and wrong was people's opinion.
The Bible says that there are absolute standards of right and wrong, that are not based on opinion. But on God. What he says goes.
He's the creator of the universe, so he knows how things should be. He can tell us what life is
all about. He's the ruler of the universe, so he can say what is right and wrong. And because we
all live in his universe, that applies to every one of us, in every circumstance we're in.
And the outrageous claim of the Bible is that we can know what this God has to say to us for
certain, it's not just opinion, because this same God stepped into human history. It's like
the God of the universe shrunk himself and was born as a human being - Jesus. And the Bible
claims to be God's own account of Jesus' story.
Here's just one of the things Jesus had to say:
"I am the way and the truth and the life, no-one comes to the Father except through me"
He claims to be the source of truth and life, and to be the way back into relationship with the
God that we've ignored and replaced with our own opinions.
A truly outrageous claim.
Arrogant even?
Yes, unless it's true.