1. Twelve Points That Show Christianity is True
Owning Your Worldview Considers:
By: Dr. Norman Geisler

2. Building Foundations Apologetics Logical Foundation (Points 1 and 2)
Supernatural Foundation (Points 3 through 5)
Historical Foundation (Points 6 through 12)
This session will cover point 1 of 12.

3. Session Goals (Point 1) The truth about “truth”.
Clarify the Correspondence View and objections to it.
Consider “Self-defeating” statements.
Confront alternative views of “truth”.
Understand absolute truth.

4. Session Outline (Point 1)
What is Truth? (Correspondence to Reality)
When a statement corresponds to the facts then it is true.
Any other approach is self-defeating.
To deny this understanding you have to use this understanding.
Can Truth Be Known? (Everyone assumes the objectivity and knowability of truth.)
Agnosticism (Immanuel Kant)
Skepticism (David Hume)
Post-Modernism (Jacques Derrida)
Relativism (Alfred North Whitehead)
Is Truth Absolute?

5. Question
How do you define “truth”?

6. The Correspondence View
What is truth?
The truth is “telling like it is”.
The truth corresponds to the facts.
The truth is a recognition of reality.
An correct description of the object’s attributes.

7. The Correspondence View
What is false?
The opposite of truth.
Does not correspond to reality.
Actively rejects reality by redefining “truth”.
ANY attribute of an object that is incorrectly stated.

8. Question Why must truth be “absolute”?
Do you have any examples of why truth must be “absolute”?

9. Arguments for the Correspondence View
The Correspondence View is implied in the ninth commandment. “You shall not bear false witness”.
It is implied in Acts 24:8 & 11. We are told to learn the truth and verify the facts.
It is central to testing for false prophets. Deuteronomy 18:22 tells us a prophet is false “if the word does not come to pass or come true”.

10. Self-Defeating Statements
A powerful tool for identifying false statements is an understanding of self-defeating language and ideas.
Defined: A self-defeating statement is any statement that is false when it is held to it’s own standard.
It is a statement or idea that is true if it is false or false if it is true.
It is logically incoherent.

11. Self-Defeating Examples
“I can’t make a statement in English.”
Response: “Isn’t that a statement in English?”

12. Self-Defeating Examples
“Truth isn’t telling it like it is.”
Response: “Is that statement telling it like it is?”

13. Self-Defeating Examples
“There is no absolute truth.”
Response: “Is that absolutely true?”

14. Self-Defeating Examples
“That is true for you but not for me.”
Response: “Is that true for everyone?”

15. Respond to this statement!
“Truth changes, what is true today maybe false tomorrow.”

16. Respond to this statement!
“Belief in absolute truth is too narrow.”

17. Respond to this statement!
“No one can have an absolute understanding of truth.”

18. Respond to this statement!
“There are examples of relative truth.”

19. Can The Truth Be Known?
There are several alternatives to the correspondence view of the truth. The most significant alternatives in the western world are:
Agnosticism: Denies the ability to know the truth.
Skepticism: States that truth should be doubted.
Relativism: Denies absolute truth.
Postmodernism: Refuses to affirm truth and redefines any truth claims that oppose the desired results.

20. Agnosticism
A major proponent of agnosticism was Immanuel Kant. He is considered by many to be the father of modern philosophy.:
We cannot know the truth about reality.
We can only know the appearance of something, not its essence.
We can't know the thing itself, only the thing to us.

21. Agnosticism
Do you have any examples of things you have heard that were based on agnostic thinking?
EXAMPLE: "Have you ever wondered if people all see colors the same? What you call green I might call red."

22. Agnosticism Objections to Agnosticism:
Agnosticism is self-defeating since we cannot know the truth about agnosticism.
We cannot know the reality of agnosticism although it may appear to be correct.
People like agnosticism because it allows them to be claim ignorance when they prefer, but also makes their point of view the most important.

23. Skepticism
A major proponent of skepticism was David Hume. He was a philosopher, economist, and historian.:
We should doubt everything.
We can only know those things we can perceive with our five senses.
We should suspend judgment on all truth claims about reality.

24. Skepticism
Do you have any examples of things you have heard that were based on skeptic thinking?
EXAMPLE: "God if you're real just show me a sign so I can believe... God please show me another sign so I can be absolutely sure you're real."

25. Skepticism Objections to Skepticism:
Skepticism is self-defeating because it tells you to be skeptical of your own skepticism.
Skepticism also "begs-the-question" (circular reasoning) when claiming that doubt is the only thing that should not be doubted. Because you assume skepticism to be true, it confirms that skepticism is true.

26. Relativism
A major proponent of relativism was Dr. Alfred North Whitehead. He was a teacher of philosophy, mathematics, and process theology.:
Reality has no unchanging forms.
All truth is in process (changes) and is never final.
All truth is relative.

27. Relativism
Do you have any examples of things you have heard that were based on relative thinking?
EXAMPLE: "I would never get an abortion because I think it's wrong, but I couldn't tell someone else they are wrong for getting one."

28. Relativism Objections to Relativism:
Relativism is self-defeating. All statements about relativism are stated at absolute truths.
Relativism isn't said to be true for some people some of the time.
Fundamentally relativism cannot and is not applied to all areas of truth. We only apply relativism to our morality (so we can do what we wish).

29. Postmodernism
A major proponent of postmodernism was Jacques Derrida. He was a modern philosopher and lived until :
We must deconstruct all truth claims.
We can reconstruct as many views as we wish.
No reconstruction is objectively true, it is merely new.

30. Postmodernism
Do you have any examples of things you have heard that were based on postmodern thinking?
EXAMPLE: "I support same-sex marriage because I support the right of any two people to love each other."

31. Postmodernism Objections to Postmoderism:
Postmodernism is self-defeating because it claims there are no objective truth claims yet it proposes it's believes are objectively true.
Postmodernism is deceptive. It redefines terms so that they mean different things to different people. This redefinition allows consensus without actually having people agree on what is fundamentally true.

32. Is Truth Absolute?
We may say that we believe the truth is not objective but in reality we always live as though it were.
Safety: when someone tells us something is safe we expect that it is. If it was not then that person would have to face consequences.
Finances: when we put participate in financial transactions we demand that all parties are operating with absolute truth and honesty.

33. Is Truth Absolute?
Medicine: when we are dealing with doctors and medicine we expect medical professionals to be honest and straightforward. (death panels)
Relationships: we expect our spouse to be loyal, honest, and sincere.
Court Proceedings: we expect "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

34. Relativism and Reality
If relativism is true then it is impossible to make a baseline comparisons since there is no absolute starting point from which to measure.
If I said the flame was hot and you said the flame was cold, would a third-party be able to place their hand in the flame and determine whether it was hot or cold?

35. Relativism and Reality
If relativism is true then no one has ever been wrong, is currently wrong, or ever will be wrong about any specific fact.
Facts would only appear to be wrong from your perspective, but from their perspective they could be right.
If relativism is true then there is no crime. There are just people doing things that are wrong, in your opinion.

36. Answering Objections
OBJECTION 1: truth changes. The progress of science is prove the truth is constantly changing.
RESPONSE: The truth never changed. The only thing that changed was our knowledge of the truth.
Here we have confused the difference between objective truth and scientific facts.

37. Answering Objections
OBJECTION 2: The believe in absolute truth is a narrow view.
RESPONSE: Agreed. A true statement allows only itself to be true well making all other possibilities false.
Our society has taught us that a narrow view of something must somehow be a negative view.

38. Answering Objections
OBJECTION 3: No one can have an absolute understanding of the truth.
RESPONSE: My understanding of the truth has no impact on whether something is true or not.
I do not understand the details of how a black hole works, yet they either do or do not exist regardless of my understanding.
Can you have an absolute understanding that 1+1=2 is true?

39. In Conclusion
We can be confident that reality is built upon a logical foundation of objective absolute truth.
We can and should accept the "correspondence view" of the truth.
All opposing views are false and will always lead to logical fallacies and are impractical in the real world.
People only deny the truth when they find it leads the to places they would rather not go.