in 2016 Oxford’s word of the year was “Post-Truth”. Oxford defines post-truth as “Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”.  Roughly this means that a person’s beliefs, feelings, or emotions are more important than truth. This is different than post-modernism which goes something like this “I believe my own truth and you believe your own truth. There are no objective truths. So do not force your truth on me because this would be forcing me into a subordinate position”. 

Post-Modern culture allows for some room to reason with someone. For instance, one could ask “is that statement that there are no objective truths an objective truth”? You can see how this argument quickly falls apart. By stating there are no objective truths the person is stating an objective truth. 

However, in a post-truth society, a person would agree that there are objective truths but will either choose to ignore them based on how they feel or will actively subvert the truth to promote an agenda. Here a person would be saying “I believe there is an objective truth, I just refuse to believe or acknowledge it”. Reasoning with someone who refuses to adhere to any truth because of a personal feeling is a difficult task. But is it a task that needs undertaking? What is wrong with letting people live how they want and let a society ignore truth altogether?  Basically, why live a life constrained to an objective truth when we can all just ignore it and live how we see fit? “live and let live” right?

This idea is not so easy for a culture to support and the weight of ignoring truth will quickly cause society to crumble. It is obvious that truth is important and the pursuit of truth should be one not so quickly abandoned. I will highlight only a few reasons why here but remember this is not at all an exhaustive reasoning.

Communication breaks down

We live in a society that presupposes truth. Imagine living in a society where truth was fluid or lying was a virtue. What would be the point of asking any questions? How would we get anywhere? Asking for directions would be impossible. 

If we decided to advance our knowledge we would consistently have to question the expert’s findings and be forced to perform the same experiments ourselves. Modern medicines would never be realized and science would never be able to move past making fire. Why? Because every single person would have to make a fire to prove it can be done instead of just accepting this from someone who had already made fire.

Our relationships would break down as we second guess everything that someone said. We could no longer trust written or spoken word. In order for any advancement in relationships or in science, the truth has got to be a standard that is objective! Without that, the fluidity of a statement would make reasoning impossible.

Besides that, the active fabrication of a falsehood is a manipulative tactic. If we truly love someone we would be very cautious when talking with them. As a lie could be seen as pursuing our own agenda or preserving our own comfort over what is truth. It is only in truth that real communication, growth, advancement, and healing can occur. 

It helps us behave rationally

In order to come to a verdict on how we are going to handle a situation, we need to know what the truth is. Our entire justice system is built on the idea of truth. How can a judge make a fair verdict if they do not know what is true? The verdict may have no rationality behind it and at times may even seem arbitrary. 

Another example is through the classroom. Teachers, on occasion, sometimes grant a bit of extra time when it comes to an assignment. They will base this decision on the circumstances surrounding the reason why the student was unable to complete the assignment in a given time frame. Granted the student could lie about the reason but the professor will do their best to base their decision on the truth. Without the active pursuit of truth, the professor would grant extra time based on how they are feeling that day or their relationship with the student. One student will get the extra time while another is denied that time. There would be no reason as to why other than “I feel like it”. 

Our educational system could be thrown away as we would not be able to trust the validity of a given degree and our justice system would be in shambles when decisions are based on feelings over truth. 

People suffer when truth is distorted

History is full of dictators who denied an objective truth. In these cases, the people who prospered were those closest and most friendly to the dictator. While those who were not in this elite class suffered to the point of horrific deaths. Today, we see this going on in North Korea. The many men, women, and children under the ruthless guidance of Kim Jong Sun would describe a nation in ruins. Thousands have died from hunger or dehydration under the Kim dynasty. All the while he tells the people this is the West’s fault. He has built a statue of his father glorifying him and his grandfather as gods. He has had his own family murdered and continues to rule through intimidation. He paints a picture, to his people, that he is good and descended from deity. The refusal to believe the truth has left many in North Korea poor, hungry, and dead.

We would only have to turn the clock back 100 years to read what men like Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, Mao… demonstrate what a country looks like when truth is abandoned for “post-truth”. 

Freedom in Truth

Freedom is an interesting concept. National Geographic put together a quick 2 min video asking people from 23 different countries what freedom means to them. It is interesting to note that overall the responses could be summed up as the ability to do what one wants without fear of oppression, judgment, or ridicule. There are some other underlying ideas in the video but this, to me, seems to be the most prominent. But is this kind of freedom the only freedom available to humanity?

First, it is important to note that freedom can be classified as two distinct possibilities. The first possibility and the one most people associate with freedom is the freedom for autonomy. What do I mean by this? Precisely what I mentioned above by summarizing the video. An autonomous freedom is a freedom that lends itself to the wishes, whims, and desires of an individual. It is most often expressed like this “true freedom is the ability to do what I want when I want without anyone else infringing upon this personal desire”. In this sense, we are free to do whatever we want without fear of oppression. Basically, we are free from outside influence.

There is this second freedom that most people do not consider. Instead of a freedom from something or someone, this is the freedom to do something. This might seem like semantics but I assure you it is not. In this freedom, a person would have an objective truth that could be researched or discovered. Think about it this way a scientist is only able to discover new ways of how our universe works only if there are unchanging laws that govern the universe. If one day a scientist wakes up and all laws of physics have changed then all previous discoveries are basically null and void. The scientist must start over to rediscover any new attributes that were not present under the old laws. The only way a person is truly free to learn, discover, or attain a higher level of thinking is only possible with structure and objective truth.

One freedom is based on subjectivity where everyone is autonomous and free from any outside influence including laws that would prevent them from truly enjoying life. Whereas the other freedom is based on objectivity grounded in an objective truth that cannot be influenced by popular or public opinion.

What is interesting to note is that Jesus Christ linked true freedom with truth. In John 8:32 Jesus says “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”. Here Christ is making a clear distinction that truth and freedom should not be separated. It is also important to note that Christ seems to imply that truth comes before freedom. Here he is making it clear that in order to truly be free one has to first know the truth. If one does not know the truth, first, then they shall never truly be free. Jesus looks to set us free of bondage. In order for this to happen, we must know the truth. And this truth is not subjective.

If you worship money and things-if they are where you tap real meaning in life-then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you… Worship power-you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart-you will end up feeling stupid, of fraud always on the verge of being found out. And so one.”

from Saving Truth By Abdu Murry page 75-76

If freedom is seen as always pursuing our own desires it will only lead to not having enough. Once we give up pursuing our own desires, once we give up this pursuit of fake freedom, will we be free from the bondage of never having enough. Granted we may be free to look however we want. However, in the pursuit of beauty how much money has been spent on makeup, surgery, gym memberships, or ineffective fad diets. This is not to say these things are bad, in fact, many of us could benefit from a change in diet and lifestyle. But when this becomes our sole focus we will never be pretty enough. We will be slaves to the beauty industry.

The only way to break free from this cycle is to first know the truth. In John 8:36 Christ says “so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”. Here Christ is clearly making this distinction that he is the truth. He is not some form of truth or one truth among many truths. But he embodies truth. He makes the truth not just the concept but something that is tangible and personal. And it’s through this knowing of Him where our freedom will be realized. Not only does he free us from the cycle of wanting more to fulfill some unrealized freedom but also from death itself.

Working in the healthcare field I have seen to what lengths people will go to live longer. People ignore hospice care because we are after longevity instead of quality of life. Families will insist that their frail grandmother receive every medical procedure possible so that she can live three more days. This pursuit of longevity has led to some very interesting conversations one of which revolves around this idea that possibly within 50 to 100 years people may live forever. As long as people are willing to pour money into pharmaceuticals, surgeries, and modern medicine we will never be free from the clutches of death. But Christ came so that we would not have to worry about spending our money on pursuits like longevity. He came first and foremost for the glory of God. And it is through His obedience to God the father that the power of sin and death is broken thus setting us free to pursue Him and know Him as truth. Which leads us to a higher level of existence, one we were created for instead of one that gives in to any random desire

Bottom line is this: there is an objective truth that everyone needs. We can not let those we love simply believe that objective truth does not matter. Without adherence to this truth, society would crumble and true freedom will never be realized. More importantly, without truth, there is no victory over death. So truth must be defended.