Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions by Koukl Gregory

Author:Koukl, Gregory [Koukl, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Array
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2009-05-26T05:00:00+00:00

IS TRUTH TRUE?

I have already pointed out that the postmodern claim “There is no truth”7 invites an obvious question: Is the claim that there is no truth itself a true statement, or is it false? If false, then false. If alleged true, then false again.

This fact became painfully obvious in my debate with philosopher Marv Meyer. I defended the resolve “Objective truth exists and can be known,” while Dr. Meyer took the opposing side.

I want you to notice something about formal disputes like these. To debate, Dr. Meyer must argue against one view and in favor of another. This argument takes a very particular form: The view he opposes (mine) is false; the view he promotes (his) is true.

This is precisely what happened. With grace and considerable skill, the professor pointed out the failings of my perspective. Aristotle, it turns out, was wrong; Derrida was right. Mr. Koukl is mistaken; Marv Meyer is correct.

Do you see the problem here? Dr. Meyer marshaled an array of facts, truth, and knowledge for the purpose of persuading his audience that facts, truth, and knowledge are all sophisticated fictions.

In the course of the debate, I pointed this out to the audience. I mentioned that Dr. Meyer was forced by the nature of debate itself to make use of the very thing he was denying in the debate, dooming his effort to failure. Indeed, merely by showing up, Dr. Meyer had implicitly affirmed the resolve I was defending, effectively conceding the debate to me before it even began.

I further pointed out to the audience that every vote cast for Dr. Meyer as the winner of the debate meant the voter had been persuaded that Dr. Meyer’s view was (objectively) true and mine was (objectively) false. Therefore, every vote for my opponent was really a vote for me.

The audience laughed, but the point wasn’t lost on them. When the final tally came in, the good professor got only one vote (apparently someone wasn’t listening). This wasn’t because I was clever. It was because the view he was defending was obviously false, a fact that couldn’t be missed once the problem was carefully pointed out.

The “Christian” version of postmodernism fares no better, even though baptized with religious language. This example from a Christian college was relayed to me by a student in the class.

“Are any of you in this room God?” The professor scanned the audience slowly, looking for takers. No hands went up.

“God knows ‘TRUTH,’ ” she continued, writing the word in all capital letters on the board. “All truth is God’s truth. God is truth. But you are not God. Therefore, you only know ‘truth.’ ” She then scrawled in lower case this secondary and substandard take on reality next to the superior version that is forever out of reach for mere humans.

She paused for a moment, letting her point sink in, then closed. “Have a nice day,” she said, and dismissed the class.

It was a brilliant piece of rhetorical wizardry. Students were too busy

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