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"Teacher: Welcome, students. This is the first day of class, and so I want to lay down some ground rules.
First, since no one has the truth, you should be open-minded to the opinions of your fellow
students. Second...
students? After all, if nobody has the truth, why should I waste my time listening to other
people and their opinions? What's the point? Only if somebody has the truth does it make
sense to be open-minded. Don't you agree?
Teacher: No, I don't. Are you claiming to know the truth? Isn't that a bit arrogant and dogmatic?"
(from the book Relativism by Beckwith and Koukl)
The conversation above raises an interesting question, "Why should anyone believe anything?" (See what Os Guinness has to say. And Nietzsche v. Jesus Christ)
Relativism: Take the challenge.
You Bad, Me Good
Dualism is the view that breaks the world into two camps: discerning evil in others and denying it in ourselves. Numerous errors stream out in its wake. We deceive ourselves by dividing the world falsely into "us" and "them," "good" and "bad," "black" and "white," "progressive" and "reactionary," by declaring that "we" are obviously good and free and progressive and "they" are obviously bad. At the end of the line, we project onto others the evils we do not admit in ourselves and so lose touch with reality (Os Guinness, 2005, Unspeakable, p. 162).
This does not mean that there are not real problems in the world or that all morals are equal. (Hitler's morals are not equal to Mother Teresa's.) Nor does it mean that we should not try and make the world a better place.
Needless to say, we need not respond to the dangers of dualism by swinging to the opposite extreme and espousing moral equivalence, as if all cats are gray. There are monsters and there are monstrous evils, and both are to be fought. But we are all liable to become hypocrites, whether standing for virtue or standing against vice, when we engage in dualism. In the stinging rebuke of Jesus to the virtuous appearing Pharisees of his day, we become concerned about the splinter in our neighbour's eye but ignore the beam in our own. Or in Nietzsche's warning, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster" (Guinness, p. 163-64).
Justice and freedom may be fought for and won in the name of utopianism, but without realism they never last and are certain to degenerate into either chaos or tyranny (Guinness, p.165).
But this creates a problem, who's to say what kind of world we should have?
One person's reform may well be another person's reactionary position, and we are left with the question: who says? (Guinness, p. 193)....
Does this mean that we are left to interminable culture-warring between the disciples of some monistic universalism on one side ("Our way is the only way") and the disciples of multicultural relativism on the other side ("Whatever")? The alternative to this dismal prospect would be to encourage a third position: examined pluralism. Each individual and community is free to assert its principles and argue its position, based on freedom of conscience, but always remembering two requirements (Guinness, p.193).
Education or Indoctrination?
Indoctrination is being told what to think, education is being taught how to think.
If you know how to think you will know what to think, in other words you'll know who to believe; you'll know when something doesn't add up.
The Deception of Love
What made Nazi Germany possible? Was it hatred? No! The Germany of the 30's and 40's was made possible because of love. It was the peoples love for their nation and leader which made them feel justified in their treatment of others. It was love which blinded them.
Patriotism towards one's nation or devotion to ones religion or beliefs can lead to all kinds of crimes. We all love something or someone, therefore we are all in danger of becoming monsters.
I have no doubt that you love your god (your god is that which you are devoted to; whether it be money, Allah, Jesus or pleasure). The question we must all ask ourselves is, "What does my god require of me (or make me do) when others criticize, attack or try to keep me from the object of my worship?" If your god encourages you to make war then what does that say about your god? (Is your god big enough to repay insults committed against him or does he need your help?)
Note: Obviously those Nazis who did not commit crimes but praised the Nazi party, because they believed it was good, were guilty of stupidity. They were guilty of making that which was evil appear as though it was good. It is hard to identify deception when you are emotionally attached to that which is deceiving you. The more beautiful the deception the harder it is to identify. (That is why Satan masquerades as an angel of light.)
Have the courage to ask uncomfortable questions about that which you love the most. (If God has nothing to hide, and it is the truth you want, He won't mind you asking tough questions.)
Islam's Future
According to the Yemen newspaper, the Yemen Times, the average women in Yemen has 6.8 children. (And Yemen is not the only Islamic country to have extraordinary growth rates.) Out of every thousand people 43 are born every year and 8 die. In 1950 Yemen had just over 4 million people, in the year 2000 it had 18 million people and now it has over 21 million. Yemen will have a larger population than Russia by the middle of this century if present rates of growth continue. The average age in Yemen is 15.
Why is this significant? The public schools in Yemen can't keep up and the Islamist schools are only too willing to take in the young. So whether Islam is radical or not, many young Muslims in the Islamic world are being radicalised. (Obviously, public schools in most Islamic countries do not refer their students to certain Islamic traditions, particular verses in the Quran or particular events in Mohammed's life (see also). What government wants to be overthrown by its own people? This whole issue is very difficult for all governments to deal with. (Hasina Patel, the wife of one of the London suicide bombers, had no idea that her husband was an extremist; and we have no idea how extreme our Muslim friends are unless we discuss some difficult issues and ask them some tough questions.) Many of those who are radical have one face in public and another in private; no wonder governments are concerned. The documentary Undercover Mosque highlights just how rapidly extremist views are spreading. After watching this documentary I can't help but wonder why so many Muslims believe what their leaders tell them.)

"...the moment lying is accepted instead of condemned, it has to be required. If it is just another way to win, then in refusing to lie for the cause or the company, you aren't doing your job" --J. Budziszewski (cited in Time for Truth by Os Guinness).
This is the main reason why truth must precede loyalty.
But what about loyalty to your beliefs (or ideology), isn't that more important than the truth? No, it is not.
If I value my beliefs more than the concept of truth, I will reject many facts simply because they do not conform to what I want to believe.
Valuing ones beliefs or ideology more than the idea of truth leads to self deception. When a person values their beliefs more than truth they believe all kinds of myths simply because they want them to be true. Worse still, they pass many of those myths on to others because they think they are true. (This is how honest people spread the lies which others invent. That is how this hoax spread so rapidly. Note: If we don't think something is true we don't believe it. We only believe things because we think they are true.) But believing something does not make it true. There is no such thing as "your truth" or "true for you" when it comes to objective truth claims. Objective truth claims are either true or false, whether you think they are true or not.
If I believe something which is not true, then how will I ever correct those beliefs if I value those beliefs more than the concept of truth? Telling me the truth won't change my mind because I have already decided what I'm going to believe. (There are those who believe things about God as well as those who reject His existence who value their beliefs more than the truth. An honest person doesn't rule anything out before looking at the evidence.)
Unfortunately, some people think that if you value truth more than your beliefs you will have to turn your back on what you believe. That is not the case. (It is only the case if you discover that you have been believing a lie.)
If I value truth more than my beliefs and my beliefs happens to be true, then those beliefs can withstand tough questions and honest investigation. If my beliefs provide the best possible explanation (given the available evidence) then looking at the evidence for and against what I believe will only strengthen my convictions. (We must keep in mind that no matter how much one investigates some things there will always be an element of mystery about them; and a mystery is not a contradiction.)
Miracles
How have scientists, using the scientific method, proven that miracles are not possible?
Sexual Morals!
Christian, you say you love homosexuals, but do you really? Listen to the rejection this man felt.
Gay men, have you heard this before?
What a Confused World
I watched an interesting film about imperialism and a peoples response to it. It was a film made by those on the left about their response to the Israeli Palestinian conflict (view film).
The film highlighted just how confused some people are. These people were willing to tolerate (and therefore not condemn) violent acts towards others because they thought that behaviour was in pursuit of a good cause. That is the kind of logic Hitler used. Certain behaviour must never be tolerated no matter what the situation.
Who is it we should really fear? Doesn't fear of a certain doctrine or belief lead to violence toward those who hold those beliefs?
Time and time again I here the charge that certain groups are appealing to fear tactics. People who make such charges believe that fear is a bad thing and therefore anyone who appeals to fear is wrong by definition. They claim that those who appeal to fear have to make a certain group look bad so that they can have someone to blame for their problems and so they can feel good about themselves.
It is true that blaming others can make us feel good but is appealing to fear wrong? Seat belt advertisements appeal to fear; they tell us that if you don't wear a seat belt you might be killed. What about those who say Islamic extremism is a real threat, are they appealing to fear? Yes they are. What about those who say that the American government is to blame for the problems in the world, are they appealing to fear? Of course they are. So it turns out that everyone who points the finger and blames someone appeals to the fear of a certain kind of evil that will befall us if we do not respond to it appropriately. So the real issue is not whether a person is appealing to fear but is what they are saying true? Should we believe them? Does what they say correspond to reality?
How then are we to make right judgements about who is right and who is wrong?
If we are to distinguish between right and wrong, and make fair judgements between different circumstances and situations, we need to keep in mind a simple rule:
Just because two things have some things in common does not mean they have everything in common (this is one of the laws of logic; it is called "Undistributed Middle"). If you think two things are the same, take a closer look.
Blindness is characterized by an inability to make distinctions. Everything looks the same to a blind person. While that is obvious the same is also true of the morally blind person. (The difference is the physically blind usually know that they are blind; morally blind people usually have no idea.Someone who is morally blind is unable to make clear distinctions about right and wrong. They are so blind that many of these people tell others that it is wrong to make a judgement about what is right and wrong. But if it wrong to say some people are wrong why are they telling others they are wrong? They are self contradictory. They are often indifferent when they should be passionate and are passionate and angry about things of little or no importance; they are confused and they don't even know it. Their world is up side down.)
Unfortunately for the morally blind person, intelligence and knowledge will not and cannot help them, because they are not fair minded. No matter how much information they have they cannot make a right judgement regarding moral issues because they do not place a high enough value upon truth to always love it and speak it. For them, truth is something you use only when it suits your purposes. Truth for them, is something which is used in the pursuit of power. (Giving such a person more information is really a waste of time and even dangerous, they will only twist it or misunderstand it. George MacDonald pointed out that 'to give truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation.' Unfortunately, moral blindness is found equally among academics as it is among common people. Their only hope is that they have a change of heart and value truth more than any pleasure, goal or ideology. (Fortunately, there are people who will tell the truth even when it makes them look bad.)
The following is written for those who value truth above all else.
Try to identify differences when comparing situations, ideologies, religions or any other issue where there are points of conflict. This will help you to be fair minded and give you clarity of thought. It will take time but it is worth the effort. (Differences are of the utmost importance, for example, there are very important differences between European Imperialism and Islamic Imperialism. There are important differences between men like Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden. There are also some very important differences between Islamic terrorism and the terrorist acts of the IRA; differences in motivation, goals, scale and scope. Were warnings given in some cases? etc. Another example would be immigration after WWII. After WWII the Italians and other Europeans were able to assimilate into the Commonwealth nations. This is often used as an argument for people of different cultures fitting in. But there is a very important difference between the European immigrants and many of the immigrants who are entering the country today, which most seem to overlook. Though the immigrants from Europe came from different cultures they had similar beliefs. Some belief systems fit right in with democracy (no matter what their race or skin colour) and some do not.
We need to be careful to make fair comparisons; and identify important differences, which we will only do if we love truth. If we do not we will attack views we should defend and defend views we should attack. If the general public don't start thinking more clearly about right and wrong the west will self-destruct. There are too many "good people" fighting for the wrong side.
Some people are so angry about the past and those in positions of authority that they are prepared to attack those in authority simply because they hold a position of authority. (For example, some people blame policemen in general rather than criminals. Exceptions are not rules and rules are not exceptions. It is true, there are some bad policemen, but there are no good criminals. Like wise many are confused about terrorism. For sure, there are some bad soldiers; but there are no good terrorists. The purposeful targeting of innocents is evil; there are no exceptions.) Be careful whom you condemn and whom you encourage. And "Don't judge by mere appearances" (source). If you do you might be fooled into calling that which is evil good and that which is good evil. Things are not always as they appear.
Judging fairly is a virtue; it requires investigation, fair mindedness and patience. Don't be one of the crowd; withhold judgement and take a closer look.
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