Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 In today's a pistol Saint Paul explicitly warns us in order to stand against the deceits of the devil. We must put on the armor of God having our loins girt about with truth, with truth, but according to a recent survey done by evangelical Protestants, 66% of self professing born again, Christians assert that there is no such thing as absolute moral truth, 56% of the same born. Again, Christians deny that men are capable of grasping the meaning of truth at 57% could not say that an objective standard of truth exists 66%. So there's no such thing as absolute moral truth. 56% said it. Men are capable of grasping the truth. 57% today cannot say that an objective standard of truth exists.
Speaker 0 00:01:13 We can ask the conscious pilot question. What is true? Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Can we grasp the meaning of truth? Does an objective standard of truth actually exist before we leave today? We'll each be able to answer those questions. Let's get started. There are two common usages for the word truth, truth, commonly firs either the truth and understanding or truth. The speech. Let's take a moment to look at both these kinds of truth, truth, and understanding, which is also called logical truth and truth and speech, which is also called moral truth. First truth and understanding logical truth. Logical truth means the agreement of the mind with the thing. This is my thumb. This is a microphone. That's a statue of the blessed Virgin. Mary, what did we just do? We made judgments, which either do or do not correspond to reality.
Speaker 0 00:02:33 For example, supposed to make a judgment. If this is my hand, if this is my hand, then the judgment agrees with reality. And so we say, it's true. That's my hand. The mind agrees with the thing she posted. I wouldn't make the judgment that that's a statue of Saint Scholastica. Since that's not Saint Scholastica, that's Saint Rita right there. That judgment does not agree with reality. And so we say that it's false. The mind does not agree with his thing. Okay. So truth means a judgment, which agrees with reality. That's my right hand. Error. Falsity means a judgment, which does not agree with reality. That's a statue of Saint Scholastica. Truth is a correspondence between the mind and the thing. Okay. That's logical truth. It's a judgment which agrees with reality. There's a correspondence between the mind and the thing. Okay. Easy enough. Now, before we go any farther and let's ask ourselves this question, when we're speaking of logical truth, is there any objective standard?
Speaker 0 00:03:44 Does it object to standard of logical truth exists? Of course, the objective scanner here's reality. It's the facts. It's the things we're doing with, you know, this is my right hand or it isn't either. That is a statue of Saint Scholastica where it isn't it, isn't it st. Rita. How do we know? That's a statute, state reader by inspection to statute the option. We look at the object. They say that has to be Saint Rita. It isn't Saint Scholastica, the object itself it's objective standard. We can see the wound in her forehead from the thorn and so forth. The object is the objective standard objective. It gives you a clue object. Okay. So is there an objective standard of truth? Yes. We're talking about logical truth. It's reality. It's the thing it stops. If we're looking at it's the facts we're wrestling with the statement.
Speaker 0 00:04:38 What about moral truth? Well, truth means the agreement of the speech with the mind. In other words, when, what we say is what we think that's true, what we say is not what we think. Sending either where a previous doctor through the white house or it's false. Ms. Everyone knows. We call that a lot. Now the one thing to notice here is it moral truth is not necessarily directly connected to the actual state of things. What do you mean father? Someone can be actually confused as to the real nature of things and not the words. You may be confused as to logical truth of the situation, but as long as he speaks, what's in his mind, he's not lying no matter how far that may be from the actual state of things, he's confused, but he's not lying. Okay. For example, but decos example, you remembered, suppose for example, a man thinks he's a slice of rye toast.
Speaker 0 00:05:41 Okay. So if he thinks he decided to ride toast and then he says, so is he correct with respect to logical truth? Of course not. He's a man. He's not rice toast. His mind isn't in GRI with reality. But if he telling you truth, morally speaking. Yes. Although he's certainly not completely saying his speech matches what's in his mind. He's not lying. He's obviously wrong. Okay. Now, if he actually thought he was a slice of rye toast, but he said, I'm just a little, little slice of white bread, then that would be a lie. Why? Because his speech one degree with what's in his mind. So moral truth means to the agreement of the speech with what's in the mind. Okay. Now let's ask ourselves the same question when we're speaking of moral truth, is there an objective standard, does an objective standard of moral truth?
Speaker 0 00:06:32 Six shifts? Of course the objective standard is what's in the man's mind. That's the stat. If he's speaking, what's the action, his mind, then there's the correspondence. All right. So we've seen two senses of the word truth. Logical truth means to the agreement of the mind with a thing moral truth means to agreement or the speech with the mind in either case there's a correspondence, which something true because of the mind corresponds to thing, you know, like this is my right hand or the speech corresponds to mine. That's my right hand. We've seen it. The objective standard for logical truth is the thing itself. The reality, the statement, the object being considered. We've seen that the objective stand for moral truth is what the man speaking actually has in his mind. Okay. Now let's get practical. Let's suppose we run into these three common confused people who deny that we are capable of actually grasping the meaning of truth.
Speaker 0 00:07:38 How can we help them get their minds? Right? It's easy. We tell this man, the meaning of truth, logical truth, moral truth. Remember logical truth means a correspondence between the mind and the saying I'm all truth means if your speech corresponds to what's in the mind, then just like everyone in here he'll know what the meaning of truth. Okay. Then how do we respond to someone who says there's no such thing as an absolute truth. Now, before we answer that it's worth pondering. The Remar made by gray Bishop and dr. The church st. Francis to sales. She passed it to, she, I personally converted some 70,000 Calvinists st. Francis to shales used to point out that we catch a lot more bees with honey than with vinegar. What does that have to do with anything? The point is, is that, although, when we're talking about these types of things, we could make sarcastic wise cracking remarks.
Speaker 0 00:08:38 It's easy to generally speaking. We're probably better, more helpful, at least by leading off being channeled. We're trying to win souls, not score debating points, but when arguments, we can drive away a soul by being sarcastic. There's times inside kids it's called for, but generally we're starting out. We want to be channeled with the people and just explain to them the reality. Let them be the sarcastic one, if it's going to be that way. But we want to leave him with impression of channel NIST. We don't want to leave him in that air, but we want to generally correct him. Okay. All right. So how do we respond to someone who tells us there's no such thing as absolute truth? Well, for starters, they'll stand by. It's pretty obvious is a good lead in, okay. Let me get this trade. Are you saying that it's absolutely true.
Speaker 0 00:09:26 There's no such thing as absolute truth. That's a good start, but we don't want to stop there. Then we want to teach you by channeling. Give me a few examples. Okay. He said, there's no such thing as absolute truth. I'm going to teach you a few. It's absolutely true. And will be true for all eternity at this time. Is this time it's absolutely true. And it will be like turning, but this is this time. It's absolutely true that this is not this sound. We can go like this like that. Okay. It's really easy to get sarcastic here, but you don't want to take it easy on him because you know, it doesn't have to be profound. It's absolutely true. That's just the principle of identity. That's a principle. Non-contradiction right there. When you're talking about that. Okay. We're trying to win. It's not arguments. Keep that in mind.
Speaker 0 00:10:17 Okay. So how do we respond to someone who tells us there's no such thing as an absolute moral truth. Now they're getting off the reservation. We're getting pretty deep into enemy territory. So we want to press this point a little bit. Okay. If we can start by giving a big smile and say, since you don't believe in any absolute moral truth, can I borrow your credit card for awhile? Nobody lives like this. Call them on that, but don't stop there. We want to press the point. Okay. If you're correct, and there's no such thing as an absolute moral truth, then doesn't it follow that all someone really has to do is take the right point of view. And Hitler becomes a real swell guy. Obviously it's easy to get sarcastic. Here we take advantage of this. You see, that's the one thing we have in common with, with these people is everybody knows Hitler's wrong.
Speaker 0 00:11:07 Don't ask me why everybody can admit that, but they can't. So take advantage of that. We have one moral thing we can agree on. He's not a good guy. So call him on, okay. If he to get sarcastic and with this one after the lead, and you might have to, because a lot of times, if somebody is on this and they're not just intimately confused, they're going to be justifying something. And that's why they're leading with this sort of thing. Anyway, let's review, we'll use the term truth, but talking about being in contact with reality, the case of logical truth. If we're talking about her mind being in contact with reality, the case we were seeing, what's actually there. That's what we mean by content. The case of moral truth. We're talking about our speech actually accurately reflecting the reality that's present in our mind, what's going in or coming out.
Speaker 0 00:11:52 It's an expression of reality. Truth is an expression of reality, either internally as in logical truth or externally as in moral truth. Okay? Now let's take all this and briefly applied what we learned to a newspaper article. Since we're dealing with a printed editorial, we'll get a little sarcastic. Here's a quote from the Catholic college newspaper, editorial entitled opening minds in the real world, which is very similar to the college world. It is vital that we keep an open mind and refrain from judging others. There will always be that one person who will argue that the sky is green instead of blue. This proposition may sound ridiculous, but our duty is to respect it. The world would be chaotic without respect for an individual's right to his or her own opinion. Close quote. Let's hear that again in the real world, which is very similar to the college world.
Speaker 0 00:12:57 It's vital that we keep an open mind and refrain from judging others. There will always be that one person who will argue the sky is green instead of blue. This proposition may sound ridiculous, but our duty is to respect the world would be chaotic without respect for the individual's right to his or her own opinion. Okay? She claims that our duty is true. Suspects. That one person who argues to disguise green instead of blue, or do these Natras affect that person. But to correct that person, reality is what it is. Two plus two is four. The sky is blue. They're a hundred pennies in a dollar. She also claims that the world would be chaotic without respect for the rights of others opinions, right? To other opinions. That's another humdinger to notion of the sky is blue. For example, is not an opinion, even in the college world, which is very similar to the real world.
Speaker 0 00:14:01 Remember the objective standard is reality. The thing we're dealing with it, the fact the option, this object is the Scot. It is subjectively true to the sky is blue and subjectively false because the sky is green and stupid errors. Don't deserve our respect period, close the book. I don't care if she's an editor of a Catholic news paper. And actually what she'd say, if we ran her bank account using her own principles, excuse me, she says, there's some kind of a County, or I put a large deposit into my account and there's simply no record of it. And we reply well, in my opinion, which you have to respect. I really felt that I needed that money more. So I took it. It's vital that you keep an open mind and refrain from judging me. She's not gonna respect us. How about this in an even more ridiculous sign or an editorial or helpful editor points out quote.
Speaker 0 00:15:02 So what up the governor voted to legalize all abortion in the state of Kansas. Her beliefs are uniquely hers and it is our duty to listen and respect him. Not necessarily to agree with them because it's at a Cobra Mark. This is exactly what Saint Paul is warning us about and the epistle spirits of wickedness. Okay, I'll read that again. So what if the government voted to legalize all abortion? The state of Kansas, their beliefs are uniquely hears and it's our duty. Listen to respect them. Not necessarily to agree with him. We have to pity her parents to give us her daughter so called Catholic education. They probably spent enough money to buy a small Island in the Pacific. And this is a sort of moral reasoning that this young Catholic woman is capable of. So what if the governor voted legalized abortion, it started to do to respect your beliefs. Well, I'm going to be sarcastic. Ooh, good argument. I don't know about you, but I'm really convinced it's our duty respect. Look, let's play the game. So what if we got her voted to execute the prisoner? It's already gonna respect pilot's beliefs. So what if the government decided it voted to, uh, employ the final solution he started to do to respect Hitler's beliefs, let's get serious. What does God say? Hate evil and love. Good Amos, five 14. That's what God says.
Speaker 0 00:16:27 So as if the culture of wreckage rawness, isn't evidence enough, we can see, we have a very serious problem, which to keep her 6% of the Bible, Christians to deny the existence of absolute truth. But when the editor of a purportedly Catholic newspaper and a college not far from here thinks that we need to respect. People argue that the sky is green instead of blue. It's our duty to listen to and respect evil, wicked diabolical beliefs. You thought the rice toast example was ridiculous. They're not father, but why are we spending so much time on something that's basic, it's essential for each one of us to be able to understand and defend these basic fundamental concepts. We've got to have a clear grasp of these fundamental notions in an age like cars and age, which could easily be called the age of the lot. The age of the mass media, our culture is flooded with lots of confusion and mental darkness.
Speaker 0 00:17:36 So before we Wade into the eighth commandment thou shall not bear false witness. We want to make sure we have a solid grasp on the basic concepts of logical and moral truth. And they were logical becomes the agreement of the mind was in saying, well, truth means agreement of the speech with the mind biological truth. He's agreeing on the mind with a thing that's the blessed Virgin Mary there. While truth means agreement speech with the mind. I want everybody here to get to heaven. We have to be sure that we can defend these ideas. We want to be able to sure. We want to be absolutely sure. We recognize objective truth. After all we have done, very could have sorted that the truth will set us free.
