AbsoluteTruth.Net: If There Is No Truth...

If there is no absolute truth…

--then nothing you do matters. If one action is no better than another, and there is no standard by which to determine what positive or negative, then there is essentially no purpose to life. You can't say that you made a "positive" difference in the world, because there is no measure of what a positive action might be. Without a standard of absolute truth, there is no real difference between Mother Teresa and Adolph Hitler. All that you do, whether "good" or "bad," means nothing.

--then we have no answers for life. Each of us struggles with deep heart questions (Why am I here? Where do I fit in? Who am I?) If there is no ultimate reality or authority for truth, then answering these, or any other questions, becomes impossible.

--there is no hope for improvement. Without absolutes, there can never be anything "better," because "better" and "worse" don't exist. All we are left with is a completely self-based philosophy of life that leads us to hopelessness and despair. We are left with no reason to try and "improve" the world around us other than to make ourselves feel more comfortable. There can be no assurance or meaning, in this life or in the next.

The rejection of absolutes in Western culture has had some very profound implications, as evidenced by this quote from Kingdoms in Conflict (Charles Colson & Ellen Vaughn):

"Why are we surprised that crime soars steadily among juveniles when parents fail to set standards of right behavior in the home, when schoolteachers will not offer a moral opinion in the classroom, either out of fear of litigation or because they cannot 'come from a position of right and wrong,' as one New Jersey teacher put it?

"Why are we horrified at the growing consequences of sexual promiscuity--including a life-threatening epidemic--when sex is treated as casually as going out for a Frosty at Wendy's?

"Why are we shocked at disclosures of religious leaders bilking their ministries of millions when they've been preaching a get-rich-quick gospel all along?

"Why the wonderment over the fact that, for enough dollars or sexual favors, government employees and military personnel sell out their nation's secrets?

"Why is it so surprising that Wall Street yuppies make fast millions on insider trading or tax fraud? Without objective values, the community or one's neighbor has no superior claim over one's own desires.

"Whether we like to hear it or not, we are reaping the consequences of the decades since World War II when we have, in Solzhenitsyn's words, 'forgotten God.' What we are left with is the reign of relativism."