That's True For You But Not For Me

I've read a book by Paul Copan titled True for You, But Not for Me.  It looks at some of the common objections to Christianity and how to answer them.  I thought I'd start blogging on some of these objections raised in the book.  These objections are covered in many other great books, blogs, podcasts, and articles too so much of what I'll write will be based on this book as well as other great resources I've come across.

What is Truth?
The idea that we each define our own truth is prevalent in our society.  We all have our own opinions but opinions are not necessarily the same as the truth.  Truth is an idea or description that matches with how things really are.  Truth exists whether our opinion matches it or not.  Truth is something that we discover not something we create for ourselves.   For instance at one time it was thought that the sun revolved around the earth and it was later discovered that wasn’t true.  No matter what was thought about the sun and earth’s orbit it was never true that that sun revolved around the earth.

Truth is Not Ice Cream
My favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla (yeah, I know pretty plain, but I love it).  Is it true that vanilla is the best flavor of ice cream over all other flavors?  You may agree with me but we all know people who have a different favorite flavor or even, gasp, don’t like ice cream at all!  So is it true or false that vanilla is the best flavor of ice cream?  It’s an odd question because this is truly subjective (relative) to the person answering the question.  In fact you might say it’s my opinion that vanilla is the best ice cream flavor but it’s not yours.  It’s a subjective claim because it’s dependent on the subject (me in this case).  Subjective claims are not true or false.

Taking another look at ice cream though what if I were to say, “Vanilla ice cream cures cancer.”  You probably wouldn’t agree with my statement and even if you did that wouldn’t make it true. Imagine if someone responded to me by saying, “Well, it might be true for you that vanilla ice cream cures cancer but it’s not true for me.”  You'd think both participants in the conversation were probably just a little off center.  Why?  Because we know objectively that vanilla ice cream does not cure cancer no matter what I might think.  Objective claims are either true or false.

Contradicting Statements
Suppose someone from New York said, “New Yorkers are all liars and you can’t trust them.”  The person claiming to tell the truth about New Yorkers is contradicting themselves.  They are saying what I say is true, I’m a liar.  Kind of like saying “Don’t believe a word I say.”  In the same way the relativist’s statement “That’s true for you but not for me” contradicts itself.  They are making an absolute truth statement that applies to everyone that no truth applies to everyone.   This statement self destructs under its own weight, which makes it a useless statement.  If claims are only true for each person then why should I accept the relativists view and not my own?  The question to ask then is, “Is that true?” or “Are you asking me to accept that statement as true for everyone or is that just your own view?”

Truth is important and truth can be objectively known.  Believing something that is not true can have small consequences like believing the sun revolves around the earth.  You might get embarrassed and be seen as a dope if you say that but you probably won’t die from believing this.  But believing that fire won’t burn you could have very real and devastating consequences including death.  So when someone says, “Christianity is true for you but not for me” it’s not a subjective (relative) claim that Christianity makes, it’s an objective (absolute) claim.  Objective claims can and should be backed up by evidence and reason.  Either Christianity is true or false but it’s not both because Biblical Christianity is not ice cream.

Other Resources
The "truth is not ice cream" is something developed by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason.  He gives a good talk on it titled “Truth is Not Cream, Faith is not Wishing” available on STRs website on CD, MP3, or PDF.