absolute truth

does it exist? in the postmodern world there has been a fairly universal rejection of absolute truth. truth has become a matter of opinion, or merely reduced to a reaction to one's experiences.

This is not because postmodern folk inherently hate anything absolute, it is because they know how limited we are in philosophical functioning, and how quickly we become set in our beliefs, willing to defend them to the death at the expense of healthy debate.

I have come to question many of the "absolute truths" of christianity lately. I haven't found these questions detrimental to my faith, but rather invigorating. Heaven, Hell, inerrency of scripture, salvation...

I don't choose not to believe in any of these things, I choose to realize I have little knowledge of them, and that they are only a part of the larger truth.

Let's examine the inerrency of scripture: mainstream christianity claims the authority of scripture from 2nd timothy 3:16 (all scripture is god-breathed). The academic world has laughed for centuries at the circularity of this argument. Either way, if we look at the actual circumstances, a letter from Paul, telling his pal Tim the secrets of ministry, we have a few more questions. What is the scripture that paul mentions, what scripture would have been aroudn at the time, he most certainly did not mean the bible we have today, unless he was prophesying it because many of the contents of our bible would not have been written at this time (while they would have for the most part existed somehow in oral form, scripture does mean written).

There are also small inconsistencies in the bible. Mainstream christianity attempts to reconcile many of these inconsistencies, which just shows an unwillingness to look at the issue as a big picture.

Mainstream (read: Western) christianity has turned religion into a very individual, personal, extra-contextual, bible obsessed, self help program.

When i see inconsistencies in the text, i explore them if they have any significance, if they dont seem to, i forget them.

Origen, an early third century church father (the time when scripture was being formalized), had some interesting thoughts on scripture. He believed that in scripture we find all meaningful truths for life and plenty of inconsistencies, contradictions, and inaccuracies. He said truth is NOT factual knowledge, but knowledge of Christ (sounds pretty anti-systematic theology). He thought that the inconsistencies in the text helped push us past a surface-only reading of the text and into a deeper study of the meaning.

I guess it all comes down to this. Are we going to keep holding on, keep building our walls around our faith and hiding behind them? Or are we going to open ourselves to the attacks of the world, the attacks of pagans, the attacks of ourselves?

When we ask these questions we don't chip away at our faith, we chip away at the crap that we have layered over it. Meaningful and intelligent discussion is the refiner's fire of Malachi.

All truth is from god, or even IS god. If i am searching for god (truth) then I will find it (him); in the mountains, in the cosmos, in books (including scripture), in churches, and in the gutters.

What is important is not where i search, for god created everything and therefore his mystery is revealed everywhere. What is important is that i AM searching. I am sharpening my iron against the iron of others. That i engage my own mind in meaningful questions and discussion about god. If we don't seek him we won't every truly find him, and if we just listen to mainstream religion, we aren't seeking.



Sorry this was so scatterbrained, it might become more organized in the coming week. and please, for the love of god (literally) engage me on the subject.