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Relative Truth, Postmodernism and Airplanes

While it is popular to tout the idea that truth is relative, I have found that in the nitty-gritty of life, most people don’t really live out that philosophy. This is especially the case in my neck of the words – NASA. Michael Green’s words to apologists who only seek to deal with those who hold that perspective has some words of wisdom:

Despite the seductions of advertisement and films which imply or proclaim the deconstruction of all truths and the subjective nature of all value judgments, a great many people are unimpressed by the cult of virtual reality, the preference for image over substance and the supposed collapse of truth into relativism. They still believe in the law of noncontradiction, and in an objective substructure to morals. The bulwark for this commonsense realism is the natural sciences. You will not persuade the physicist that truth claims are merely power games, or that the laws of nature are a subjective chimera. Richard Dawkins said, “Show me a cultural relativist at 30,000 feet and I will show you a hypocrite. Airplanes built according to scientific principles work.”

Christian apologists who direct all their powder and shot exclusively towards dealing with postmodernist concerns are going to miss out on a lot of ordinary people, and will be foolish to do so. (Adventure of Faith, Reflections on 50 years of Christian Service)

Yancey Arrington
Dr. Yancey C. Arrington is an eighth generation Texan, Acts 29 Network and Houston Church Planting Network fan, and Teaching Pastor at Clear Creek Community Church in the Bay Area of Houston. He is also author of Preaching That Moves People and TAP: Defeating the Sins That Defeat You, and periodically writes for Acts 29 and The Gospel Coalition.

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