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The Scriptures warn that "there is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death" (Prov. 14:12). Our postmodern culture celebrates "relativism," or the spurious notion that there is no such thing as objectively knowable truth... Apart from the self-contradiction that arises by saying that it is (objectively) true that there is no objective truth, the unthinking acceptance of this sophistical perspective leads to mindlessness, the lack of creativity, moral stupidity, apathy, and delusional thinking. Popular culture inculcates and preaches there are no moral absolutes and therefore terms like "right" and "wrong," "just" and "unjust," "true" and "untrue" should (ahem) be translated as expressions of subjective preference without any reference to moral categories or structures that extend beyond the individual (or a particular "group"). According to this backwards view, Mother Theresa was no better a person than was Adolf Hitler; and therefore genocide, slavery, murder, and so on, are "lifestyle choices" that express individual or collective preference, but nothing else. Indeed such a viewpoint claims there is no way to infer an "ought" from an "is" (no "prescription" from "description") and therefore assigning moral praise, blame or responsibility is ultimately meaningless.
Understand, then, that the uncritical acceptance of epistemological and moral relativism stifles the life of the mind by implying that there is no difference between truth and error, between good and evil, between beauty and ugliness, between logical and illogical thinking, and so on. It is therefore a form of insanity, or deranged thinking. However, since language and meaning are necessarily grounded in logic, naive relativism is ultimately unintelligible and incommunicable, since logic assumes that meaning and rules of inference serve as the conditions of any expression of thought. I share this to point out that the thinking of our culture is not based on careful reflection or reasoning but is essentially a matter of brute force, and therefore it is rightly to be regarded as irrationalism, an implied appeal to violence, and depraved thinking. Of course this sort of relativism is a very useful indoctrination technique regularly used by political agitators, the mass media, by government propagandists, con artists, and by all those who rely on dimwitted people to manipulate and control. Therefore the thoughtful person of truth, that is, the person of genuine moral conviction derived from intuitive axioms of reasoning, will always be regarded as an enemy to those who live and practice the lie.
יֵשׁ דֶּרֶךְ יָשָׁר לִפְנֵי־אִיש
וְאַחֲרִיתָהּ דַּרְכֵי־מָוֶת
yesh · de'·rekh · yah·shar · leef·ney-eesh
ve·a·cha·ree·tah · dar·khei - ma'·vet
"There is a way that seems right to a person,
but its end is the way to death."
(Prov. 14:12)
Martin Buber once said, "What is accomplished through lies can assume the mask of truth; what is accomplished through violence can go in the guise of justice, and for a while the hoax may be successful. But soon people realize that lies are lies at bottom, that violence is violence - and that both lies and violence will suffer the destiny history has in store for all that is false." As Yeshua himself said, "For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world -- to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice" (John 18:37). "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the Tree of Life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are all those who love and practice the lie..." (Rev. 22:14-15).
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