Defending the Notion of Absolute Truth

I attended a lecture by Dr. Ravi Zacharias Friday, Nov. 13th, at the University of Utah. His lecture was entitled The Basis for Truth: Defending the Notion of Absolute Truth. He was clear, supported his positions well with outside sources, and logically illustrated his points. He was also very funny. He has gone around the world seeking to understand the other religions and philosophies to better present the truth to others and to present Jesus as the truth. Christianity challenges a persons world view, especially those outside our culture. Yet, now our culture's world view is becoming pluralistic.

I found it inspiring and challenging. It is easy to talk with like-minded people. It is harder to talk with those who think differently than you, especially when they communicate emotionally or denigratingy. I often hear things that are not the truth, but am so distracted by the alarms going off in my head that I cannot fully articulate the truth at the time. It isn't until later that I think of how I could have presented a coherent and reasonable counter-point. I suppose it is a step in the direction of being able to do so.

There were 3 interesting points to his lecture:

1. Secularism leads to no morality (, absolutes, or truth). He defined it as the process of removing religion from social significance.
2. Pluralism, when taken to the extreme of moral relativism, leads to no reason. Pluralism is good, but can be bad if reason is abandoned or unanchored. Each person is equal, but not every idea is.
3. Privatization leads to no meaning. He defined it as the removal of morality from public discourse and relegating it to only the private experience.

Now obviously, this is a little succinct for a 2-hour lecture. However, we will leave this as a teaser for upcoming postings since I will be getting the DVD of the lectures and can make more concise notes.