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apologetics, faith, hope, humor, insanitybytes22, love, objective truth, opinion, subjective truth
A simple explanation of “objective” versus “subjective” is to be found here “An objective perspective is one that is not influenced by emotions, opinions, or personal feelings – it is a perspective based in fact, in things quantifiable and measurable. A subjective perspective is one open to greater interpretation based on personal feeling, emotion, aesthetics, etc”
Objective truth is the bane of my existence. All in good humor here, but perhaps it is the bane of everyone’s existence. I speak however, of conversation styles, faith, and the ancient Greeks, philosophers who taught us how to think.
So what is my beef with objective truth? Well people, often men, tend to claim they have found it, they have reasoned their way to it through logic, falsification, and reduction. That’s charming, I don’t mind such games at all, my problem begins when someone announces having arrived at Absolute Truth… and it is ME. Ah, yes, ego pride, self-absorption. See, if someone says, I know Absolute Truth, I am prone to say, “Ahhh, so you’ve met the Lord! Is He not the most beautiful ever? Can you feel Him, smell His fragrance? Doesn’t the sweetness of His grace just permeate every bit of your being?”
And then comes my crushing realization that they really haven’t met the Lord at all and my heart just sinks….
I know, I know, it’s very feminine perspective, subjective, melodramatic even, but it is what it is.
One issue is the idea that, “I have detached myself from emotion, opinions, and feelings and established the truth and nature of some thing.” In this case I am speaking of relationships between men and women. Do men not often have trouble seeing the nature of themselves? So do women, but my point being, some men often believe themselves to be in possession of logic and reason….. while women are just crazy. Emotional. Irrational. Subjective and foolish.
You don’t have to walk the planet very long to see that deception, the lie entwined in that one. What some declare to be my logic, my reason, is so enmeshed with emotions, feelings, and opinions, it is quite convoluted. All in good humor here, but if you ever doubt that, question someone about their Absolute Truth and you will soon discover some feelings there. One’s Absolute Truth often has a way of confirming one’s own bias and opinions, so nothing more than confirmation bias masked as logic and reason.
I suspect this has a whole lot to do with biological gender differences and culture. I for example have the freedom to simply declare, “I feel like it,” or “my emotional state has led me to these conclusions.” We seldom extend that same kind of grace to men, our culture discourages men from getting in touch with their feelings, and perhaps biology leads them to be slightly less inclined to do so, too. Just the same, men actually do have emotions, opinions, or personal feelings.
They often scream out at me from the midst of your alleged Absolute Truth, just begging, begging I tell you, to be recognized and acknowledged. Don’t be one of those Stoics, emotions and feelings all denied and repressed, it leads to early heart attacks, depression, and suicide. It also blocks one from truly knowing and experiencing Jesus Christ. He is the passion of the Christ, the lover of our souls.
I’m not quite sure which of our Greek or Latin forefathers decided that apologetics should involve Absolute Truth as if one can just reason their way to God based on nothing more than human logic, but if I ever meet up with them, I plan to pour out some feelz all over them.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
“See, if someone says, I know Absolute Truth, I am prone to say, “Ahhh, so you’ve met the Lord! Is He not the most beautiful ever? Can you feel Him, smell His fragrance? Doesn’t the sweetness of His grace just permeate every bit of your being?”
Brilliant!
Btw, my wife is much more logical and analytical than I am. She’s also better at relationships and being intuitive…Hmmmm…I know I’m better at something, just can’t remember what right now. :).
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Somehow, I don’t think there’s a basis for any insecurity on your part here, Mel. Naturally, that’s just my feeling…
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Ha! Thanks, but you haven’t heard my wife yet. She’s amazing. 🙂
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Don’t take this as an insult, but this is a thoroughly postmodern post. It was the modern philosophers, beginning with Descartes, who believed that truth could be found in reason, logic, and the pursuit of absolute truth. Many of them reasoned themselves into Deism, removing from their faith any belief in miracles and any relationship with a Personal God. We Postmodern Christians trust that God reaches us through his Word and in his Church, but we accept that we see in a glass dimly and that some of the things we think we know are probably wrong. J.
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No offense taken, Salvageable. You’ll notice I blog “See there’s this thing called biology,” almost in defiance of extreme post modernism, what some would call posthumanism or eventually cyborgism. I happen to be fond of biology, tradition, natural law perhaps, and when we get too far out into subjective reality, the only logical conclusion is to merge man with machines or “improve” on humankind in some new and gruesome way. That is something that often lurks behind my heart in these debates.
It all comes back to faith, we people believing ourselves to be superior to God, become like little gods ourselves, eventually deciding we can improve upon His creation, including our very own design. We’re now entering this brave new world in many new and scary ways. We people are not defined by our capacity for reason or logic, we have spirits, higher selves. The objectivists often forget that, actually frowning on the very things that make us human. When these human things are no longer valued, well, that’s when we start receiving our “upgrades.”
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It does come down to faith. Soren Kierkegaard has been accused of moral relativism for saying that truth is subjective, not objective. He was, however, using the word the same way you use it. If you have no relationship to the truth, if you merely study it coldly and analytically, then truth means nothing to you. A passionate relationship with the Truth is what the Truth requires. J.
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I appreciate your perspective and agree with it in essence. However, the emphasis placed upon ABSOLUTE TRUTH is divisive by nature regardless of male or female physiology. I am quite sure you know this, no sarcasm intended. But I must contend that the identification of, and right recognition of, Jesus Christ as THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH when realized through a properly conducted objective research remains THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
The ideological problem with such a reality being the product of mere subjective analysis is that feelings and emotions are subject to a perpetual state of flux, which can too easily change – thereby rendering truth as theory or opinion rather than established fact.
This is a great topic that begs for an ABSOLUTE remedy. I have written more about it in an article @ https://mjthompsons.wordpress.com/true-objectivity/ —- As always, peace and blessings to you!
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Thank you for that link, I enjoyed reading it. I really liked your closing paragraph, “Approaching a righteous answer to these important questions must be somewhat subjective in an initial investigation, but ultimately must produce a perpetual conviction based solely upon the results of a truly objective search for truth.”
There is some harmony and balance needed between subjective and objective truth and that is something I really enjoy exploring in faith. This time of year is a great example, we tend to focus on giving, gifts and spending that is all about the alleged “objective truth” of our love for others. In reality however, I think we are really called to subjectively receive a Savior. We receive grace, we receive salvation, subjectively because it is something that must be personal and internalized. Objectively we have evidence before us, the Babe in the manager, but we must subjectively receive the gift.
I used to really dislike advent and Christmas and could never really put my finger on it until I began to understand subjective and objective reality. The world tends to do things completely backwards, so while it is certainly a good thing to give and to be generous, it sometimes distracts us from the fact that this time of year is really all about receiving a priceless gift, with humility and some genuine subjectivity.
Long story short,I can now spend all year giving,but Christmas becomes a time of receiving, our Savior for sure, but also just receiving the sights and smells that go along with the season. I used to be one of those crazy people running about consumed by give,give,give, and stressed out by trying to make everything perfect. Today I can just breath it all in.
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Thank you, sister! Truly, balance is needed to keep from falling on one side of the line or the other. The straight and narrow is rather subjective with a clearly definitive width perhaps known only to God. Balance goes hand-in-hand with tolerance, but scripture admonishes that abominations should never be tolerated.
Thankfully, part of the benefit derived from knowing ABSOLUTE TRUTH (Christ) is the freedom from such, NOT the permission to indulge in such. But the wonderful irony of THAT is the grace of God which covers even that subjectivity. God bless you always!
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I truly enjoyed reading this and posted it on my Facebook.
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Thank for reading and for posting. Much appreciated.
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When we discover a lie, it’s often easier to claim we have found Truth than it is to accept we’ve disproven one tiny piece of Nontruth. For instance, it is a lie that saturated fat is inherently bad for you. Thus, it is true that saturated fat is not inherently bad for you. But it is not Truth, it’s just a small sample of reality. Where to go from there is up to you.
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It’s for this reason that I’m drawn to the study of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics just throws all conventional reason and human intuition out the window. Whaa? I can know how fast a particle is going but not where it is? We’re all made up of 99 percent empty space? Light can act as a wave and a particle? This field of science is so full of wonderful paradoxes that somehow work. Even the smartest of physicists cannot fully wrap their heads around why it works. The “absolute truth” is there, but we cannot grasp it in its entirety. It’s very humbling, and I think God made the universe this way to tease us. 🙂
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