Darn it, at some point everyone must choose!

I have been blogging about the challenge of absolute truth versus the prevailing cultural winds of relativism, where truth is subjective and up to individual interpretation. Even if you believe truth is relative and open to individual interpretation, there remains the challenge when two paths produce outcomes that contradict each other. That is, if one is true, then the other cannot be. 

For example, if someone tells me I can make ice by freezing water and someone else says I can make ice by boiling water, both cannot be right. So even if you are a relativist and believe people can choose the worldview that best fits them, you would still have a significant challenge in evaluating competing worldviews to determine which one is true for you.

What makes selecting among multiple alternatives even more challenging is that sometimes the choice among options is preferential and sometimes is competing. The choices of turning water to ice compete because one is right and the other wrong. Suppose there are two routes you can take to town from your home and each takes the same amount of time. Then the route you pick is called your preference because both get the same outcome. When two alternatives produce the same result, then your choice is call preferential. When two alternatives cannot both produce the same outcome, then your alternatives compete. When choice is competitive, then you must select the only one that is true to get the outcome you desire.

As we have discussed it is often easier to determine what is true in the physical world, like using a compass to find north. Likewise, we can get closer to truth about the body because the body is observable. We can experiment with the body to find it needs air, water and certain kinds of nourishment. While there are many things we do not know that makes the body well, like cures for cancer, we have generally accepted scientific practices to find and agree on which approach is true and we can align our lives, like diet and exercise, to those truths.

It gets more difficult to know which competing worldviews is true when it comes to matters of the soul and spirit because we cant observe these with physical senses. Throughout history theologians, philosophers, anthropologists, and other experts have made little if any progress to settle on what is true about creation, life, death, and eternity. When these debates involve competing worldviews where the two sides of a debate cannot both be true, even the relativist must pick.

Often stories are used by those in authority to communicate to others what they believe is the truth about the soul and spirit. However, in stories we must rely on the story teller for their concept of truth, and all story tellers do not agree. Lets illustrate this worldview challenge with two stories where if you believe the truth of one, you cannot the other and vice versa. 

The first example is a story about how a young man found abundant and virtuous life through extraordinary personal effort based on wisdom he receives from the King. In these stories the King is a supernatural being with wisdom and power. The theme in each story is not only about how to become perfect or righteous but also what we believe about the nature of the King’s power in that process. 

“once there was a successful business man who had 2 grandsons. The oldest grandson had gained the highest level of perfection or the highest level of abundant and virtuous life by his righteous living. The younger grandson, however, had been cast out because his life was highly flawed. He had offenses against the righteous people of his community. The younger grandson was depressed because he desired to be considered a righteous one but had remained a common man because of his offenses. 

Hearing of this man’s desire to overcome his flawed status and become righteous, the King, who had supernatural wisdom and insight, told him to persist at doing a few rituals. First, he was to sit outside the place where the righteous people gathered, face the east, and rub himself continually with a cloth the King gave him. While performing this ritual he was also to continually repeat the phrase “taking off impurities.” Soon the cloth became soiled with the impurities coming out from within the man. Through his supernatural power, the King then appeared to the man in a vision and said, 'the piece of cloth is not dirty only from the dust of the ground, but from the dust within yourself. In you are the dust of passion, the dust of ill-will, and the dust of ignorance of truth. Only by removing these can you achieve your goal, become righteous, and attain the perfected state of an abundant and virtuous life.' The man understood the message and continued meditating and in a short while became perfect, gaining extraordinary knowledge and mental powers. The King was often found giving an account of this young man’s achievements to other righteous ones in his kingdom reminding them that whoever is diligent and steadfast in his striving will certainly attain perfection."

Lets contrast this popular story that many people in many lands across the years have accepted as truth about living a blessed life with another ageless story of a woman who also found the blessed life, but in a different and opposite way.

"There was a King who had supernatural powers but was not well known and trusted by His subjects. He decided to send His son into His kingdom so everyone could see what a kind and generous King He was. His plan was to use a virgin girl and impregnate her so His son could be born by her and live among the people as one of them. He would be human for a time like them but would possess the King’s virtues so the humans could see Him better. Hopefully this would make his subjects adore and trust Him more. So He selects a virgin of his choice and appears to her in a vision telling her of His plan. The girl was fearful and anxious at first, but felt privileged that the King had chosen her for this part of his plan. Her life became very difficult. She was engaged at the time and had to endure the scorn of being pregnant and not married. All through her son’s life he was both admired and despised. His claims to be the King’s son irritated, threatened, and angered earthly authorities. Ultimately the woman witnessed the unjust persecution of her son by the earthly authorities, even to the point of them executing her son just because he claimed to be the King’s son. She lived a life with difficult circumstances, yet she is known even today for the song in her heart about how blessed she was."

This woman’s song gave her testimony about the truth of her abundant and virtuous life. She was blessed not because of what she did, but because of what was bestowed on her willfully by King. She loved and trusted the King and so she was made righteous by receiving his actions on her behalf, not by her own efforts of striving to be perfect.

Here we have two stories, both about how someone became righteous or perfect through interaction with a supernatural power. The King came to each person in a vision, but the message was different. In the first story the message was wisdom the man needed on how he could attain perfection through his own efforts. The second was about how the woman was made righteous or gained perfection not by anything she could do for herself, but by an action of the King. Two stories, both convey a truth about attaining the abundant and virtuous life. Yet the truths are not preferential because they contradict each other. In one case, perfection comes from a person’s extraordinary effort based on wisdom received from a King that had supernatural wisdom, but no will or power to bestow righteousness on the man. In the other case, blessing came by receiving and trusting the extraordinary actions of a super natural being who had the will and power to make the woman righteous.

Finding truth in what someone tells us can be a challenge. Regardless of whether you believe truth is relative or absolute, you have to pick between two options when they contradict each other to get the outcome you want. Yet, you cannot rely on scientific experiment. Even the relativist must have faith in the story teller and ultimately must choose. Darn it!!