Terminology Tuesday: Correspondence Theory of Truth

Correspondence Theory of Truth: Most natural and widely held view of propositional truth, which holds that a proposition is true if it corresponds to or agrees with reality. The core of the correspondence theory of truth is the commonsense notion that the truth or falsity of a proposition is determined by an independent reality. Thus this view of truth is linked to metaphysical realism. When developed beyond this commonsense notion of truth (for example, by the metaphysical postulation of a realm of facts corresponding to propositions), the correspondence theory becomes controversial. Its major rivals are the coherentist and pragmatic theories of truth, which tie truth closely to human thinking and human acting, respectively.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 28.

Blaise Pascal on Truth

“Truth is so obscured nowadays and lies [are] so well established that unless we love the truth we shall never recognize it.”

- Blaise Pascal

Do You Really Want Answers? by Everett Piper

More than sixty years ago, in The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis challenged Christian scholars to enter the “town square” and the “market place of ideas.” He argued that if we failed to do so, we would become “men without chests:” a culture of heartless people satisfied with our own subjectivity and divorced from any common agreement of what is right and wrong; a culture of disconnected individuals who care little for what is immutable and enduring, accurate or true. Lewis warned of a time when life’s big questions would lie fallow in a field of disingenuous inquiry, where shallow people with shallow minds would have little interest in a harvest of meaningful and objective answers.

Today is a time of big questions:

• Life: When does it begin, and when does it end, and who has the right to define it and take it?
• Global warming: Is its premise scientific, political, principled or pragmatic?
• Sexuality: What is healthy and best for our bodies, our souls, our families and our society?
• Tolerance: Are all worldviews epistemologically, ontologically and morally equal, or are some philosophies and religions simply better and more accurate than others?
• Marriage: Should its definition be God’s or the government’s?
• Justice: If radical Darwinism and moral neutrality are true, isn’t the concept of justice rather arbitrary and meaningless? The strong should subdue the weak and the “fittest” should survive, shouldn’t they?  If we are all nothing more than the products of happenstance and chance then there is no reason to object to those with power prevailing over those without it.  In fact, in such a world, all “morality” is really nothing more than the imposition of bourgeois rules upon the oppressed proletariat. Right?

Doug Groothuis on Biblical Truth

"Without a thorough and deeply rooted understanding of the biblical view of truth as revealed, objective, absolute, universal, eternally engaging, antithetical and exclusive, unified and systematic, and as an end in itself, the Christian response to postmodernism will be muted by the surrounding culture or will make illicit compromises with the truth-impoverished spirit of the age. The good news is that truth is still truth, that it provides a backbone for witness and ministry in postmodern times, and that God's truth will never fail."

—Douglas Groothuis

Truth Decay, p. 81-82.

Book Review: Truth Matters by Tom Gender

Tom Gender and his book Truth Matters was brought to this reviewer's attention just a few months ago. The opportunity came to receive a copy and review the book, which was gladly accepted. Excitement built after just reading the introduction and the preface. This review is designed to be a chapter-by-chapter summary to give the reader a mere taste of the content of each chapter. The reviewer's thoughts will be offered at the end of the summary. The book is 307 pages, divided into five sections. It has one appendix and an index of terms.

Preface
Before diving into the main reason for writing this book, Tom Gender provides a good worldview and logic primer for the reader to assist in properly evaluating his evidence and arguments. He begins with a quick overview of worldviews and their relationship to truth. He goes over the different general worldviews, the importance of testing each one for truth, and four different tests for truth. In the worldviews, he covers everything from atheism to panentheism. In the section on logic, he looks at three different ways to reason, then he finally proposes four different tests for discovering truth. He explains each of their strengths and weaknesses, emphasizing that all the tests must be used in tandem to keep the weaknesses in check.

Book Review: Why It Doesn't Matter What YOU Believe If It’s Not True by Stephen McAndrew

This reviewer is always on the look out for books that take different apologetic issues and puts them into bite-sized chunks that a complete beginner can understand and begin interacting with. That task is quite difficult because many authors take concepts and mutilate them in such a way that the beginner would actually be more confused than when they began.

The opportunity was given a while back to review a copy of Stephen McAndrew's new book Why It Doesn't Matter What YOU Believe If It’s Not True. The book is a short read of only 86 pages. The eleven chapters break up the short book into sections that are extremely manageable for those with only spurts of time to read or need time to digest. This format holds much promise to being a great introductory book. But does it come through?

How to Be a Morally Responsible Skeptic MP3 Audio by Dallas Willard

Philosopher Dallas Willard makes the case that disbelief is not a stance to be taken lightly. Individuals have a responsibility to assume the burden of proof for their disbelief. Dallas Willard died on May 8, 2013 and will be missed by many. Find his books here.

Full MP3 Audio here. (from Veritas)

Enjoy.

Terminology Tuesday: Coherence Theory of Truth

Coherence theory of truth: A theory of knowledge that asserts that a given proposition or statement is true when it is consistent within a larger set of propositions also taken to be true. If propositions come into conflict (are contradictory), it is assumed that either one or both of the propositions is false. The weakness of the coherence theory of truth is that there can be no proof of the "starting point" of the "first proposition" of a belief system; instead, such a system of beliefs is usually accepted on the basis that it is self-evidently true.1

1. Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki & Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p. 27.

C.S. Lewis on the Question of Truth

‎"One of the greatest difficulties is to keep before the audience's mind the question of Truth. They always think you are recommending Christianity not because it is true, but because it is good. And in the discussion they will at every moment try to escape from the issue ‘True-or False’ into stuff about a good society, or morals, or incomes of Bishops, or the Spanish inquisition, or France, or Poland—or anything whatever. You have to keep forcing them back, and again back, to the real point. Only thus you will be able to undermine...their belief that a certain amount of ‘religion’ is desirable but one mustn't carry it too far. One must keep on pointing out that Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important."

—C.S. Lewis
God in the Dock, 1945, p. 101. [HT: Arthur K]

Review: Why It Doesn't Matter What You Believe If It's Not True: Is There Absolute Truth? by Stephen McAndrew

This reviewer is always on the look out for books that take different apologetic issues and put them into bite-sized chunks that a complete beginner can understand and begin interacting with. That task is quite difficult because many authors take concepts and mutilate them in such a way that the beginner would actually be more confused than when they began.

The opportunity was given a while back to review a copy of Stephen McAndrew's new book Why It Doesn't Matter What YOU Believe If It’s Not True. The book is a short read of only 86 pages. The eleven chapters break up the short book into sections that are extremely manageable for those with only spurts of time to read or need time to digest. This format holds much promise to being a great introductory book. But does it come through?

Sir Robert Anderson on Reason and Truth

"[W]hile Divine truth is spiritual, and can only be spiritually discerned, human error is natural, and can be met on its own ground. We cannot “reason” men into the kingdom of God, but by reasoning we can expose errors which prejudice them against it."

- Sir Robert Anderson, The Bible and Modern Criticism, 5th ed. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1905), p. 27

[HT: Tim McGrew]

Sunday Quote: Blaise Pascal on Knowing Truth

“We know truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them.”

- Blaise Pascal, Pensées (110) / 28

Sunday Quote: Pascal on Being Mistaken

"I should be much more afraid of being mistaken and then finding out that Christianity is true than of being mistaken in believing it to be true."

- Blaise Pascal in Pensées (386 /241)

Sunday Quote: Pascal on Truth

"We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart."

- Blaise Pascal