A Healthy Skepticism

In a recent blog, I described why our desires for a universal ethics are problematic. Often when I make that point in a seminar setting, folks start to squirm, and eventually someone, perhaps with frustration in her voice, will ask, “So you are saying there’s no such thing as universal truth?

Through the years, I’ve learned that it’s difficult for many adults to distinguish between things we claim to be true (e.g., universal truth) and laws we take to be universally applicable (e.g., the Ten Commandments). In my teaching, I carefully make this distinction by carving out principles from the actions which follow from them.

Universal ethics are problematic precisely because to declare them universal requires us to say our context is immaterial, and yet the factors that universal ethics would have us ignore can be decisive in our discerning the good. I gave the example of navigating a mountain which changes over time. While we prudently follow the well-worn paths trod by our ancestors, there are times when the most important ethical action requires us to detour from those paths in order to avoid brambles and other perils we encounter on our particular journey. Context matters.

The frowns I see in seminars arise from confusion over principles and actions. The real anxiety is, “Is my teacher saying there is no such thing as objective truth?”

That’s an anxious question in our time because, toward the end of the 20th century, we re-discovered sophistry.

The ancient Sophists taught there is no such thing as absolute truth. Everything is relative. As Protagoras taught, truth is in the eye of the beholder, subjective. What’s true for you may not be true for me.

The bad news is that sophistry is now seen in parts of our society as the epitome of the open mind. A sophisticated person will bend over backwards to show how tolerant she is of your claims, especially as you describe yourself.

An outstanding example of this sophistry arose in recent discussions about bathroom usage by transgender persons. If I stand before you, apparently a middle-age white adult male, and claim to be a six-year-old, 6’ 5” Chinese female, who are you to deny my self-description? What if I insist upon being admitted as a first grade student with your child?

Watch this video to see how 2016 college students struggled to hold onto their implicit assumption that there is no such thing as objective truth.

What say you?

In my experience, sophistry such as we witness on the video arises from an unhealthy skepticism, masquerading as open-mindedness. This particular skepticism is unhealthy because it’s ultimately grounded in the fear of being revealed a fool. Assaulted by a cacophony of claims in our contentious world, how can I know what’s true? Rather than being proven a fool, far better to dismiss the possibility of objective truth and attack as bigots those who claim otherwise.

Yet there is a healthy skepticism, a recognition of the crucial difference between objective truth and our grasp of it.

Quite simply, we are not God. To be human is to be finite, which is to say that the most we can do is catch glimpses of the Truth with eyes clouded by human frailty. Some things are simply beyond our human comprehension (Job 38:1–11).

Furthermore, even when objective truth confronts me, I’m blinded by passions, fear, and insecurities — by pride, lust, and sometimes sloth. We humans are masters of self-deception.

A healthy skepticism does not deny the reality of objective truth, but honestly names and considers the potential impacts of our human weakness. It never forgets that, right now, we see things “as through a glass, darkly” (1 Cor 13:12).

Eternal truth is real, though an asymptote we approach but never quite reach. Our cosmological and theological claims are therefore always mere approximations, demanding humility. The wise walk humbly. For when we follow the trails trod by our ancestors, we don’t banish uncertainty; we prudentially assume that the courses trod by great masses of forbears are probably true. When necessary, based on timely information, we correct our course.

Our skepticism becomes absurd when generalized to the things of everyday comprehension. An open mind is not empty, and doesn’t pretend to be. Our reason is imperfect, but apt.

Saying that I am 7’ tall does not make me taller, just as asserting that I weigh what I weighed in college does not change my belt size. Our grasp of the concrete realities of our world is imperfect, but historically it has been sufficient for us to live boldly. We’ve even sent probes beyond Mars!

We have cause to reason with confidence. When a short white adult male stands before us claiming to be a six-year-old 6’5 Chinese woman, we need not flee to sophistry.

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