Accepting Relativism as a Universal Fact - Term Paper Example

“There are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false”. Introduction When Eve presented Adam a fruit which was prohibited to them by God, he was confused whether to accept it or not. Even though God instructed him, not to use that fruit, his partner Eve forced him to eat it because of the compulsion from the evil force. The evil force told them that the God denied the luxury of eating that fruit because of the fact that they may acquire power similar to that of God after eating it. Adam was the first one in human history who faced the questions of what is true and what is false. From then onwards, all the human beings irrespective of male or female, whites or blacks and children or adults are facing the above question millions of times in their lives. Religions taught us many lessons about the goods and evils. According to religious principles, certain things are true while certain other things are false. On the other hand, Scientists like Albert Einstein argued that there is nothing absolute in this world and everything is relative. Up to what extent we can distinguish between true and false is a confusing question to many. This paper analyses the claim that “there are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false”. What is true and what is false According to science genius, Albert Einstein, there is nothing absolute in this universe and everything is relative. For example, a person who was weighed 60 kgs on earth; may weigh only 10 kgs on moon. Which is the actual weight of that person; 60 or 10? We know that the person has not changed anything in his mass so that his weight becomes too less on moon. The reduction of weight happened on moon because of the fact that the gravitational force of moon is only 1/6 th that of the earth. In other words, for the same person, 10 kgs is his true weight on moon whereas same 10 kgs may not be his true weight on earth. Suppose that there are some people staying on moon who don’t know anything about earth. If the person who weighed 60 kgs on earth may claim that his actual weight is 60, the inhabitants of moon may not accept it as a truth. In short, the same person may have different weights on different planets and hence there is no point in arguing that his right weight is 60 kgs. His claim might be true on earth, but it might be false on other planets. Einstein pointed out that energy and matter can be interchangeable. What justifies Einstein’s claim is based on his famous theory of relativity and the equation Energy E = mc2 where ‘m’ is the mass and ‘c’ is the velocity of light. He has showed that matter can be converted to energy which is the principle behind atom bomb or nuclear energy. The basic particles of an atom electron, proton and neutron may become energy under suitable conditions. Same energy can be converted into different forms like, heat energy, mechanical energy, electrical energy, sound energy, etc. In short, when electrons, neutrons and protons stay in an atom, it will be matter whereas when it undergoes certain physical activities it will become energy. Then what is the true nature of electrons neutrons and protons? Is it matter or energy? We can conclude that when these things were part of the atom it was matter particles whereas when it comes out from an atom bomb or a nuclear plant, they are energy. Here also we can conclude that the distinction between true and false is feeble. There are many people who questioned the validity of accepting relativism as a universal fact. Douglas Groothuis, Ph. D, a philosophy professor, at Denver Seminary argued that Relativism is self-refuting; it cuts its own throat. The statement, "truth is a matter of personal and cultural values, not a matter of a statements correspondence with objective reality," is a claim about "the ways things are"; that is, it is a truth-claim about objective reality. But this is the very thing it cannot be. If truth is only a function of individual preferences, one cannot escape the prison of subjectivity in order to make objective statements that supposedly apply to all of reality. For these reasons, we can safely say that relativism is false; it does not correspond to reality (Groothuis). So far we have discussed about physical things. Now we can focus our attention to the spiritual things or religious principles. Killing of another person under any circumstances is not allowed or justified under Christian doctrines whereas killing of enemies of Islam is a sacred act for the Muslims. Even Islam does not allow the killing of the innocent people, but killing of nonbelievers or enemies of Islam is justified according to their beliefs. The same act ‘killing’ is perceived differently under different circumstances by the religions; sometimes killing is justified whereas some other times it may not be justified. In short, even religions interpret or perceive same act differently at times or even spirituality accepts the fact that there are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false, at least in some occasions. Majority of the people in the world have some belief in religion and God. But religions are not unique in their interpretation of God or good things and bad things. Christians and Muslims believe in single God theory whereas Hindus believe in multi God theory. Christians and Muslims believe that we have only one life on earth whereas Hindus and Buddhists believe that we have many lives in this earth in order to make us capable of attaining salvation. Christians and Muslims have no problem in practicing non-vegetarianism whereas the Hindus and Buddhists are pure vegetarians. Killing of any other living things are wrong acts according to the beliefs of Hindus and Buddhists whereas Christians and Muslims found no harm in killing animals for their food even though they have different views about the killing of human beings. It is difficult for us to prove that one’s belief is superior to the other because neither of the beliefs proved scientifically. In other words beliefs are relative; same way true and false are also relative. “A recent neuroimaging study reveals that the ability to distinguish true from false in our daily lives involves two distinct processes: Deciding whether a statement is true involves memory; determining one is false relies on reasoning and problem-solving processes” (ScienceDaily). The validity of truth is established with the help of the memory. For example, a child may touch the candle flame because of his unawareness or inexperience or lack of memory about the fact that touching candle flame may result in painful burns. On the other hand, same child will never repeat that act once he suffers burns or pains from candle flame. When he faces a candle flame in future, his memory will prevent him from touching it. Initially he has touched the flame because of his lack of experiences with flame. When we grow up, it is not necessary that we may segregate the good and evils only based on our memory or past experiences. Reasoning and problem solving skills which were developed as part of our development will help us in segregating false things from the good things. But these reasoning and problem solving skills depends on the memory of the person. A person with lack of memory cannot analyze things correctly and take sound decisions. In other words, the two entities; memory and reasoning abilities which help a person in determining what is true and what is false, are interrelated. According to famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle, “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true”(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). In other words, Aristotle argued that it is not is not a correct way to explain a truth. The phrase it is not itself shows that something was there and hence it is false. For example, when we say that moon has no atmosphere, it is true only for moon. But that sentence itself shows that atmosphere is a reality which is stays somewhere in the universe. In short, the above statement is true only for moon but it is false for earth or the universal acceptance of the above statement is impossible. Same statements might be true at one place whereas it might be false at some other places or truth can be fiction at some places whereas the same fictions can be truth at other places. Conclusions It is difficult to conclude that there are no absolute distinctions between what is true and what is false because the terms like true and false are highly subjective. It is fact that we driven by physical as well as spiritual things. Even science cannot deny the fact that some energy forms; spirit or soul drive us. Our life is a combination of spiritual and physical things. While there may not be any distinction between true and false in the physical world, same thing cannot be said about it in the spiritual world. Works Cited 1. Groothuis, Douglas Ph. D. 2002. “What is Truth?”. 2 September 2010. 2. ScienceDaily. June 19, 2009. “How We Recognize What Is True And What Is False”. 2 September 2010. 3. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009. “The Correspondence Theory of Truth”. 2 September 2010. Read More