Time for Truth – Who Can We Really Trust?












            ******************************************************************************************

            * Time for Truth – Who Can We Really Trust?
            ******************************************************************************************
            Os Guinness is an author and social critic who gave a talk at the Faculty of Arts of Charl

            Monday 6th November 2017 with the sole topic of ‘the truth’ and what role it can play in m
            What the description of the event and the beginning of the talk both shared in common was 
            the history of the speaker and on the history of the subject matter. Throughout the talk t

            to be a vital element as, Mr Guinness suggested, it is only through our history we can see
            importance and freeing power of ‘the truth’ and thus find its value today.
            Opening the talk with his thoughts and respect for the Czech people regarding the fall of 

            Velvet Revolution, Guinness quickly outlined what he saw as the need for truth: that it is
            movement aiming to beak a regime of oppression. What stuck out about this stance, and inde

            the talk, was perhaps that it called for the audience to question how much truth we really
            society. With the emergence of ‘fake news’ and the ‘post-truth era’, the lecture seemed to
            is important that we look at ourselves and redefine how much the truth is really prevalent

            Seemingly in seeking to further this goal, the lecture was interestingly partnered with an
            by John Lennox entitled ‘Time for Science: What can we really know?’ which focused on the 
            scientific certainty. Comparing the two topics Mr Guinness noted remarkably that ‘truth’ i

            disciplines was an absolute with no scope for relativism. This might therefore mean that s
            protected from what Guinness termed the ‘attack on truth’, at least in one part because th
            insubstantially altered from one person to the next.

            Although remarking that being protected in this way seems most enviable, Guinness suggeste
            may, in fact, fall victim to a far greater threat: the ‘will to power’ (as originally expo
            Friedrich Nietzsche). This suggests that the very pursuit of truth is just a pursuit of po

            a somewhat cynical argument, it does have a certain realism about it; after all, any absol
            notoriously elusive concept which leaves open the door to deception from anyone willing to
            the truth absolute.

            Of course, there is an alternative to absolute truth. A certain amount of relativism, that
            truth is different from another’s, could fix the problem of desperately searching for abso
            For example, every day we rely on social contracts; that when someone says that they will 

            that afternoon, they will. Perhaps then this relativism is necessary on the small scale to
            discrepancies based on truths (to allow that person to come to coffee a few minutes late o
            from person to person by socio-economic factors. Reflecting on this, however, Guinness sug

            is only helpful up to the point where a person encounters an act so morally wrong that the
            it is right can in no way be the truth. He suggests that this is in fact the place for rel
            easing of social contracts, and not in areas of high morality.

            One final point that was made by Guinness was how we must pursue the truth going forward. 
            options: that we fit the world to fit our truth or we structure our truth around the world
            of the common scientific adage of ‘making the facts fit the theory’ as a mark of bad pract

            points of the talk reminded us that, despite the quest to find knowledge, and within it th
            in which we pursue it is perhaps just as important as the fact itself.
            Guinness concluded the talk with a sentiment he presented as key to his beliefs and Christ

            the idea of being a witness to the truth. That ultimately, suppression of anyone’s truth, 
            ‘moral evil’, is a block to finding our own truth. After opening the floor up to questions
            the talk it seemed apparent that, perhaps, the journey to finding any sort of absolute tru

            tolerant one is as important as actually finding that truth.