Do you believe in absolute truth? What I mean is, do you believe that God has established a set standard of right and wrong in this world? Many would say that such a standard is unrealistic because truth has many different sides to it. But can that be true? Can truth be true for one person and not another? Would that still make it true?
A common example of this truth question can be seen in the studies on safe sex. Those who favor abstinence-only sex education argue that abstinence is the only sure-fire method to use if one wants to prevent unwanted pregnancies and the transmission of STD's and HIV. That statement is 100% true. If you don't have sex, then you won't get pregnant or infected with a disease. Yet when this issue is brought up, many will say that this approach is unrealistic and just simply can't be followed. People are going to follow their impulses, they will say, and therefore it is highly unrealistic to expect someone to abstain when the situation arises. Besides, condoms prevent unwanted pregnancies and disease. Right?
I mention sex education because it is such a source of heated debated amongst those who want only abstinence taught versus those who want all options of birth control taught. What I would like to see is the truth taught. According to Consumer Reports condoms fail 12% of the time. Any study that you find in your research will tell you that condoms are an excellent barrier to the transmission of diseases, including HIV, but none will tell you or can tell you that condoms or any other birth control device or pill will always stop the spread of diseases or pregnancy. Safe sex advocates would laugh at that notion and tell you that nothing can prevent the spread of STD's, HIV, or unwanted pregnancies. But they are wrong. The truth is that abstinence can prevent all of that. Yet abstinence is an unpopular topic in sex education classes because it is just too "unrealistic". Now, who exactly is being realistic here?
There is a standard of truth in our world that God has established. It doesn't really matter if you or I agree with this standard. It is true whether we believe it or not. Truth does not have many sides, it just has one. It is our perspective on truth (and our agendas) that tend to "shift" truth in the direction that we want. But the truth doesn't lie. Sure, we can manipulate our world to make outcomes turn in our favor, but that doesn't mean we have changed the truth.
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