So many of the cultural debates that rage around us and captivate our attentions result from dueling definitions of truth. All ideas have consequences, especially our ideas about truth. It matters greatly whether truth even exists, whether truth can be known, and how we should think about those who reject truth. Fifty years ago, in his landmark discussion of the flow of Western history, Francis Schaeffer offered what he called “a simple but profound rule” about truth: “If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.” Even a brief look at the half century since he wrote reveals how right he was. Because of the loss of belief in the existence of truth, our cultural conversations become more fractured and disconnected, our willingness to hear one another out seems to diminish by the day, and corporate, political, and other cultural activists readily work to impose their views on everyone else. And, who’s to say that they’re wrong if nothing is truly r
