Absolute truths?

Ha.

Just...ha.

I was scoping through the blogosphere tonight, as I'm apt to do while bored and awake far too late, when I stumbled upon a conservative blog with the title Absolute Truths. Now, I'm not going to lie; I didn't really read anything beyond that. I've read a few of his articles before without being drawn to the title of the blog, and while I disagree with a good portion of what he says, he seems like a decent writer and someone who puts thought into what he says. I won't post the blog, because I'm really not trying to attack his views in this post.

Or maybe I am.

Mostly, the title bothers me.

Absolute Truths? Perhaps it's just the sociologist in me that's cringing right now. Perhaps it's the liberal. But I hate that term. I especially hate the presumptuous intention that it seems to be used under.

I take it as an intrinsic fact, both in my life and the lives of others, that there are no Absolute Truths. I'm sure there are plenty of people who'd roll their eyes at that. It seems muddy, it seems noncommittal. But I can't think of a single better way to deal with life. It's not an easy creed to live up to; it's far easier to see people living differently than you do, thinking differently than you do, and judging them based on some truth, or face of life that they just don't seem to know. It's harder to admit that you simply just don't know there truth, and that they don't know yours.

I can understand the problem that a view life this might incite. If we don't have Absolute Truths, how can we ever agree on what's right and what's wrong? How can we find a way to run our lives, and our society, and our world, if we don't have some overarching moral guideline to follow? Well, simply, we can't. Again, I'll cite the sociologist in me: societies chance in the manner that works best for that society. That society might be the whole of the USA, or Africa, or China. That society might be your small group of friends. All have their own dynamics that keep them going, and evolve and change when it stops working, when it requires change. All of life is as simple and as complicated as that. That's not to say we shouldn't strive to keep working on society, that we shouldn't find things that can and should be fixed, and support things that work.

 Trying to place your trust in Absolute Truths though is the opposite of growth. There's no way all people, or even a particular group of people, are always going to by into the same things at the same time. Trying to tout an absolute on any situation is just foolish, and lacking an understanding of human nature. Perhaps God's word is Absolute, perhaps Buddha's is. But there will never be away to make all people buy into it, let alone practice it. Absolutes destroy the fabric that holds society together. Absolutes push us away from the progress we could be making.