Evidently, what you believe about truth is an important area where personality can influence how you form your worldviews. So, keep thinking about this as we progress through the course. And for now, let’s look a little deeper into the distinction between absolute truth versus relative truth.

If a person believes that the truth of gravity is not absolute and can depend on what they personally believe, then they could jump off a building and assume they would not be harmed. But of course, you and I know that they will be hurt and maybe killed because the law of gravity is true regardless of what the person believes. We recognize that no one’s opinion about gravity has bearing on the consequences of jumping off a building.

To this, you might say, “Yes, of course, I agree there are absolute laws that govern the physical world. I guess when I see truth as relative, I’m mainly referring to moral truths or truths about abstract aspects in our world. Because in THESE areas, we can’t use SCIENCE to prove something to be true.”

While you have said that you believe that truth is relative and dependent on the person’s perspective of the situation, in the physical world where we have science and visible evidence of the truth, like gravity, you DO believe that truth is absolute and not dependent on what any person believes.