Is there such a thing as objective truth?

How many of you are familiar with the book Lord of the Flies?

A lot of people grew up being assigned that book to read in school at some point, I never did, but fortunately for me, back on May 4th of this year Netflix released a 4 part mini series adaptation of that book. I was excited because I had heard a lot about the book, but never wanted to take the time to read it, and the concept was really interesting to me.

For those that are unfamiliar with the story here it is. There is a plane filled with young boys from this prep school in the UK that crashes onto this island in the middle of nowhere. All of the adults that were on the plane, the pilots and anyone else, unfortunately, died on impact leaving this plane, filled with boys ranging from the age of probably 4 to 10, left on the island to fend for themselves. What's really interesting is watching this story unfold because you see these young boys slowly deteriorate into madness by the end of the story.

But it doesn't start there. At the very beginning, you see them attempting to set up rules and systems in place probably from the way that their parents and teachers had taught them how to live their lives. They set up one person to be in charge, they set up a system of communication within meetings, they even knew to prioritize survival. But slowly, you begin to see a shift happen. There's one group of boys who don't like living this life of rule and order and want to use this time apart from the authority of adults to live however they want to live. They want to dance and sing and hunt and have fun. They don't want to just try to survive. And so a split happens within the group.

Now, unfortunately, this group that was focused on themselves and having fun begin revolting against the other group and you slowly see them drift into this almost feral mindset, leading to the death of a few of the boys. And it's not a happy book, obviously. But it's an interesting view into the human mind, especially at a young boy's age showing how leaving them to their own self-interests can lead to utter chaos.

So now I wanna ask you a few questions.

Is There Such a Thing as Objective Truth

We’re getting interactive today. You can go ahead and answer. Is there such a thing as an objective truth?

OK, how would you define what truth is? Let's do this by a raise of hand, so it's not just a wall of sound. How would you define what truth is?

OK, next question. Where do our morals, then, come from? Where do our morals come from? Again raise of hand.

And lastly, you can give a group answer, would you say that there is one objective morality?

These are all questions that have been asked for lifetime. People from all civilizations and all kinds of people groups have been asking these kinds of questions for the existence of humanity. These are also the same kinds of questions that CS Lewis is addressing here in his book, The Abolition of Man.

Last week, Pastor Mark kicked off our series that we are now in entitled a Summer with CS Lewis, and in that message last week he was kind of referencing some of his more familiar pieces. I would say that most people are more familiar with his Narnia series, and even more specifically like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which we will get to, as well as some of his more Christian, theological writings, like Mere Christianity or Screwtape Letters.

But this week we get to unpack his book called The Abolition of Man. I don't think it's one of his more commonly known books, at least to the everyday kind of person, because it's a slight departure from his normal writing style. And I say a slight departure because this book is more of a philosophical quandary into the idea of what would happen if society stopped believing in this greater sense of morality. He starts unpacking this thought of what would happen if people stopped believing in one objective truth. And you're probably already thinking, "Kyle we're living in that world.” And you're right, but I don't wanna jump to that conclusion just yet. So hang tight.

The Lectures Behind the Book

Now, the book itself is actually a collection of lectures that he gave at the University of Durham. Lewis wrote and gave these lectures in 1943, right in the midst of World War II. Those lectures were then collected and bound into a book that was published by Oxford University Press. This book isn't a very long one. It's only three chapters and a very extensive appendix, but this is widely ranked as one of Lewis's most important books that he's written.

Now here's where I am to jump the gun a little. The conclusion that Lewis ends up making is that the world, living away from an objective morality will ultimately lead to destruction. Not necessarily the extinction of humanity as the title of the book would make you think but rather the extinction of what it means to be fully human. It would completely take away the ability to know and choose what is actually good. Instead of being able to be defined and shaped by what this objective truth and morality would be, people would end up being shaped and controlled by others. And so instead of being able to determine what is right, people are more likely to think, "what do the people in charge of me? Want me to think?”

So how does he set this up then? You don't need to respond; I'll tell you, but just this once.

The way he starts discussing this subject begins in chapter 1, obviously. The way that he does that is by first discussing a book that was sent to him for him to review. Now Lewis decided to not reveal the name of the book or the name of the authors of the book in order to protect their identity, which was noble of him, other people, not so much so that information is out there, but in The Abolition of Man he refers to it as “The Green Book” and the authors as Gaius and Titius.

Now this green book was supposed to be a book on English intended for "boys and girls in the upper forms of school." So imagine if you would like mid to late high school age. So it's an English textbook aimed at this late high school aged kid. As an English textbook, Gaius and Titius are aiming to teach proper writing and proper form to these young people and so Lewis includes an excerpt from their book in order to reveal an example of the kind of writing these two men had. The example he gives is the way to people describe a waterfall. In this green book, the authors say that there's one man who describes this waterfall as sublime and the other as pretty. Lewis then tells us that in this book, the authors, correct the one saying the waterfall is sublime because that is a description of one's feelings not an objective statement.

Gaius and Titius go on to say about this “We appear to be saying something very important about something: and actually we are only saying something about our own feelings.” Again, this is an English textbook so this might sound totally fine at first as a correction of what is being said, but Lewis is quick to point out that this textbook is inadvertently removing objective value from the comment made about the waterfall. And so what he is observing is that these two men are essentially telling their readers that everything that you observe it's actually subject to the feelings of the observer. Again, removing objectivity from the writing. Which worries Lewis because to him, he believes that there are actual qualities that are worthy of particular responses.

He would say that courage is in fact, admirable, not just that someone might have a positive feeling towards someone showing courageous acts. He would say that betrayal is wrong. He would even say that beauty is worthy of appreciation. But if he were to apply the same sentiment written in the green book and that these judgments are only subjective preferences, then there's actual no room for any kind of moral discourse. Because EVERYTHING is subjective now. So with that, these men, Gaius and Titius, as well-intentioned as they may be to teach young people English, are inadvertently, psychologically and philosophically, causing long-term damage that these young people might not even face until later on.

Men Without Chests

And so that takes us to the title of this first chapter. He calls his first chapter "men without chests”. He gets this concept from his own writing and thoughts where he says that people process things both with their head and their bellies. He says that when people process things with their head that they are using more of their intellect in their head, knowledge and facts in order to understand something that's going on. Now, if someone is processing with their belly, they are observing things more impulsively or more so with their emotions.

What is crucial then, to a person, is their chest. Lewis says that the chest is what filters pure instinct from the belly as well as pure intellect from the head and vice versa. It's the chest that is where morality sits. It's within the chest where you have an understanding and trained emotion and virtue to help you get to an understanding of what you're intellect and what your impulses are. And so every human needs their chest, their virtue, their morality, in order to have a better and more well-thought-out understanding of reality.

So then, if we refrain from teaching people what objective truth is, then there is a gap between the belly and the head. As Lewis puts it, "we make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise.” And this is a problem. We're essentially creating people who cannot function on their own because they were never taught how to see things that are objectively right or wrong because there is no objectivity and then we wonder why no one has courage or honor or self-control. It's because we act out of impulse or we act purely out of reason with no understanding of emotion. And that only happens if you observe the world as subject to your own feelings if you were never taught what it looks like to have an understanding of objective morality.

So what is that? What is this objective morality?

Well Lewis refers to objective morality in his book as The Tao and the foundation of it can be found in chapter 2 called The Way. Now the Tao is not to be confused with the teachings of Taoism. What Lewis is doing is he's giving a common word for something that he would argue every single human on this earth experiences or at least has an understanding of which is the basic moral rules that goes beyond culture and beyond civilization.

The Moral Law We All Borrow From

Examples of this could be like keeping your promises or that murder is bad or that you should tell the truth or to not steal from your friends or to not be cruel for fun. Lewis makes the claim that these are all rules that can be found all over the world. These are all statements of morality that most people would agree on at least deep down within them. Lewis would claim that deep down within the individual there is a shared understanding of the Tao with all people. There's an understanding of what is right and wrong. As an example, let's say that you and a friend agree not to steal from each other, but your friend steals from you because they don't feel like the rule applies to them. That would seem unfair right? That would seem wrong, and it goes both ways. If you thought it was OK to steal from your friend, they would feel like that's unfair and it was wrong.

So what ends up happening is people end up attempting to project their own morality on the situations or other people and in doing so they inevitably end up borrowing different principles from the Tao itself. Which is kind of silly because whether people like it or not, there is a certain standard to live by.

And so what would the outcome of that be?

The Conditioners and the Abolition of Man

That’s where Lewis ends up going within the final chapter, chapter 3, The Abolition of Man.

Now he first starts this chapter discussing a somewhat different topic. He starts to take a look more at technological advancement, but in the name of man conquering nature. He brings this up to make the comment about how powerful people are actually becoming because they can influence things like education, advertising, politics, and even technology. Right, we have things like aviation, modern medicine, and even genetic intervention.

Lewis then asks this question of who is actually conquering whom. Is it man conquering nature or is this actually man conquering himself by trying to allow them to have some sort of power over other people? Because someone who can fly in a plane can get to other places a lot faster than someone who can't. People who have access to different medical advancements have a better likelihood of living and having normal health than people who don't. Even birth control itself can allow for one generation to influence either the abundance or the lack of future generations. Each of those express, a different amount of power given over other people. And so it begs the question of how that power is then being used. Who is it that gets to decide where that power goes?

Now within this chapter, Lewis references these people that he calls the conditioners. It sounds like a great 70s-80s Disco band.

But these conditioners are the kind of people that will rise up to take the place of authority in order to be able to say what goes on. But he says that these conditioners are actually people who will end up rejecting objective morality. They will push against and try to remove from existence this idea of the Tao or moral truth, and in doing so replace that with their own thoughts of what truth should be with their own determinations of right and wrong. And in doing so they will end up having oppression over the people that are below them because what they are teaching isn't based off of objectivity, but rather their own preference, instinct, and impulse.

And so what ends up happening, is that these conditioners, in the name of rejecting the imposed system over them, they actually become the system themselves. In order to maintain their order or really their power and their system that they've impose on other people they disguise it as a means of valuing the self and self determination and self glorification over the system or society determining the value of things. BUT if you don't end up, valuing the same thing as their preference, then you're the one that's in the wrong. And so the systems that inevitably get put into place are ones that don't actually allow for people to know and judge right and wrong. It doesn't allow for people to be able to have an understanding for themselves and instead makes the people slaves to their own impulses, ultimately losing what true freedom actually is.

Lewis then concludes the book with this paragraph. He says:

But you cannot go on ‘explaining away’ for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to SEE something through it. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.

Essentially saying that if we continue to explain away, what objectively should be in the first place, seeing through and into what we want, then really nothing will exist. Morality won’t exist.

Why is this important for us to discuss? Why does this matter?

Look at the world that's around us. I made the comment at the very beginning of this of not jumping to the conclusion because what this book is describing is what we are already seeing in our present day. Like what do people say when you usually try to explain truth or say that something is true? People usually say something like "well that might be true to you but that's not true for me." Or you might hear the phrase "I just need to live my truth.” But then inevitably they get mad at you for not living in their truth.

This book was written 80 years ago. Over 80 years ago and yet what Lewis had explained what happened is currently happening in our culture. Not just the American culture that we are used to, but even across the entire globe.

Why This Reads Like Today

But even to talk about America for a moment, like let's consider our country politically. This is something that we can see happening on both sides of our political spectrum here in the states. These people that Lewis calls, the conditioners are people that we actively see within the government today. There is pressure into saying that your side is the correct side to believe in. We have conditioners that are rising up the political ranks and projecting their own ideologies onto the people that they are there to represent and then if you don't agree with them, then there's no civil discourse anymore. What ends up happening as you see the other person as the enemy. We have a society of people who don't have chests anymore, and instead react on their impulses with shame, pressure, and even willing to kill people who disagree with them.

And I really really hope that you're not sitting here as I'm saying this thinking, " Well, that doesn't happen on my side.” Because I guarantee you that it does.

I would say that most of the people that I am friends with on Facebook or follow on social media or conservative people or at least more conservative leaning and so I see a lot of the posts that they make, I see the posts that they repost of these conservative pages and the kinds of things that they say about the liberal party. I even hear out loud some of the things that people say. So it's safe to say I have a pretty good understanding of what the conservative political people say or think.

Now, not too long ago, I was taking my son to his gym class at the little gym here in town and it's one where you come in and you let your kid run in there with their instructors and you sit out and wait until the class is done. I was sitting there on my phone, periodically looking up to see what Nash was doing and as I was looking up, there was a guy in front of me who was doing the same thing. He was scrolling his phone and then occasionally looking up to see his grandkid do whatever was going on.

Now I wouldn't say I was spying on this guy, but he was in a public place with his phone open, and I just happened to be sitting behind him. Anyways, that's not what's important, as I was seeing his Facebook feed it was very easy to tell that this guy was not conservative. His feed looked very different than what mine does. But also not that different. Because even though his political feed was very much liberal, it looked the exact same. It all looks the same. The liberal political people are saying the same things about the conservatives as the conservatives are saying about the liberal. There is a vilifying of the other side of the political spectrum that either place is doing, and they're creating the same memes and the same posts and sharing it into the same echo chambers.

Politically speaking, we live in an environment that has other people trying to tell us what truth and morality should be. On either side of the spectrum. And I believe that very much speaks into the kind of culture that we are already existing in.

Back in the summer of 2024, during our series on apologetics, I had a sermon titled what is apologetics and during that sermon, I said this, that we are “promoting absolute truth to a relativistic culture, exclusivist messages to a pluralistic culture, and a supernatural view to a naturalistic culture.” We live in a world that is so much about itself. We live in a world that makes everything about self fulfillment that there is actually no longer a truth. There's no longer an agreed-upon truth that everyone understands and is subject too, and therefore there's no longer any kind of judgment or accountability to the society itself, and therefore utter chaos.

We are almost living, just like the end of Lord of the flies. Our society has almost gotten to that point.

BUT.and it is a very big but.there is hope.

You see the Hope that we have is ultimately in the fact that Jesus is coming again. The one who created objective truth, the one who created morality, is going to come again and purify the world, reclaiming those who belong to him. Even though we may see the world that we live in as utter chaos, we know that Jesus is coming.

If you want any kind of encouragement to hold on to that we could even look at Daniel. Right at the very end of the book of Daniel this intense looking angel appears to him and one of the last things he says is this:

9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand

Daniel 12:9-10

Do you want to talk about needing patients? This angel literally told Danielle that wickedness will continue to just happen. There is a bit of comfort that was given to him right at the very end where the angel tells him that he will rise to receive his allotted inheritance, essentially meaning that he will be with God in heaven but the people of Israel, even back then, knew of a coming Messiah that they were waiting for. In Daniel's visions there was proof of this coming Messiah. And so he essentially was told that he will live, and then die before the Messiah comes.

And in the same way, we have no guarantee of when Jesus will come again, but we do know that he is coming despite the fact that wickedness will continue to happen.

The other thing that we can be assured of is that this objective truth, this morality that we've been talking about really has been written on the heart of every single person in existence. And that's even confirmed with scripture itself.

14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)

Romans 2:14-15

The Hope We Hold Onto (Daniel 12)

This is Paul saying what Lewis was saying in his book but 1000+ years ago. Even people who didn't have the law reveal that the laws written on their hearts based off of the way that they're consciences work. And so we can have confidence in the fact that there is actually a moral truth that we can hold onto and believe in.

And we do know this. Or at least, especially if you've grown up in the church, have heard this before. We know that there's a God in heaven who has answers to all of this. We know that this objective morality ultimately comes from God and that we should strive to emulate that morality, so that way we can be an example of Jesus to our wicked world.

And this was something that was given as a commandment by Jesus to his disciples that we can also learn from.

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34-35

Or from Matthew 5 in Jesus’ sermon on the mount.

14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven

Matthew 5:14-16

Jesus literally gave the command to his disciples to let their light shine, the light of what God has given them in order that the world around them would give glory to God who is in heaven. And we can take on that same command. We are supposed to live out the faith that we claim to have in view of the people that are around us, and from that, the world should know who God is.

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds

James 2:18

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us

1 Peter 2:12

It is ultimately up to us to set the standard of what moral living should look like.

There was a visual or illustration that I heard one time about this or about being a good influence instead of being influenced by other people and it goes like this.

The Challenge: Be a Thermostat, Not a Thermometer

There's a difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A thermometer reacts to the temperature of the room and tells you where things are at. The thermostat, on the other hand, sets the temperature of the room. The thermometer is told what to feel and then tells other people what it's told. The thermostat is the one that determines the environment of the room itself.

Which is a perfect Segway into Father’s Day. What’s the typical joke? Dads usually set the temperature of the house and get mad at anyone who changes it?

Now, that's a really funny cliché that gets made fun of quite a bit BUT I also think there's a lot of truth behind it. We as men are called to lead our homes. It doesn't mean that we are an authoritarian dictator or anything like that, but we are meant to be the example of Jesus even to our own families. Before we even go out and be the example of the Lord to the people of the world, we have to start with the immediate people God has given us. And so it is our job to set the thermostat. It is our job to set the tone and show your family what a follower of Jesus should look like. So that as your family sees your good deeds and they see your faith, they may glorify God.

That is so incredibly important for us because the generations that are following us are getting more and more susceptible to the environment that Lewis was talking about in his book. There are becoming more and more open with the use of technology to the message of pure self-discovery and that there is no one objective truth.

And some of us men might not have the opportunity to be husbands or even fathers. And that might be the cause of some deep emotional pain. But you don’t have to be related to someone by blood in order to be a father figure in someone else’s life. Discipleship is still something that God demands from each and every one of us and so even though you may not be a physical father to someone else here on this earth, look for the ways that you might become some sort of spiritual father figure to someone.

Because like the angel told Daniel, wickedness is rampant, and it will continue in this world. And some of that wickedness might sound really good because it'll be in the name of everyone coming together and holding their hands in perfect harmony and peace.

How many of you are familiar with the song “ Imagine " by John Lennon?

Yeah great song. Super fun. Let me read you one of the verses. He says.

Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do, nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.

Imagine all the people, Livin life in peace, You hooo hooo.

You may say that I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one, I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.

That sounds really nice right? Makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. But if we break this down John Lennon has become one of these Conditioners that Lewis brought up in the third chapter of this book. He’s telling us that there shouldn't be any boarder between people so we can all live together in peace. Hes saying we shouldn’t kill anyone, almost like that’s his own original thought and definitely not from anywhere in the Bible. Speaking of, we should just do away with religion as a whole because it’s religion that is holding people back and telling you what you can and can’t do.

He's saying if that were to just happen then peace would happen. And then wrapping that chorus up, inviting everyone to join him in this way of thinking because obviously his truth is the correct truth.

He’s singing about this and he wrote this as a means of unity and peace amongst the world, but what he is suggesting is quite literally impossible because people, including himself, are selfish. Not everyone agrees, or will have the same mind to live in the way of peace and harmony that he's singing about and the way that he's telling you of how it should be.

There is only one time that we can see where this is even possible. Turn with me to Acts 2:42.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved

Acts 2:42-47

This early community of believers devoted themselves to the apostles'teaching to learn how to live a proper life. How to live in the objective truth that God gave them through the life and example set by Jesus.

The ONLY way, this kind of perfect harmony can exist is within the morality and truth given to us by God. And ultimately when we finally get to be in the presence of the creator for all eternity, worshipping him and giving him praise. So, in the meantime, let’s strive to know and live out the truths of Scripture, being the example of Jesus to the rest of the world, and bring people into a relationship with him.

Let’s pray.