It is said that the great thing about opinions is that everyone has one. Unfortunately, we don’t understand what an opinion really is at times. Dictionary.com defines opinion as: 1. a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty. 2. A personal view, attitude, or appraisal. 3. The formal expression of a professional judgment. Well, that is the dictionary meaning and was the accepted understanding of the term. Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “We are of different opinions at different hours, but we always may be said to be at heart on the side of truth.” This is not so in the twenty-first century.
In our culture today, we have changed the concept of truth itself. Somehow, we have morphed into a society where truth is determined by each person with each person’s view as equally correct as any other. This is now accepted without reservation. One’s opinion has been elevated to the level of a type of truth which is as valid and correct as anyone else’s. Truth is now connected to my feelings, not the nature of the cosmos. We no longer need to ask if the “truth” corresponds to reality, or how it relates to what exists in the world. We only care about what someone thinks or feels about it.
The understanding of truth has been quite different since the beginning of time from what we see today. Truth statements have always been propositions expressing a condition related to reality. A statement is true to the extent it is in line with how the world really is. How we would like it to be or how we think it should be, has no bearing on it. A truth statement can be correct or incorrect based on its correlation to reality. A statement of opinion is similar but with less certainty usually due to the limits of our knowledge and experience at the time. An opinion statement can be expressed as an estimate. It would be true if it comes close to reality to the expected level of precision associated with the statement, which is to say we would expect greater precision from a scholar than a freshmen student.
As we indicated above in today’s mainstream culture, reality has been taken out of the equation. A test for truth is non-existent. Truth, and my opinion of it, is now like a statement of taste. The qualifier for truth is me: “I like it; it is my truth.” That last line would have hit past generations like a ton of bricks. “My truth”? How can there be “your truth” or “my truth,” yet they don’t agree with the truth?
This is the age of delusion, the delusion of opinion. We are correct to use truth and opinion about truth in similar ways, as they both deal with statements about reality. The issue is that we are misusing both of them. We are treating truth and our opinion of truth as if they are just matters of taste (see our post on Truth and Anchovies ).
Feelings, personal tastes, and desires have no bearing on truth. The truth is what it is regardless of whether or not we like it. Arnold H Glasow (1905-1998) has stated it well: “The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion.” Here Arnold is mocking the newer, populist view of opinion. Opinion as an extension of taste or an expression of personal desire; the way someone wants it to be. Compare that to “Your opinion is not my reality.”- Steve Maraboli (1975-). Maraboli has stated the new “reality” of this generation.
Yet, take the “ton of bricks” falling on our grandparents above (or great-grand parents for the younger set). What made the bricks fall: gravity. The truth of gravity is non-discriminating, as all truth is. It is true for all people, at all times, in all places. Even in space where there is zero-gravity, it is true. Where gravity is active, it is active on everything, not just those who accept it as part of their truth. Where it is not active, we all float.
What we have is not only delusion but a state of confusion. The inexactness of our communications has befuddled us. Since we speak so often in text and email shorthand, we have lost the ability to communicate precisely and to think carefully. We throw the word opinion around as if it were magic. I can say anything I want or believe anything I want. If someone objects, I just need to tell them that it is “my opinion, my truth.” Somehow this settles any argument. It is as if a person’s opinion or personal truth no longer needs to be evaluated. Truth has become taste and that ends the discussion.
They are declaring that all opinions carry the same weight of truth since they are personal. And since they are my personal truth, they should not be evaluated for correctness. Well, sorry but NO! Just because it pops into your pretty little head does not make it right. I know it is personal and you are sincere, but you can still be personally and sincerely WRONG.
Now I’ve done it. I am sure to be canceled. I said someone’s personally held opinion was wrong. Some will say “Isn’t it just that I have a different opinion from them?” The question is whose opinion is supported by facts. The more credible the facts, the more credible the opinion. The depth of belief, the wit of your expression of it, nor the volume of your defense of it has any bearing on the truth or credibility of the opinion. As Benjamin Proudfit said: “Your opinion matters, especially if it’s supported by facts and observations.”
Consider the days of the judges in Israel. This would have been before Saul or David, from the thirteenth to tenth centuries BC. “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25). Just because everyone was making up their own moral truth did make what they were doing morally right. The fact Scripture is getting at is that they did have a King. God was their King, but they rejected Him.
Jesus was also clear about the need for fidelity to the truth. In the Gospel of Matthew, He was not averse to telling the Jewish leaders they were wrong. “But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” (Matt 22:29) What was the basis of His judgement? They did not have the facts on their side. The facts from Scripture nor the facts of the nature of God.
Jesus also said: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17) Billy Graham espoused this same truth when he said: “It doesn’t matter what you think about it… The Bible is true whether you accept it or not.” (I really do miss that man of God!)
Augustine said: “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” This is still true, but today we need to defend the very concept of truth itself. We need to stand on the firm foundation of the historical understanding of the nature of truth. It is from this understanding of truth that we proclaim our God is true and His word is truth. We need to make it clear that the validity of one’s opinion is in direct proportion to its relationship to reality, not one’s desires, hopes or feelings. Delusional “truth” only floats about on the ever-changing clouds of someone’s imagination. Actual truth is set on the firm foundation of the God who created all things and sustains all things through, by, and for Himself!
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg