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When I was a senior in college, I took an introductory philosophy class. The professor covered a number of well-known philosophers and explained their ideas by challenging the ideas of his students. Being an avid debater, my hand went up nearly every time the professor laid down his challenge.
"Is there a cause for every effect?" he asked.
"Obviously," I would answer. "No effect occurs in a vacuum."
"But have you observed every effect?" he would calmly reply.
"No," I would admit.
"Then you can't be sure that a cause exists for every effect, can you?"
We had many exchanges like this during the semester, and I believe they helped me identify many of the assumptions underlying my core beliefs.
During one of these exchanges, we discussed the views of Scottish philosopher David Hume. According to Hume, human knowledge can only be based on experience. Since we interpret our experiences very subjectively, and we can't possibly experience everything in the universe, we can't make universal claims about anything.
"Therefore," my professor rhetorically concluded, "there is no such thing as truth."
This radical statement flew in the face of everything I'd been raised to believe about right and wrong, good and evil. After all, Christ's statement in John 17:17 clearly reads, "Your word is truth." From a purely hypothetical perspective, both Christ and Hume could have been wrong, but both could not have been right!
I wanted to raise my hand and object, but I wasn't sure how to respond to this outrageous challenge. Fortunately, my professor pointed out the logical problem with his previous statement for the class.
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