The existence of an absolute truth has been constantly questioned. Some people state that truth is universal; others proclaim that it depends on people’s point of view. But is truth really in the eye of he who sees?
We are currently suffering from a moral crisis. With the idea of free decision-making, despite old customs, rising up the scale of popularity among the young generations, it has reached a point where what is right or wrong depends on you and not on an absolute truth: marrying someone of your same gender is not wrong, physical violence is a matter of personal taste and perhaps even killing might be right depending on your religion. Or maybe it is worse than we think and people simply do not care anymore about morals and ethics. Relativism today is disrupting our society and shredding what we know as truth to pieces.
Pluralism is needed. Diversity of opinions and alternatives is the key to progress. With globalization, the introduction of different cultures and ways of thinking is inevitable and even welcomed for it gives color to people’s life. The beauty of pluralism is that opinions are not always true. People used to think that the world was flat and now we all know it is wrong but without such conception, people would not have tried to prove otherwise. From mistakes we learn and get closer and closer to the truth.
When I was in eighth grade, I became best friend with a Japanese girl called Aya. When I met her she could not speak Spanish and had a poor English, but we managed to communicate with signs and drawings. One day I asked her what her favorite school subject was. She said math, which turned out to be one of my least favorite subjects, so I asked surprised «why do you like math? It’s the typical subject that no one really likes» and she said, «I love mathematics because it is the same here and in Japan. It’s a language to communicate with the rest of the world, because whether you are in the Dominican Republic or in Japan, two plus two is always four.»
A consensus does not make a statement true, but truth itself makes people agree and create a consensus. With the help of pluralism, we can demonstrate that opinions are needed to have diversity while maintaining an idea of what is right and what is wrong as absolute truth. We can accept several different thoughts but not agree that they are all correct. Truth can never be relative to our opinion and thoughts, but it is our thoughts that must agree with what proves to be true.
Ray of Wisdom 