Brief Answer:
There is no such thing as “relative truth” or “subjective truth”, those ideas are illogical.
Detailed Answer:
All truth is objective, absolute, or universal. Anything that contradicts something that is true, is simply false. Different people’s perspectives may lead to relative or subjective opinions, claims or theories, however, if, and only if, an opinion or claim completely coincides with reality, then it is objective truth.
The blind men & the elephant parable
The elephant is supposed to represent God, and the 5 blind men feel different areas of the elephant and different claims about what they are feeling based on their perspective: it must be a snake (says the blind man feeling only the elephant trunk), or a fan (for the man feeling the ear), a wall (for the man feeling the side of the elephant), a tree trunk (if feeling the leg), a rope (if feeling the tail), but the raja (a noble or royalty in India) narrates the story and explains how all different beliefs have part of the truth.
Exposing this narrow-sighted example:
- Self-refuting: This story is told to argue “we all have our own truth”, which are equally valid, but all these subjective truth claims were false. The raja in the story claims each blind man has their own truth based on their limited perspective, so all truth is relative truth. The claim is since we have limited perspective, then it is truth that no truth exists. Do you see the contradiction? The raja refutes his own position as he does not have a limited perspective, as he claims everyone has, and sees the absolute truth of the elephant, while he is claiming absolute truth does not exist.
- Don’t forget the 6th blind person. I like to add to the story another character, a logical blind girl, who realizes the other five blind men all contradict each other, and if one of the narrow-minded guys wrapped their arms around more, maybe they could figure out the absolute truth.
- Do you see the seriously arrogant claim being made? Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, and Muhammad are all blind, but in fact, I can see! These leaders all had a small perspective, but I (the one making this claim) am the one who sees the full picture, like the raja.
- Funny response – The elephant is supposed to be God, so if you want to apply the analogy correctly to Christianity, then the elephant would heal the blind men and then tell them about Himself.
