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Finding Absolute Truth in a World of "My Truth" - with George Barna
The modern declaration "that's my truth" reveals a profound shift in how we understand reality itself. George Barna's latest research exposes the unsettling consequence: approximately one-third of Americans now believe lying and manipulation are justified when personally beneficial, and most reject the very concept of absolute moral truth.
Drawing from his extensive American Worldview Inventory, Barna identifies several contradictory beliefs that have become mainstream. Many Americans simultaneously believe multiple conflicting truths can exist, that truth is merely a social construction, and that changing moral perceptions throughout history prove there is no absolute standard. This philosophical incoherence has created what Barna describes as "a deep foundation of chaos" undermining trust at every level of society.
The consequences reach far beyond abstract philosophy. When we privatize truth, making it subjective and personal, we create a society where genuine trust becomes impossible. How can relationships flourish when we suspect everyone is manipulating facts for personal advantage? The result is philosophical isolation where individuals become trapped in their own reality, unable to build meaningful connections.
For parents and leaders, this crisis presents both challenge and opportunity. Barna's research reveals that consistency between beliefs and behavior is crucial for establishing credibility. Children who maintain faith into adulthood consistently point to parents who modeled integrity by admitting mistakes and seeking forgiveness. This transparency doesn't undermine authority but strengthens it by demonstrating authentic commitment to truth over ego.
The path forward begins with recognizing truth exists independently of our feelings or preferences. We must reject the false notion that open-mindedness means accepting all claims as equally valid rather than thoughtfully evaluating them against objective standards. By fostering environments where truth is openly discussed rather than privatized, we create space for authentic relationships built on mutual trust and shared reality.
Ready to explore more about truth and worldview? Download George Barna's complete research report for free at georgebarna.com or culturalresearchcenter.com and discover practical steps toward rebuilding a culture grounded in truth.
Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture of the WallBuilders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. I think I mean, I can't be absolutely sure beause there is no absolute truth. So I don't know if, I don't know if it's really David and Tim. I mean how do you know if something's true or not? I mean isn't it just my truth guys? I mean you have your truth. I have my truth. Everybody gets to have their own truth. You're a truth. They're a true everywhere. Truth, truth. Is that kind of how it goes now?
Tim Barton [00:00:34] I feel like you're setting up the topic very well. You know, that later in the show, having George Barna aren't talking about absolute truth guys. It's one of the funny things that we have all interacted with as we travel and speak. And, and we hear people at times challenge things because well, to me, this is what it is. Well, well, this how I feel and thinking. In my mind, I'm like, well, it doesn't really matter how you feel or think, right? It matters what's true. Well, here's, here is what I believe. And every time I'm, like, that's, that is not how truth works, but because we live in a culture and world that has reaffirmed delusion so often and so frequently, where genuinely, from kindergarten all the way through college, when we have rising generations being told that, that truth is in the eye of the beholder, that, the truth is subjective, it's how you view it, it's how you feel and... truth is different for different people and different classes and different sexes and different cultures and different ethnicities. The ridiculous position that is being put forward as if for somehow, right, that math is different based on your race, which actually there are people making that argument, which is mind-boggling. No, engineers should have the same math regardless of what race, right? Regardless of where you were born. You need to have the same basic math if you are developing bridges or whatever you are engineering and building. It's not going to work if truth becomes malleable and subjective and yet that is exactly what's happening in our culture where even we've seen this happen from the field where they're changing standards because of equity or whatever else. This is the world we live in and fortunately George Barna does a ton of research on this and even though at times, we we joke about that talking to George is not always the most encouraging uplifting thing It's not his fault. He just tells how crazy people are sometimes and we go George that is not
Rick Green [00:02:36] He's just telling us the truth regardless of his feelings. Is that what you're saying?
Tim Barton [00:02:39] You know, yes, it's like the doctor's like, Hey, you're going to die tomorrow, but, hey just no big deal. Although, one of our other friends, Ray Comfort, one of the things that he would point out is that if doctors don't tell you the truth, then if they have a medication and they're like, hey, this is what you need to survive. If you don't understand how critical the situation is, then you might be less likely to take the medicine. If they're, like, here's some medicine, you can take this, not take it, doesn't really matter. The very thing that might save you, you might not turn to and utilize because you don't recognize how significant or severe things are. So George is always good at helping us understand the reality of kind of where our culture is, sometimes where the church is, and even at times helping point to what are the things that need to be done to help remedy this situation. But certainly when it comes to truth, one of the topics we asked him if we could talk about with them because to some of what we've seen, articles, culture, responses, surveys coming out. It's pretty, I don't know, discouraging is not the right word. It's it's pretty flabbergasting how far people have come in a direction of rejecting some basic truth or even absolutes in general.
David Barton [00:03:53] And Tim, interestingly, you mentioned Wright Comfort. That reminded me of something that, and it's gotta be now, 15, 16, 17 years ago. I did what was called the American Revival with the Glenn Beck. And so Glenn Beck, we did arena events across the country, 15, 20, 30,000, and there would be Glenn, there would myself, there would Dave Buckner, an economist from Columbia, I think it was, and then Judge Napolitano. And so we called it, Glenn called it the American Revival, took out of 1st Corinthians 13. And it talked about faith, hope, and charity. And so the faith part I covered, I covered the religious heritage, et cetera. The charity part, well, that deals with money and so Judge Napolitano covered money stuff in the sense of constitutional. When is the right time under the constitution to be giving money away? But the hope side actually was Dave Buckner, and he was an economist. And he was showing you how bad America is hurting and what's about to crash. And you go, man, I feel like slitting my wrist when I get done with that. And, and Glenn explained, well, it's not hopeful, but you have hope when you tell the truth. If a doctor says you got cancer at stage four, but here's what we're going to do is at least you've got hope and that's Tim what you're talking about with the right comfort. Even sometimes the message is really hard, but if you face that, then there's certain things you can start doing to take steps. And I was thinking about George and this, and I've been reading some of the results. And there's some pretty ugly stuff out there, but I think there's a lot of hope and what he puts forth in this thing, because it gives us some really clear steps we can take. And so you saying that with Ray Comfort, just reminding me that the Glenn had been doing the same thing yours before. And I think that is true. Truth is what gives you hope, not the, the positiveness or negativeness of the message, but whether it's true or not.
Rick Green [00:05:44] And you know, we said for a long time, you can't, you got to assess the patient before you can, you, can fix the, whatever that problem is. So absolutely got, got to be done. And I think there is going to be, you know George does always bring it back around and give us some good action items on how to turn it around and how to restore the culture, recognizing where that rot in the culture is from years of neglect by the church. So we're going to learn where we stand on this issue of absolute truth. And then what we can do to restore truth in our culture. Stay with us, George Barna, our special guest today on the WallBuilders Show
Rick Green [00:07:18] Welcome back to TheWallBuilders Show, thanks for staying with us, always great to have George Barna with us. George, thanks some more time today, man.
George Barna [00:07:23] Good to be with you, my friend.
Rick Green [00:07:24] Hey, always doing some new studies, finding out good, the bad, and the ugly, and sharing it all with us, thankfully, because we've got to know where we need to dive in and where the cracks in the foundation are, one of those, of course, this, this whole moral relativism thing that started seeping into the culture a couple of generations ago, has, has, as definitely had a terrible effect on the, on the country and getting back to truth, which, Hey, we're celebrating the declaration all year long. We hold these truths to be self-evident is essential. But that rejection of absolute moral truth you wrote recently has created a deep foundation of chaos let's talk about that one first and what we can do to reverse it
George Barna [00:08:03] Yeah, I mean, this is part of a larger body of research we've been doing on worldview this year where we're trying to figure out, we know the incidence of people with a biblical worldview is really low. Why? And so we started diving into different aspects of it. And one of those is people's perceptions about truth. And so in this one, and we can break it down more if you want, but we found that people reject the idea that absolute moral truth can exist. For a number of reasons. Some of them believe that if you're going to be a mature person, you've got to be open-minded, which means that you'll accept anything anybody says as if it's truth. If they believe it's true, you can, too. Another thing we discovered is that most Americans say that there are multiple truths that exist, and in fact, some of those truths conflict with each other. They can't be reconciled. Nevertheless, they're both still true. Then we've got another issue where people are saying that, well, you know, we can prove that there's no absolute moral truth, because people's perceptions about moral truth change over the course of time. Which is interesting, because then what we've done is we've said, well what you've done is made humanity, the arbiter of absolute moral truths, wrong. Another thing we discovered is that another proof, quote unquote, that people are pointing to almost half of Americans. Are saying that when you look at religious groups, they all have different ideas about truth, about their God, about how to live, about what's right and wrong, etc., morality. And so that again is proof, but that again also relies on people being the determinant of it rather than God. Another thing we discovered is that about a third of Americans were saying, well, but there is no such thing as truth because it's a social creation. Humanity made it up. It changes with humanity. You can't trust it for that reason. And then one of the implications of this, because when we measure worldview, we don't want to just measure people's beliefs. We've also got to measure behavior. You do what you believe. And so it's important to find out, are they feeding us a line about what they believe or do they really believe it? Let's look at what they do, because that will prove it. And what we find there is that you've got a growing number of Americans currently running at about a third who say that lying, manipulation of other people can be justified. How can you justify that? Well, either to protect my reputation or to advance my personal best interests. And so, in that sense, what we find is that Americans are saying, well, truth is determined by the degree of personal benefit that it provides to you. And if you get sufficient benefit, or if you get more advantages... Then somebody else gets disadvantages from that deception, then it's justifiable. This is a scary reality about our culture.
Rick Green [00:11:07] And that last part is almost sounds like actions speak louder than words that how they act is is going to tell us more than even what they what they say. But it seems like at the heart of all this is just that that humanistic approach where the world revolves around me and my opinion not you know that there's nothing solid out there that I really get to decide everything on my own. But I want to take you back to the first one that you said because I'm wondering if how do we articulate and I'm actually asking personally for this when I'm teaching these young people at Patriot Academy. To embrace free speech and debate and have civil discourse, and all of these things, sometimes that can be interpreted as, well, that's because there's no truth. So we have to respect everybody's opinion, no matter what it is. Instead of, we need to find truth together. We need to search it out. We're asking questions of each other and having civil discourse in order to poke holes, not just in the other person's beliefs or theories, but in our own, to make sure that we didn't miss something, that we're not relying on an opinion rather than actual truth. Does that question make sense?
George Barna [00:12:08] And I guess the way that I react to it is you're not going to be able to help people find genuine truth, God's truth, unless you know what it is. And so it starts with each of us where we've got to be in God's Word enough and we've got to in the world enough implementing that truth and experiencing His truth, knowing and how it works in order to have those kinds of Socratic conversations with people.
Rick Green [00:12:38] We got to stay close to the power source. We got, we got to make sure we're plugged in. Yeah. I got you. Yeah.
George Barna [00:12:43] You know, one of the expressions that I use often when I'm teaching is, you can't give what you don't have. And if you don t believe in absolute moral truth, certainly you're not going to profess it. But if you do not know absolute moral truths, if you didn't experience absolute moral truth, if don't live absolute moral true, you're going to convey it to others effectively either because there are two ways of doing it. One is through conversation. And what we're doing through the research I'm doing right now on discipleship, disciple-making, what we are finding is that actually the most powerful educational tool in our arsenal for things spiritual or otherwise is modeling. What our behaviors teach people, because they can listen to us, but I think deep down probably most, if not all of us, recognize, well, there's a lot of deception that's done. For personal benefit, just as we were talking about earlier. And, and so I can only really know what a person's really like by watching them. In that book that I wrote, Raising Spiritual Champions, what we found was kids were saying, I can't trust my parents. And when we asked them, why is that? They said, because my parents say one thing and do another. So they must, they must be just as confused as I am. So why would I trust them? And that's one of the real problems with a society that doesn't recognize absolute moral truth. You come to a place where you realize you can't trust other people. And when you've got everybody at odds with everyone else, philosophically, before you even speak to them, simply because you've gotten this idea, everybody's out to manipulate me for their own best interests, I can't just them, I could only trust myself. Well, that's what starts building, then, this reservoir of belief that I'm the only one that can determine truth for my life.
Rick Green [00:14:37] Wow, so that and that is deep, that is deep seated in the culture right now. So what are you recommending for, you know, especially ministries and pastors and people in positions of leadership? I mean, even all the way down to just parents, generally speaking, as steps to build that trust and get this next generation plugged into the power source to find that actual truth in God's word.
George Barna [00:15:01] Yeah, part of it comes down to consistency. Do you live according to what you believe? Because if you profess one thing and you live differently, you've just destroyed your credibility. And without credibility, you won't have trust. Without trust, you're not going to have relationships. Without relationships, you don't have the entree into somebody's mind, heart, and soul to share God's truth with them and God's love with them. And so it's critical that we become consistent. Another study we did with parents, that was one of the things that came out, is that the most effective parents, those who raised children who actually became devoted followers of Christ, when we ask them, what did your parents do that helped you become this way? Because you're an aberration. Very few people live as committed to Christ as you do. What do they do? And by far, the number one answer they said is, they were consistent. The entire time I lived in their house, the entire time they were trying to shape me into a particular kind of person, they were consistent. They said what they did. They did what they said. It was all consistent with Scripture. It was consistent with what they told me, how they disciplined me, all of these things. So consistency is key. And part of that is knowing what you believe. Paul Littlecourse wrote that great book about, you know, knowing what we believe and why we believe it. And that's a critical question for all of us. Do you know what you believe? Do you know why you believe it? Could you defend it? Are you prepared to do that before you go out representing Christ? Make sure you know who he is, what he stands for, who he's called you to be, and how you can be that person once you start building relationships with others.
Rick Green [00:16:44] You know, one thing on that I've noticed over the years and, and especially not only my own family and with my own kids, but also watching other families that, really strive to do exactly what you're saying is just being transparent and honest and admitting when you mess up so that they don't see it as hypocrisy, you know, let's say dad loses his temper and throws the weed eater across across the yard. Not that I'm ever done that.
George Barna [00:17:06] No, no, no.
Rick Green [00:17:07] Let's say the, no never. No. Tried starting at 400 times and no, no, seriously, something like that. Right. And, and then your kid sees that, right, or, you know, whatever, every, every adult out there has whatever that fault is being able to say, hey, hey buddy, I got that wrong. I send, I forgive me, you know, parents that have done that. I have found kept the relationship alive and the kid realizes, wow, they're not a hypocrite. They're just human like me.
George Barna [00:17:34] Yeah, it's true, and I'm spending a lot of time with my grandkids these days trying to help raise them, and one of the things that I've found is that very thing, particularly with my grandson, when I say to him, oh, you know what, here's what I did. Here's what could have done, here is what I should have done and here's why. And he said, well, what are you telling me, Pa? You made a mistake? I was like, yeah, actually, buddy, I sinned, and you know, I had to go to the Lord and confess. I mean, you go through the whole process. That you go through personally, but when you lay it out for them and say, yeah, I mean, I'm just, you know, a guy and I'm trying to figure it out moment to moment and I've learned a lot over my eons on the earth here, but I'm still learning every single day and that's what your life is going to be like too. So don't feel like you have to hide everything. You know, bring it out into the light, you know, light is the greatest disinfectant. And so, you know, put it out there and let's work on it together and that's one of the things we're finding about great disciple makers, is that the people that they're discipling, there's mutual accountability. So it's not, I'm the master and you're the peon.
Rick Green [00:18:46] Yeah
George Barna [00:18:47] Like, you know, we're both sinners trying to make it right with the Lord. I mean, He died for us on the cross, so we got that going for us. But that doesn't mean that we're not going to be tempted. It doesn't that we are not going to fall to sin sometimes. Then the question becomes, how do we handle it? Let's work with each other to help each other do that better.
Rick Green [00:19:05] I could, I could just imagine Peter, you know, later in ministry and having some pastor or even just a young disciple that he's discipling and they lose their temper and he's like, well, you know, there was this time. Where where I had a sword and you know, they were coming to get Jesus and let's just say I might have might have struck too soon so I understand young man. I understand
George Barna [00:19:28] And then Andrew standing next to rolling his eyes, it's like a really one time, one time.
Rick Green [00:19:39] I love it, I love George there's so much more there brother listen what's the best way that now is the is the I know you do these studies all the time so just go into the website picking this particular one out and then kind of some take-home action items on it so for what people can do to help turn this around
George Barna [00:19:56] Yeah, I mean, it's report number six in the series this year for the American World View Inventory Series. They can get that either at georgebarna.com or at culturalresearchcenter.com. It's free to download at both places. You know, and personal things to do. Think about what truth looks like in your life. Are you a defender of truth? Are you modeler of truth. What do you think truth means? Where does it come from? How is it evident in your life? Do you talk about it and then demonstrate it? So all that kind of consistency is critical, but it's also something that we need to be talking with others about. And I find like, if I'm watching a newscast, listening to a news cast, whatever, a podcast, and somebody says something, I can hit the pause button and talk to the person I'm listening with, say, wow, did you hear that? The way that I interpret that is yada yada, yada But gosh, I think what the scriptures say, you know, in 1st Peter 3 or whatever, is something slightly different. And have that discussion, because one thing I'm finding is that we don't discuss these matters enough. We privatize the whole idea of truth, and it's not something that should be privatized. This should be constant conversation between us about, yeah, what does truth look like in this situation? That bill that's before Congress, this, you know, activity in my life, this relationship that you're pursuing, truth relates to everything that we're doing. Let's try to figure out what that looks like.
Rick Green [00:21:34] That's so good, man. And no topic off the table that teaches young people to come and ask and, and search out these things and find that truth. That's good, George. God bless you, man, thanks for all the hard work and the research and helping us to find that truth, then to teach it to our kids and our grandkids. George Barna. Thanks, man.
George Barna [00:21:50] Thanks, Rick.
Rick Green [00:21:51] . Stay with us folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton.
Rick Green [00:23:01] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Always good to have George Barna with us and guys, of course. Yeah. Some of this stuff, man, you look at those numbers, you go, that's all that would, I feel like there's only a remnant out there that still believes in truth, but at least there's a remnet out there, that believes in truth and we can build from there.
Tim Barton [00:23:16] One of the things that stuck out as George was saying that what makes a difference for rising generations is most effective things for Christian parents and disciple makers are to live consistently, to make sure that your words and your actions are matching up with your profession of faith. I saw a study not long ago, and obviously when you see studies and especially if they're on social media, on the internet, I would say those are the grain of salt, but one One of the things that we're addressing is... The kids that grew up in a Christian home, the ones that were the most likely to stay Christian, this extensive study, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of parents and students interviewed, the one dominant thing that the kids who grew up a Christian at home that maintained their faith their whole life, there was one thing that every one of their parents did and every one their parents admitted when they made a mistake and they just asked forgiveness for it. And I bring that up because I think so often when we hear. Things like George saying, hey, when your words and your actions, they match up, they line up with your profession of faith, that's what matters. And I think sometimes we think that that means we have to live in a certain manner looking really good and not making mistakes and not messing up. But the reality is, it's not even the Christian message. When the Christian messages, the reason Jesus came is because none of us would ever be good enough. But That's also part of what we show our kids, hey, guys, I'm so sorry, I blew that one. I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn've gotten upset. I should've done it handled this way. Please forgive me. And I say that with a kind of reaffirmation of what George is saying. I think that's absolutely right that when we start giving that example as parents, as leaders, as disciple makers, where we are being consistent with our faith, that's one of the things that can make the biggest difference. But the consistency of our faith doesn't mean we don't make mistakes. Sometimes, it means... We are showing the same repentance that we're asking from our students, from our kids. And there's so much more, Dad. I know you wanted to say something too. I didn't mean to take all the rest of our time.
David Barton [00:25:20] And yeah, one of the things that makes all the difference is being genuine. But as he points out, you got to have a standard of truth, but everybody falls short of that standard at some point. And so acknowledging that and being honest about that, because we do have to understand there is absolute truth, God establishes in His Word, and we've all sinned and fall short and you have to acknowledge that. That is truth to say, I really goofed up on that. And that's a great point, Tim, but this is so hard for political guys to do that, so hard for parents to do that, so hard for everybody to do it. But that is a really key thing to have any genuine faith is being able to acknowledge and be secure when you've done something wrong and you can admit that, acknowledge that and move on.
Rick Green [00:25:59] It's spot on, guys. I was just sitting around with a big group of Patriot Academy, a family of 14 kids, amazing kids, I'm telling y'all the adult children, just amazing. The little ones, everybody. And we asked them in front of their parents, we said, why so much joy? Why, how do you guys do this? How do you know, what, what'd your parents do? Right. And they, and that was the first thing they said. What you guys just said, if they ever mess up, they apologize to us and admit that it's wrong. And it tells us that they're real and they're genuine and they can be trusted. When we follow them. And so you guys just nailed it. That's exactly the lesson we learned from that family. Good stuff today, folks. All right, well, we got Foundation for Freedom Thursday tomorrow and then Good News Friday Friday. So we've got a lot of great stuff left in the week. Be sure and share it with your friends and family. You can get it at wallbuilders.show. Thanks so much for listening to The WallBuilder Show.
