Universal Values

ready today I'm going to discuss Universal values values is the individual belief that serves as a guide for human behavior values becomes Universal if it has the same worth for all people and when we say Universal it is unchanging it is beyond space and time it does not exist apart from individuals but rather existed as a universal Futures and represented by the individuals example if you feel happy when someone praise you and she is happy when someone Praises her and he is happy when someone Praises him it means praising somebody cause happiness therefore it is

common to all to feel happy when praised various authors or researchers have their own list of universal values but today's lesson will just focus on two major Universal values which are respect for human life and Truth telling but just for additional information I will mention some of the universal values listed by other authors Shalom Schwartz along with a number of psychology colleagues conducted a research about Universal values by the way Schwartz defined values as conceptions of the desirable that influence the way people select actual and evaluate events and these are the types of values according

to him power the specific related values along with power are social status and Prestige control or dominance over people and resources achievement personal Success Through demonstrating competence according to Social standards Hedonism pleasure or census gratification for oneself stimulation excitement novelty and challenge in life self-direction independent thought and action choosing cheating exploring universalism understanding appreciation tolerance and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature benevolence preservation and enhancement of the welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact tradition respect commitment and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional culture or

religion provides Conformity Restraint of actions inclinations and impulse is likely to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or Norms security safety Harmony and stability of society of relationship ships and himself so Schwartz also tested an 11 possible Universal value which is spirituality or the goal of finding meaning in life but found that it does not seem to be recognized in all cultures and these are the United Nations Charter on universal values respect for fundamental human rights social justice and human dignity and respect for the equal rights of men and women this serves us

overarching values to which suppliers of goods and services to the United Nations are expected to adhere and these are the list of the basic Universal human values happiness peace love freedom safety intelligence human respect equality Justice nature and health and now let's talk about the main focus today which are respect for human life and Truth telling but first let's talk about the truth telling I choose to play spinoculars image here because he characterizes the lying puppet whenever he tells a lie his nose grew longer so telling alai is the opposite of telling the truth it's

often suggested that we are living in a post-truth era major coverage suggested that lying has become normal human behavior and politicians journalists Business Leaders and celebrities are routinely found to be bending the truth for personal gain it's easy to assume that truth selling is no longer the norm but is that really the case to answer this question researchers looked at data from over 400 experiments around the world and which participants rolled a dice and then reported the role to the researcher participants were paid the number they claimed to have rolled in this setting no individual

report can be judged as honest or dishonest after all some people should roll a six but not everybody can roll a six so the researchers can judge the overall frequency of honesty perhaps surprisingly they found that most people didn't lie this Behavior was consistent across 47 countries although men were slightly more inclined to lie than women researchers then looked at people's motives for truth telling and tested their predictions they found that most people are honest because they want to be honest and want to appear so the study suggests that to encourage truth telling we should

emphasize the cost of lying and also the associated laws of reputation maybe our morality isn't in such bad shape after all or it could also be that the methodology of the research is not reliable enough because you see rolling a dice do not represent all kinds of lying Dr David Jeremiah said truth matters today more than ever so why is it that we can trust anyone anymore because our culture has decided that truth doesn't matter that it is subjective even arbitrary that as long as you're not hurting anyone it is okay to tell a white

line here stretch the truth there and outright deceive others when deemed necessary in today's world we see the concept of absolute objective truth eroding away so how can we separate the truth from the lies and The Godly influences in our lives from the ungodly there are two assumptions in ethics that man is a rational being and that man is free without assuming the existence of rationality and freedom of man it is impossible to judge an action as ethical or unethical however being rational and free is not enough to practice morality there should be the presence

of truth and truth telling is a universal values every person needs the truth isn't it the Lord Jesus said if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free and there are two fundamental aspects of Truth these are the source or standard of truth and the terminology so let's first tackle the source or standard of Truth this is the fundamental aspect of Truth The Source I'm not talking about the individual Source like when somebody comes to you and says hey so and

so told me this and then you say what's your Source on that because if that person said it I'm not going to believe it but if this other person says it then I will believe it okay I'm not talking about individual sources of information what I'm talking about when we have to examine the source or the standard of Truth is the universal Source the universal source and standard by which all things are judged as either true or false every single one of us has to answer that question what is the source of truth that you

then evaluate all things through in order to indetermine if it is true or false who or what determines and or defines truth what is your standard of Truth by which you judge everything some things are just universally true and we need to accept that there are some things that are universally true the sun rises in the East sets in the West Water always seeks its own level two plus two is four what goes up must come down well in that category is truth because the truth never changes if it's really true it never changes and

why is that because God is the source of Truth and God never changes Deuteronomy 32 verse 4 says he is the rock his word is perfect for all his ways are Justice a god of Truth and without Injustice righteousness and upright is he so the Bible makes it clear God is truth and he is the source of all truth and Malachi 3 Verse 6 says I the Lord do not change so God is truth and he doesn't change then neither does truth you see if God is not the source or the standard of truth if

the source and standard of Truth is Ever Changing which seems to be the popular notion today then how can you ever definitively know what is true if things keep changing and people say well this is true but tomorrow it's different and so truth changes then how will you ever really definitively know what is true the Barna research group conducted two surveys several years ago between one survey was with teenagers one survey was with adults and the survey had to do with truth and moral decision making and one survey among the teenagers found that at least

five percent of the teenagers listed six different approaches to discovering truth they said there's not one way to understand truth there are six different ways they gave six different examples of how to discover truth it was worse among adults adults give eight eight different ways that you can discern truth and make moral decisions and in spite of the variety that teenagers and adults had six and eight different ways by far the most common basis for moral decision making according to this survey between both adults and teenagers was doing whatever feels right or comfortable in a

situation so that's alarming nearly 4 out of 10 things 38 and 3 out of 10 adults 31 described that as their primary consideration another popular means that they said of determining truth or moral decision making were on the basis of the values people had learned from their parents on whatever outcome would produce the most personal beneficial results on whatever would make the most people happy on whatever they thought their family and friends expected of them that's the way our world operates that's the way people are trying to figure out truths these days can I tell

you it's very comforting to know that God is the source of truth that I don't have to try to figure anything out I just go to the Holy Scripture understand what does God says about this what does God say about that it might not always be popular but this is what is true and so now this becomes the guidebook for my life and Jesus was praying for his disciples just before he went to the Cross he said in his prayer father Sanctified them by your truth your word is truth we need to be Sanctified by

God's truth we need to understand what his truth is so that we can live our lives accordingly instead of vacillating and wandering in our world and being caught up by all the cultural opinions and all the chaos that's so prevalent in our world today so it's absolutely critical that we understand the source and the standard of Truth is God and His word but then the other aspects that's important is terminology that is the definition of words words are important so there is a need to understand the terminology if there is no agreement on what words

mean there will have no understanding about anything especially what is true for example if one say it is sunny outside generally most people understand Sunny means the sun is shining that if somebody goes outside he or she will see his or her Shadow and feel the warmth of the sun rays on his or her skin because people have a common language but what will happen if enough people get together and say no no Sunny doesn't only mean those things Sunny can also mean cloudy and foggy so the definition changes properly figuring the truth is a

tough challenge to the Millennials because if someone don't like the standard of Truth he or she is going to change the terminology of Truth to put his or her narrative lifestyle or agenda that's why standard and terminology are very important aspects of Truth today's generation are living in a culture which did not only deny the standard of truth but is modding all the terminologies so that it creates confusion and people are not even sure what is true anymore again truth telling is a universal values because who would like to hear fake news or false information

nobody that's why truth telling is so important and yet in our culture today this is still the question what is truth the same question asked by Pontius Pilate to Jesus 2 million years ago what is truth okay so number one truth is objective truth can never be subjective it's a very popular today to hear people say well this is my Truth Versus Your Truth there is no such thing I can just say it's my opinion or it's my perspective but truth is not determined by you or me truth can exist only if there is an

objective standard by which to measure it even in Practical day-to-day basis you can't go to the bank to get 99.99 pesos in your account until the cashier I will withdraw my 100 pesos the cashier will surely say you only have 99.99 pesos and that is the truth and you will say oh that's your truth my truth is I do have 100 pesos okay that will not work you know number two truth is absolute meaning it doesn't change number three truth is eternal if God is your truth then truth is eternal number four truth is praying

remember the Lord Jesus said the truth shall make you free and number five truth is universal if it is true for me it's true for you it should be what is true for one person should be true for all because truth is not selective to one group of people one time that they live one particular cultural truth is true across all nations and all cultures and all times it's Universal now let's move to the second major Universal values which is the respect for human life each and every human being is made in the image and

likeness of God this truth is found repeatedly in sacred scripture and sacred tradition it is also reaffirmed repeatedly in the history of the teaching of the church while this image can be stained or distorted by sin it can never be destroyed this truth is expressed in the Commandments concerning how we are to deal with other people for example the law of Moses tells us Thou shalt not murder we are called to treat the lives of each other with reverence and respect because they like us are made in God's image the Lord Jesus Christ commands Us

in the gospel to love our neighbor as ourselves why because they like us are created and sustained by God's love human life is precious and a holy thing because of this from the moment of each life's creation by God at the moment of conception throughout its Earthly life to death and yes even Beyond Death as we humans share in God's life through an immortal soul that life must be viewed and treated with the reverence and respect due to the Supreme Act of God's creative will and even more so in the light of Jesus death for

the sake of each soul and yet how often do we fail to treat human life the respect that it deserves in the modern world far from having an enlightened reverence for life too many people see it as disposable subject manipulation or less valuable because of age ability race or gender and authorious example was the Nazi euthanasia program which referred to the sick and disabled as life Unworthy of Life while there are many challenges to the church view of the sanctity of human life the greatest in terms of severity and numbers are artificial contraception embryo fertilization

and abortion all of which treat the most innocent and vulnerable as disposable and objects of manipulation time and again we are called to Proclaim to the world the absolute sanctity of human life and to work to ensure that this sanctity is lived out in our world today and as an activity I require you to watch this documentary video and lastly let's talk about human dignity the English word dignity comes from the Latin word dignitas which means worthiness dignity implies that each person is worthy of honor and respect for who they are not just for what

they can do in other words human dignity cannot be earned and cannot be taken away it's an inalienable gift given to us by God and every other good thing in life depends on the safeguarding of our fundamental dignity as the universal Declaration of Human Rights puts it recognition of the inherent Dignity of all members of the Human family is the foundation of freedom justice and peace in the world dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake and to be treated ethically human dignity originates from God and is

of God because we are made in God's Own image and likeness human life is sacred because the human person is the most Central and clearest reflection of God Among Us human beings have Transcendent worth and value that comes from God this dignity is not based on any human quality legal mandate or individual Merit or accomplishment human dignity is inalienable that means it is an essential part of every human being and is an intrinsic quality that can never be separated from other essential aspects of the human person human beings are qualitatively different from any other living

being in the world because they are capable of knowing and loving God unlike any other creature belief in the Dignity of the human person is the foundation of morality and that's all about Universal values