A study finds that while a majority of American adults still believes in the concept of fixed, absolute truth, a majority of adults under the age of 30 believe that individuals get to decide their own truth.
The poll was conducted by Summit Ministries in partnership with the polling firm McLaughlin and conducted among 1,000 likely general election voters between the dates of Oct. 12-17, The Christian Post reports.
Pollsters found that 60% of total respondents said they believed in absolute truth and 40% said they did not.
Of adults under the age of 30, 55% said that people determine their own truth, while 42% said they believed in absolute truth.
Of adults over the age of 30, over half said they believed in absolute truth, while 60% of adults over the age of 56 held this view.
Broken down along ideological lines, conservatives were the most likely to believe in absolute truth at 67%, while liberals were the most likely to say that truth was individual (48%).
Married respondents, meanwhile, believed in absolute truth at a rate of 60% while just 50% of single respondents did.
Along racial lines, 61% of white voters believed in absolute truth compared to 49% of African American voters and 49% of Hispanic voters.
Summit Ministries President Jeff Meyers noted that the number of young adults who do not believe in absolute truth is particularly noteworthy.
“The number of Americans who say there is no absolute truth is alarmingly high. But among young adults, we have now officially passed the tipping point. The majority of youth now say that each person determines their own version of truth,” he said in a statement.
“The loss of truth has grave consequences for community, justice, a sense of purpose and mental health. I’m not aware of any civilization that has abandoned reality to this extent and survived,” he said.
Meyers was hopeful, however, that we are not too far over the edge yet.
“The good news is that Americans still hold out hope that each person can make a difference. If there ever was a time to stand for truth, it is now,” he said.
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