Hey Nate, thanks for the response. Here's my explanations...

1. Universal vs. Relative

"There is a universal, absolute truth This is something you just have to decide for yourself..."

What if I never come to that decision? This may be picky, but it sounds like you're using a relativistic qualifier for an absolute statement.

My point was that it gets very complicated and abstract to make an argument for if there is a universal truth or not, so I was trying not to get into it. For instance, while I believe the most logical conclusion is that there is a universal truth (just from evidence in life and experience), what if logic itself is relative? Can you prove to me that the world as you perceive is anywhere even close to the way I perceive? Researchers know that memory is relative and highly pliable, for instance. What if logic is the same. What if, if you were seeing the world from my eyes, by far the most logical conclusion was that there is a universal truth? Now, what if, from your's, the most logical conclusion was that everything is relative? It's impossible to have a logical argument on this topic when part of the argument implies that logic itself could be relative!

My end point is that while I believe that the most probable and logical answer is that there is a universal truth, this is something ultimately I cannot convince you of and you have to decide for yourself. Not that either of our decisions actually change the fact of if there is a truth and what is is though.

2. Seeking the Truth

"Humans innately seek truth and are only truly happy when they do so."

While I do believe that humans naturally seek truth over falsehood, I also believe that they seek it by their own means, (not to mention that they often have very different definitions for these things). Without God leading seekers to the Truth, true happiness will never be found.

When I said “happy,” I did not mean in a overall, continual contentment in life sense. I meant it more than you guarantee unhappiness when you are not seeking the truth, though many other things can prevent happiness as well. Obviously, as a Christian, I believe that it takes more than simply seeking the truth to make you truly and continuously happy. Also, I want to clarify my original statement a little. A better way to have said it would have been:

“Humans are only happy when they wholly believe they are seeking the truth.”

In other words, sometimes in life we try to lie to ourselves (and sometimes to others) because we think that it will make us or them happy. In fact, this whole idea of “happiness when seeking truth” came from a conversation at a campus ministry I had while I was at Georgia Tech. One of the interns there said he was talking to some other interns about how they would feel if they died and got to the afterlife, only to find out that Christianity was not true and there was no God (obviously you wouldn't be a conscious entity at that point, but this is all hypothetical anyway). They all agreed that they would actually still have wanted to believe in Christianity because it made them so happy during their lifetimes.

At first, I could understand this and I almost agreed, though it left a bad taste in my life. But after going home and thinking about it for a couple of days, I firmly decided otherwise. I decide that no, I would have wanted to know the truth. I would've wanted to know that there was no God and I would've wanted to not live my life for one that didn't exist, even if that life would've been far better and fulfilling than one without God.

Another classic scenario you hear about is kids who are never told their adopted. Some parents believe that if the kid goes their whole life never knowing, that that would make it where they almost really were a biological child? First off, you run the risk of them finding out when they're like 40, which could be detrimental to the relationship between the child and his or her parents. But even if they never find out their entire lives, I still believe it's wrong to do that to them as a parent.

You, as the parent, are endorsing a false reality on your child, which is very wrong in my opinion. I've come to firmly believe that our personal sense of reality is a very, very precious thing. Betrayal, an act that most would agree to be one of the most damaging things someone can do to another personal, is really creating a false reality for someone else and then pulling the rug out from underneath them later. Again, another way to rephrase what I originally said is:

Humans need to know that their sense of reality is in fact real, and this need is something they cannot help. They can consciously or subconsciously try to bend or distort their reality from the truth to make life easier or more comfortable, but in the end they will not be happy in that state.

3. How close to the real truth can one come

"Though you can never be 100% that you know the truth..."

I'll refer to Ben on this, but I remember him telling me about Francis Schaeffer's writing on exhaustive knowledge. In reference to your statement about being 100% on the truth, I would have to agree if you mean that we will never have exhaustive knowledge of the Truth, ; however, I do believe we can be 100% about knowing the source of Truth, Jesus Christ. And this is where faith comes in. We were not given inquisitive minds to be continuously asking and seeking without rest--God gives us enough knowledge to be conclusive in many areas and more importantly to be at peace through his Holy Spirit, so that we may live life abundantly in faith. And this abundant life, I believe, does involve a desire to learn and a search for truth, but in a much different way than before we are saved.

Yes, I was talking (mostly) about exhaustive knowledge of the truth. In other words, many churches think that they have the right doctrine. 100% accurate. And many people (if not most) think their beliefs are the right beliefs. In the end, it becomes quickly apparent that that is very unlikely. Everyone puts their own spin on everything that goes through their head. And I'm not even talking solely about religion or philosophy. The same can go for politics, sports, the arts, just about anything really. But you're right, Christians know the source of the one truth, the person that does have exhaustive knowledge of the truth.

My point was that while it can be depressing that you'll never have the finer points of your beliefs completely aligned with the truth, I do believe that if you keep and open mind and are always willing to listen, then you will continually become closer to that truth. That is, until the next life when that journey will be completely. This is much like our current lives a sinners. While none of us will ever truly be what God intended us to be in this lifetime, I do believe we are currently being refined into that state and are continually getting closer. This too will be completely at the second coming.

4. Fear of one's own beliefs

"If you are scared or defensive about your beliefs, you have to ask yourself why."

I agree with you that if we are afraid of any of our beliefs, we should look into them and find out why we are afraid. We are to be prepared with a defense for what we believe, but if by defensive, you mean a scared aversion to questioning of our beliefs, than I agree with you.

Yeah, I was saying “defensive” as in a scared aversion to questioning. That's a good way to put it actually.