Can we know anything for sure? Yes, even if we can’t know everything. The claim that “we can’t know anything” collapses on itself, because it claims to know something. The same is true of the idea that all religions are equally right. Christianity teaches that God has revealed real truth in creation, in Scripture, and most clearly in Jesus, and that this truth can be known and trusted.
The Blind Men and the Elephant
You may have heard the old parable about several blind men who touch different parts of an elephant. One feels the trunk and insists the elephant is like a snake. Another touches a leg and says it’s like a tree. A third grabs the tail and is sure it’s like a rope. Each one is partly right, and each one is convinced the others are wrong.
The story has meant different things in different cultures, but in the West it’s often used to make a point about truth: nobody sees the whole picture, so nobody should claim to be right. It sounds humble. But notice something about the story. Whoever tells it can see the entire elephant. The parable only works because someone has the full view.
Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
Paul warned believers about ideas that sound wise but leave Christ out. Many popular ideas about truth fall into that trap. They sound open-minded, yet they quietly assume a position of certainty they say no one can have.
Why “We Can’t Know Anything” Doesn’t Work
Objective truth has been challenged in our culture in a few different ways. One is extreme skepticism. How do you really know you’re not living in a computer simulation, like in The Matrix films? How can you be certain your senses aren’t fooling you? These questions are fun to think about, and some of them raise real philosophical puzzles.
The problem comes when someone draws a firm line and says, “We can’t know anything.” That statement is a claim to know something. If it’s true, then it’s false. A view that refutes itself isn’t a safe, neutral place to stand. It’s a contradiction.
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The Bible assumes that God made a world that can be known and made us able to know it. We may not understand everything, but we can understand truly. That’s why science, history, and everyday life work at all. The world makes sense because a rational God made it.
Can All Religions Be True?
Another challenge is religious pluralism, the idea that all religions are basically on the path toward God and each is right in some ways and wrong in others. Like the elephant story, this sounds generous. Yet it claims to have the one perspective that sees how every religion fits together, which means pluralism treats itself as the ultimate truth while denying that anyone else can have it.
The world’s religions also make contradictory claims. Islam denies that Jesus died on the cross. Christianity says his death and resurrection are the center of everything. Both can’t be right. Jesus didn’t leave room for a vague middle ground either.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
That’s a bold claim, and it deserves serious attention. Jesus didn’t say he would point us to the truth. He said he is the truth. If he rose from the dead, as the eyewitnesses claimed, then he has the authority to say there is only one way to God.
Truth That Sets You Free
Knowing truth isn’t just an academic exercise. Jesus connected truth to freedom. Many people today feel adrift because they’ve been told there’s nothing solid to stand on. Without truth, there’s no reliable way to tell right from wrong, wise from foolish, or hope from wishful thinking.
John 8:31-32 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Jesus ties knowing truth to following him. As you hold to his teaching, you’ll find that God’s truth isn’t a cage. It’s freedom from deception, from sin’s grip, and from the exhausting work of inventing your own reality.
The Takeaway
Can we know anything for sure? Yes. Extreme skepticism and religious pluralism both undercut themselves, while the Bible shows that God made a knowable world and revealed himself in Jesus. We may not know everything, but we can know what matters most, and that truth sets us free.
