Where do I even start? I mean, honestly. That wasn’t said for show, I really don’t know where to begin.
First, let’s define truth. That’s always a safe place to begin. What is truth? I say truth is reality. Truth is what we know to be real, correct, and naturally following from other instances. Logical.
Let’s see what good ol’ Dictionary.com says:
Truth: the true or actual state of a matter; conformity with fact or reality;
Okay, so that’s pretty consistent with the definition I presented.
Now we get to the deep part. If you define truth simply as above, that’s not too difficult. But then we get into the famous logical fallacy:
“Well, that may be true for you, but not for me.”
“I think everyone should find his own truth.”
“Truth is all relative.”
*buzzer sound*
I’m sorry; come again?
Truth is not relative. Truth does not differ from person to person. You cannot find “your own” truth. There is only truth, and it is true for you and everyone else. Truth is one of the black and white things in life. Either something is true—and true for everyone—or it is false—and false for everyone.
Of course, then we get into the matter of finding truth. If there is only one truth for every question, what is it? How do we find it?
Well, let’s take a walk through history.
Originally, of course, truth came from God. People went to God for everything, and he gave them truth.
Of course, that got old eventually. People began to wander away from God and look for truth in other places. Why believe in some invisible superhero in the sky when you can just look around the world and find truth for yourself?
But, there was still only one truth to be believed, and that started to hurt some peoples’ feelings. The artistic world was evolving into more abstract concepts and artists like Picasso painted “as they really saw the world”. This opened the gateway for some interesting ideas.
People began to try to find “their own truth”. Truth became relative, hippies reigned ;) Drugs became an answer. LSD was the golden truth. People thought that it would help them find the truth inside themselves.
Of course, the golden years of LSD were fairly short lived, and people reverted mostly back to their old ways.
Lately, truth has become a relative term once again. Right and wrong have been blurred. Good and evil barely exist anymore in the minds of today’s citizens.
Maybe you’re nodding vigorously and going, “Yes, YES! Truth IS relative!” or maybe you were like me and your eyes are bugging and you’re going, “Good and evil relative? How is that even a possibility?”
However, now that God has been taken out of the equation, how we define truth? How do we determine right and wrong? How do we decide what is good and what is evil?
People do.
So, people can find the ultimate truth? By themselves?
Oh, no, of course not.
So it’s a good thing that’s not what America is looking for.
People aren’t looking for the ultimate truth anymore, because they’ve decided there’s no such thing.
“Well, that may be true for you, but not for me.”
“I think everyone should find his own truth.”
“Truth is all relative.”
This is great. This is awesome. How easy is this?? I can lie and cheat and steal and it’s all okay because that’s what’s true, what’s right, what’s good for me. We can all have our own truths. They might be totally different from each other, but it’s all chill dude, because there’s no such thing as truth anyway. We’re just making it up as we go along.
Abortion might be wrong for you, but it might be right for me.
Oh, you can believe in Global Warming if you want to. It can be true for you, just not for me.
Maybe you see calling down demons as evil, but I believe it’s my calling.
Right and wrong. *shrug* Whatever you feel is right for you.
Truth and falsehood. *smile* Oh, you just pick and chose! I’ll accept your decision as your own.
Good and evil. *wink* There’s not really a right and wrong answer here. It’s all relative.
…
Let’s go back to the beginning. What is truth?
The true or actual state of a matter.
That doesn’t sound negotiable to me. Truth is what is right and what is not. That’s black and white. Truth is black and white. That’s why it’s called TRUTH. If it’s not black and white, then they have this cool new word called OPINION that you can use.
So if right and wrong, true and false, good and evil are absolutes, who decides what they are?
THE GOVERNMENT!
Haha, just kidding.
Well, who? You? Me? Seriously, the government?
Well, who tells you what truth is? Who tells me what truth is? Who tells the government what truth is?
And then who tells the tellers of you? Of me? Of the government?
And who tells the tellers of the tellers?
And back…
And back…
And back…
WHAT IS TRUTH?
HOW DO WE GET TRUTH?
WHO IS THE FINAL AUTHORITY?
WHERE CAN WE LEARN WHAT’S REAL?
WHERE IS THE UNIVERSAL?
WHERE IS THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH OF ALL THESE PARTICULAR THINGS?
Just like the definition of truth, let’s go back to the beginning.
Yep, you probably called it.
God. God tells us what the universal, the ultimate truth is.
I saw that eye roll and lip curl. I saw that disgusted look away from the computer. I saw that click to another window because you refuse to deal with closed-minded, religious idiots like me.
Well, since I’m not closed minded, let me ask you:
If truth doesn’t come from God, where does it come from?
I really don't wanna get into a faith vs skepticism argument here... probably because I'm too lazy
ReplyDeleteanyway, I believe there are truths: true to anyone, because they were tested and proven right, or something like that. and there are opinions: I think that right or wrong thing is more of a relative thing. I'm not talking of course, of any action: I wouldn't say killing someone because you feel like it might be right for someone, but there are stuff that can be more of an opinion thing
when you start talking about god, I shiver. I mean, did god tell some people all the truths long ago and they just passed it on? I'm not saying people who have religious faith are wrong, I'm just saying it's just a matter of that: faith. we don't have any kind of "evidence", so to call it (I didn't really wanna call it that, it seems very strict), on the existence of god. people are religious mainly because they were educated that way
oops, I'm doing exactly what I didn't wanna do... I'm sorry
anyway, this was just to say I agree with you in some extent (as pretty much always) and I disagree with you on other stuff (as pretty much always XD)
Kendra:
ReplyDeleteI take credit for inspiring this post with my Justice League blog.
=D
Kʀɛѵɑɳ:
You're going with the definition of truth being what's testable. The problem is that that relies of human knowledge. Belief in the truth of science is still belief. It was once "science" that the sun revolved around the Earth. It was a definite, agreed-upon scientific "fact." And it turned out to be wrong.
The lack of physical evidence does not make God's truth any less possible, because the very nature of God supersedes the physical plane. In fact, applying traditional science to God doesn't work at all. It's like a blind man trying to tell the difference between red and blue.
Kendra's not talking about truth as "knowledge;" she's talking about it as actual reality, separate from our perceptions.
Kʀɛѵɑɳ, God did actually tell people what truth was so that we could pass it down, it is called the Bible.
ReplyDeleteWe have faith that the Bible is true, yes, but we can also back that up with facts. Luckily for us, the Bible recorded a lot of huge events throughout history. Whenever we are able to find records or evidence of these events, we find that it agrees with the stories set down in the Bible.
Look Noah's Ark discovery, or Sodom and Gamora to see what I mean.
I haven't really put much thought into it
ReplyDeleteI get that. anyway, what matters to me is what we know... there's an infinite number os absolute truths we don't know out there... sure, that doesn't make them any less true, but if we don't know of them it's as if they didn't exist
what confuses me in the whole religion matter is that you can just pretty much justify everything that comes at you saying things like "god trasncends that". it's like in the matrix movies: we could be part of a human farm waiting to be harvested, and our whole lives are just our imagination. or like in the movie bladerunner... some robots thought they were people because their builders implanted made up memories in them. I could say pretty much anything and defend that by saying it's unexplainable by man's science or logic, but it still exists
but, seriously, even though I find debating very interesting, I suck at it plus I'm too lazy for it... this is probably my last post on this matter ^_^
thanks einar, for giving me a concrete example. I'm not going further into this, though ^_^ I hope this post stirs a discussion like "taking a stand" did. I really do find this interesting, but I don't like participating in it very much
ReplyDeleteThis barely worht commenting on. You all know my position, I believe it's the truth. In the end, we are all atheists in a sense, because in atheism, you just die. No reward for good behavior, just die. Actually, I don't fear it. It's a like a great rest, not a void as some have called it. But whatever you believe, it will happen to you. Christian, jewish, Muslim, there is no judgement. It just happens.
ReplyDeleteAlex: I don't really see what you're proving here. I'm talking about universal truth, you're talking about dying an atheist. If you want to contribute to the post (how people find truth, whether you think truth is relative, how good and evil are determined), that'd be great.
ReplyDelete~Kendra
Well, unfortunately, I think anyone can say this all they want. "There is only one truth. That is the truth that I believe in." You tell everyone else that they are wrong. They tell you that you are wrong. Sorry, you're trapped. Everyone is trapped in their own illusion of realizing THE truth, and none of them are willing to appreciate the "truths" of others.
ReplyDeleteWe say that God is the only truth. Muslims say that Allah is the only truth. Hindus say that the Brahman is the only truth. And so on and so forth. Truth may have been passed down by God, but what if you don't believe in God? I stick by what I said earlier. Because of who we are, truth is what is agreed on by humans. At least at a social level, there is no Great Decider to inform humans of what they're right about and what they are wrong about.
Someone used the example earlier that people used to think that the world is flat. Does that make it true? No. But what if two centuries ahead of us, someone discovers that the moon is actually an illusion. In truth, it is a cube. That means that we're not right now. As crazy as that sounds, it's the way life works.
Basically, yes, I believe there is a truth for everyone. If you're right, then I'm wrong and I'm in trouble. If I'm right, then you can be right too because everyone has their own truth.
Interesting post. I love this debate.
Kendra, many consider what happens after death to be a central part of a religion and part of universal truth. It is one of the greatest questions of all because no one can truly answer it. Good and evil are human inventions, no one is truly god or evil, we just do right or wrong things. No one thinks they are really doing something evil or bad, that is just how they are perceived.
ReplyDeleteThere is a basic issue with the whole “personal truth” concept…if I my personal truth says that God created everything and is the source of all truth, and your personal truth says that there is no God, we can’t both be right, these can’t both be reality.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has a personal belief system, a faith, that gives them a personal world view, but that is not the same as truth. Those that are debating that truth is personal are caught in an ironic position. They are saying it is true for everyone that truth is not true for everyone. Your argument is self defeating.
Alex’s belief system is atheism, it is his faith. He has stated that it is true for everyone, no matter what their religion, that death is an absolute end to existence. He has said that your personal truth will not change this, it is true for all, a universal truth. He also says he can’t prove it, which is why it is faith.
From what I am reading we all agree that truth is the same for everyone, we just disagree on what that truth is.
My belief is not completely based on faith, but I will admit that it somewhat is. However, I do believe that atheism is a religion. It sounds a bit weird to put it that way, but it is. It is the belief in no God and religion is simply someone's belief in the divine, whether for or against.
ReplyDeleteWow deep post Kendra. Completely agree! Truth is not relative, in any sense. Or else it would not be called true.Good job!
ReplyDelete