You can't handle the truth

This blog originally posted Tuesday, April 03, 2007

mood: quixotic Category: Religion and Philosophy

The great and wise prophet of our times, Homer Simpson said, "Facts are meaningless, you could use facts to prove anything that is even remotely true!"

Oh the wisdom in those lines... If I hear another person say, "That's true for you", "There is no absolute truth", or some version thereof, I just might have an aneurism. People in our culture has become so willfully ignorant in their rush for 'tolerance' that they make moronic statements such as that. It drives me crazy. I hear it from kids in my youth group, I hear it from people at work, I hear it on TV, I heard it the other day from my 6 year old daughter! and I even hear it at Bible college of all places!

In case no one ever told you: By definition, something that is true is true for everyone. By its very nature, truth is that way. We may have discussion over whether or not something is true, but if it is true, then it is absolute.

Rules of Truth:

1. Truth Is! (It really exists)
2. Truth Is...Whether you believe it or not.
3. Truth Is...Whether you know it or not.
4. Truth Is...Whether you deny it or not.
5. Truth Is...Whether you want it to be or not.
6. Truth Is...Whether you understand it or not.
7. Truth Is...Whether it is culturally popular or not.
8. Truth Is...Whether it makes you happy or not.
9. Truth Is...Whether it disproves your beliefs or not.
10. Truth Is...Whether you try to change it or not.
11. Truth will stand up to examination.
12. Truth will not have true evidence that fully contradict it.
13. Truth means that two contradicting ideas cannot both by true (they could both be false)
14. Truth has power that may hurt people, destroy ideas, ruin plans, change lives. So do lies.

The funny thing about the statements 'That's true for you' or 'I believe everyone has their own truth' or 'Truth is relative' is that even the people who say them don't really believe that. They say it when they speak of morals, religion, political concepts, or ideas (usually those that they are uncomfortable with). But, in truth, they don't really live that way. If they did, they would drive down the wrong side of the road anytime they want, because traffic laws are just someone elses belief system. They would allow their friend to get a medical license online and do their heart surgery for them, because biology is relative.

If truth is relative, then child molestation is perfectly OK. Murder is just a lifestyle choice. Stealing is acceptable as long as it makes you happy.

Truth applies to mathematics: 1+1 = 2.

Truth applies to science: A cat cannot breath underwater.

Truth applies to languages: words have meanings that can be understood by others.

Truth applies to history: Abraham Lincoln was president of the USA during the civil war.

Truth applies to health: The heart pumps blood, your teeth do not.

Truth applies to politics: Power corrupts people very easily.

Truth applies to morality: Killing innocents is wrong.

Truth applies to religion: One religion says there is only one God, another says there are many. Both cannot be true.

Some will read the list above and try to find nitpicky ways around each of these truths, but the core remains the same. Truth Exists in each of these areas.

You may not like that there is truth. Especially, if it means that what you are doing might be wrong. But that does not change the reality that truth exists.

Hold a handful of sand. Try to guess how many grains of sand are in your hand. Do you know exactly how many are there? Probably not. Can you know? Of course. You could count each grain. Truth is knowable.

Some would say that religion, morality, and politics lie in the realm of opinion, like trying to decide whether vanilla is the right flavor of ice cream or not. (Of course Rocky Road is the right flavor of ice cream, let's not be silly). But simple logic shows - if there is a God, and every religion disagrees on who He is, then only one can be right (or all could be wrong).

Simple logic shows that we can look at past political decisions and know that some were right for the nation and some wrong. So there was truth, we just didn't know what it was at the time. Few would deny that hurting others is immoral and wrong. The discussion comes when competing view points vie for the definition of 'hurting' or 'others' as in the abortion debate, gay marriage, civil rights, slavery, war, etc. One group believes one thing, one group believes another. These viewpoints may be opinions, but the opinions do not change the unknown truth.
Truth should be sought out. We should want to find truth in life. Most people don't want to look for truth because it might be hard to find, it might be hard to understand, it might now make them happy, it might call them to change.

I like to consider myself intellectually honest. I have beliefs in the realms of religion and morality that don't agree with everyone elses. I am willing to admit that I might be wrong. I am willing to admit that I am on a lifetime pursuit of truth. I am willing to admit that truth is often difficult to grasp and painful. I love discussing competing ideas and concepts, but if we are going to have a discussion of competing ideas, we both must realize that our beliefs do not change the core truth of the subject. We could both be wrong, or one of us could be right; but, if the ideas are contradictory- we cannot both be right.

This is why every high school student ought to take classes in Logic, Debate, and Philosophy. They ought to have a teacher that challenges their ideas and drives them to look at other points of view. They should be made to argue for things that they don't like. They should be challenged to seek truth in any question. This is painful and difficult, but it will ultimately kill the foolish relativism in our society. If you learn to think critically, then you begin to see the dichotomy that exists when people make unreasoning statements that deny the existance of truth (which they state as the truth).

I will teach my daughter to think. This means she will question the religion that I teach her. That means she will question my political stances. That means she will question the morals that I require of her while in our house. That is going to be painful for both of us, but the ultimate gift of rational thought will be worth it.

If you can't handle the truth, that's fine. Just don't blab your ignorance all over the place by denying that there is truth.