And the Truth Shall Set You Free
I don’t know the truth. I’m always seeking for answers. Or, when trying to answer questions of my always-questioning son, I’m admitting that I don’t have all the answers (offering, of course, to help him seek answers in other places). Sometimes I just wish I could stop thinking, or more honestly, stop worrying.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that you knew the truth? That you had answers to all the important questions? What bliss that must be!
This is a feeling I had after the last of several visits from a couple of lovely Mormon sisters. I am often ready for conversations with others who share different viewpoints, and I’ll take an opportunity when it comes. The early visits were mostly about Joseph Smith, his vision, and the Book of Mormon.
But my visitors did not only try to minister to me. They asked me questions. And I asked them questions. I learned several new things, and I like to think that I at least sparked some thoughts in one of them. At the final visit, however, I was told that if I spent twenty minutes a day reading and praying on the Book of Mormon and its teachings, I would find the truth of their Church.
So I, of course, had to ask, “But what if I don’t?”
The response: “You will.”
I asked again, what if I come away from that experience with a different truth. And I was quickly answered again that it wouldn’t happen. I was told that it was not possible. The “truth” was there, and it would be revealed to anyone who read and prayed on what the Book taught. And the “truth” would be the same for everyone who did so. Period.
And their faces lit up with the joy they felt, and the knowledge of the truth they owned. And it was beautiful.
And I didn’t have it. I know that I don’t know the truth. Anybody’s truth.
Looking back, it reminds me of when I was a graduate student. The other graduate students in my office were having a conversation about how nice it must be to be “stupid.” How easy life could be if you weren’t always thinking. I think back on that conversation differently now than I did when I was twenty-one years old, but that same idea of peace seems just as unreachable now as it did then.
This is not just about faith. It’s about thinking and knowing, certainty, comfort, and freedom. Freedom from thought, freedom from worry. But a closed mind should not accompany that freedom. If you’ve got the truth, hurrah for you. But before you go…do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?
Be human,
Julia
February 25th, 2007 10:07
I too have had this kind of conversation with friends at various times.
I’m rather glad that I “know” less today (at 48) than when I was younger! I may have more knowledge and more experiences etc. however, I am less inclined to “know” which leaves me more open to curiosity and exploration.
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“The fact that someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true. Doesn’t mean they’re lying, but it doesn’t mean it’s true.” By Carl Sagan
Namaste, Thea
February 25th, 2007 14:41
Is there such a thing as objective truth, or is everything relative? Can a human being who is part of the whole, know the whole, or must all our knowing be partial?
I believe that scientific enquiry is driven by the supposition that there is an objective truth that can be known. Isn’t the unifying theory of physics thought to be an objective truth that will bring together the truths currently understood on the macro level and the micro level?
On the other hand, science is an assembly of credible propositions, that are accepted on the basis of their usefulness and width of application. When a new stronger theory is devised, it replaces the older ones. So, none are final, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity isn’t THE TRUTH, it is the best explanation we have found till now.
The truth will set us free, because the best explanation frees us from confusion and error. As we climb the ladder of knowledge, generation to generation, we become increasingly free of superstition and wrong actions. We don’t bleed people when they have a fever, we give them medicine.
And the practices of the mystics brings us to a different inner rhythm, a new way of being. Meditation and prayer can bring us to new state of wider, calmer attention, where we are more in tune with larger truth, and there is a sense of rightness and freedom in that. We are free from our inner tensions and conflicting desires.
February 25th, 2007 16:30
A dear friend of mine has said “Objective truth exists, and man can know it.”
If you have two widgets and I give you another, you have three widgets. That’s objective truth.
I believe everything else works out similarly. It may take a little more effort to get to the bottom of more complex issues, but it’s out there.
Scott
February 25th, 2007 18:31
Two widgets plus one widget equals three widgets. This is the language of maths. 2+1=3.
Is this truth, or is it the self-fulfilling rules of one particular mathematical language? What about other mathematical systems? Not all maths is based on a decimal system. Higher forms of maths (not my forte) can deal with multiple dimensions and with concepts that we can’t grasp. (Well, I just can’t make ‘infinity’ real in the way I can make ‘apple’ real. But is infinity just as real as apple, even if I can’t comprehend it the same way?)
Einstein understood the principle that light was partly matter and partly energy, but it was not until he discovered and learnt a new form of maths that he was able to express it in a language that could be understood by other scientists.
I am not sure that maths is truth. Maths is one of the many languages we have to describe the world. So where does that leave us with the truth about the quantity of widgets that we might all accept is an ultimate truth?
February 25th, 2007 20:01
Hey all,
I am alive. I will die. I have asthma and allergies. I know how to play the bass guitar, which has a finite number of strings and a finite number of notes that I can play on it. Truth.
I was born white (still am). I went to catholic and public schools. I went to a local college and earned my bachelors of science degree. More truth.
A normal dog has four legs; a normal human has two. Sometimes life throws a curve ball, and you get a three-legged dog and a human with less than two legs. That’s truth, too.
That my son will disagree with me on something, some day, and think I lost my brain when he turns fourteen or fifteen, that’s conjecture. However, if he reaches that point, he will think it’s truth.
Oops, I got off track there. Or did I?
Aren’t all engineering “arts” built upon fact? I mean, a ninety degree angle is always the same thing, isn’t it? Thinking in three dimensions doesn’t change that. So while you may have a “new” science, it will still be built upon something old. How do you know gravity if you don’t know force? How do you know acceleration unless you first know velocity?
Gillian, I work in I.T., and used to be a computer programmer. I had to know how to add in binary and hexadecimal, all while learning calculus and differential equations. In all, addend plus addend still equaled sum. Factor times factor still equaled product.
I realize that you do not call this objective truth, but call it “self-fulfilling rules”. Aren’t theorems and proofs all about confirming results in order to justify the objectivity of the result? If not, then you are saying that mathematical proofs are not grounded in fact.
Did my son eat all his dinner tonight? You don’t know the answer, but I do. Does that mean the answer is not fact? Or not truth? No, it just means it wasn’t revealed to you. (And I’m not telling, hah!)
Are there some questions that will never be answered for us? I believe so. That doesn’t mean there isn’t truth, it just means the truth (or explanation justifying the truth) hasn’t been explained to us.
February 25th, 2007 21:49
How can it be “self-fulfilling” without a “self?”
February 25th, 2007 23:29
’self-fulfilling’ — poor choice of terms… I was trying to point towards a something that is true because it has been defined that way. Three is defined as the sum of two and one, so it is true by definition.
All kinds of things are true by definition, and that tells us as much about the definition system as it does about the real world.
I think that I do actually believe in objective truth, but I suspect that it is contrary to logic. I get along fine in life flip-flopping around the topic, so I suspect that it may be one of those philosophical topics that doesn’t have much impact on daily life.
Except that in some matters it is important to act AS THOUGH there is objective truth, whether or not you can prove it. e.g. slavery is bad.
Agree with Rick that truth exists whether or not it is revealed to us. Rick’s son ate XYZ for brekkie whether or not this is revealed to me. [how old is he? how disgusting was his breakfast? it’s better NOT to know some things!]:)
An excellent reference on the subject of objective truth is Karl Popper, “An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science”. More here…http://www.friesian.com/popper.htm
February 25th, 2007 23:34
Sorry… better references for Karl Popper. I love his writing! It is succinct and clear.
# The Logic of Scientific Discovery. (translation of Logik der Forschung). Hutchinson, London, 1959.
# Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1972.
http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/phil/philo/phils/popper.html
February 26th, 2007 12:00
Interesting comments. It’s always fascinating to see where conversations go. I certainly didn’t - in any way, shape or form - intend to imply there is one “truth.” Or that “truth” is in fact quantifiable and/or knowable. I think there is some definition of terms that could be useful in further discussions: truth vs. facts, etc. But I’ll leave that with you.
Simply put, I have come across people in my life who feel comforted with whatever “truth” they hold. My point was that I have (notice the past tense) longed for that comfort. I have never felt it, and I doubt I ever will. And honestly I don’t really want it.
I might want my son to finish his dinner, however, and that is a more realistic goal for me at this point in my life.
Thanks for the discourse,
Julia
February 27th, 2007 09:39
Mormon missionaries annoy me.
Not just because they knock on my door seeking to expose me to “the truth” within the Book of Mormon but also because they refuse to believe that my own denomination has its own version of “the truth.”
Plus, they tend to be young women and the law does not allow me to answer the door in just my underwear.
February 27th, 2007 21:46
I understand the struggle for truth, and have found some myself.
However, it seems as though you’re equating the finding of truth with the end of thought or the closing of one’s mind.
I am certain about some things, but that doesn’t mean that I’m now an addlepated zombie who refuses to accept that other people think, act, and live differently.
Isn’t it just as closeminded to say that truth is unattainable and say that people have stopped thinking because they think they have found it?
As other posters have noted, we know - without a doubt - that there is truth in smaller things in life. An atom spins a certain way. Molecules combine in a predictable manner. The earth will support life tomorrow just as it did today.
These things do not change because you believe them or do not believe them. The earth was round even when the entire population said it was flat.
So why is it so improbable that there is a single, objective truth in the bigger things? Even if you don’t believe it, that doesn’t mean it isn’t.
Dan
March 1st, 2007 16:53
Perhaps there should be some definition of terms. I should have known using “truth” could lead to misunderstanding. I would say that the “truth in smaller things in life” would perhaps be better defined as facts. But that’s just me.
For the record, I don’t necessarily think that truth is unattainable, nor do I believe that you can’t know truth and remain open-minded. But what I perceived in the Mormon visitors was a definite comfort in knowing, and that their search for at least this truth was complete.
Good for you, Dan, in having found some truth for yourself. I don’t think it’s impossible, or even improbable that there is a single, objective truth. Just because I haven’t found it, does that mean to you that I don’t believe it exists? I thought I’d made it clear that I’m always seeking.
As my husband reminded me, even when Pilate asked Jesus ‘What is truth?’ no reply was given (John 18:38).
In quiet,
Julia
October 10th, 2007 13:16
[…] time ago, Julia made a post on the comfort of knowing the truth. This resulted in a comment discussion on the nature of truth, where most of the comments confused […]