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What is Truth?
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It Will Piss You
Off
"The
truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you
off." - Gloria Steinem,
American Feminist
Truth is generally defined as a proven fact,
actuality or standard. To tell the truth is to state
an opinion or belief with the utmost sincerity. The
integrity of a person, principle or maxim is rooted
in truth.
When the truth is uncovered or revealed, then
understanding and enlightenment can occur. The
problem is that truth doesn't always support ones
current beliefs, so the discovery process often
irritates more than it elevates a person's spirit.
Only when you're able to get past this natural
resistance will you be able to live a life that is
truly free.
Most
people don't want to know the truth.
Instead,
they want validation for existing beliefs or
positions. They do this for several reasons: ego,
denial, ignorance and insecurity.
Egomaniacs always think they're right. They decide
what is fact and what is fiction within their world.
It is their universe and the rest of us are
privileged to be living in it. Truth is subjective
in their minds. Beliefs must pass through their own
filters before they can be considered facts. In
short, they do whatever it takes to fuel their
fantasy, until one day their world crumbles around
them (at
which point, they usually become victims).
At the other end of the spectrum are those who know
the truth yet refuse to accept it. They live in
denial of what has been revealed to them as fact.
They often carry a degree of guilt on their
conscience for choosing to ignore something they
know to be true. Their life is about avoidance and
fear. Oftentimes, they think acceptance of the truth
will require them to let go of what they currently
have and, for whatever reason, they refuse to loosen
their grips.
Ignorant people piss me off more than learning a
truth that I should have known. These people have a
belief system or biases that are so ingrained into
their thinking that the truth is irrelevant. It's
not that they don't want to know the truth - they
just don't care what it is. Ignorant people
stick by their beliefs on principle, so that they
may continue to be accepted by others within their
group. Integrity is not important because depravity
is rewarded in their lives.
Insecurity is probably the most prevalent reason why
people don't want to hear the truth. Their
self-image and self-confidence are so vulnerable
that anything that feels like a criticism sends them
into depression. To an insecure person, everything
in life is personal. They don't understand that
facts, or truths, are neutral. When you speak the
truth about what you think or feel to an insecure
person, he or she often views it as an attack on
their beliefs or character. It is very hard to work
with, or be friends with, insecure people. They only
want to hear things that don't disrupt their fragile
state of mind.
The cost of avoiding truths is freedom. No matter
what the reason, all people who fail to discover the
truth are living a part of their lives in the dark.
Oftentimes, when light is revealed, the flaws in our
beliefs are exposed. This exposure, as Steinem
alludes, tends to embarrass, irritate or invalidate
our existing self-image and world view.
It takes courage to accept the truth, or facts that
do not support your current beliefs or opinions. As
the saying goes, though, "The truth will set
you free." Free to live a life that is based in
the realities of the universe; free to know that the
relationships you have with others are genuine; and,
free to feel good about yourself for choosing
integrity over ignorance.
When first revealed, the truth will certainly piss
you off; however, once you get over it, the joy of
freedom will fill your soul and the elation of
enlightenment will fill your mind.
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The Basic
Assumption
A discussion on the nature of
truth
by Elroy
Truth cannot be found in facts. It can only be
derived from removing everything that cannot be true
and seeing what is left. If indeed truth could be
found in facts, then everyone who looked at the same
facts would come to understand the same truths. This
does not happen. A hundred people looking at the
same facts can come up with a hundred different
truths to explain what the facts mean.
This reality, however, does not stop each of us
from believing we have found the better truth, the
more accurate interpretation. People everywhere
believe they have found the corner on the market of
truth, and everyone else must be wrong. People will
stand before each other, pound their chests and
proclaim for all to hear that they know the truth
that others have missed. But each of these people's
truths are different. How can they all be truth if
they contradict? How can people be so passionate
about their brand of truth when the guy next to them
is just as passionate about his brand? Such logic
fails to budge the true believer. He or she will
believe it more intently than anything else because
it's a truth made up of their most basic beliefs and
values. They believe their own truth because real
truth has big missing pieces of information in it,
making it fuzzy, uncomfortable, and even dangerous.
Their own truth is more palatable because they have
filled in the missing parts with their own
information, values, and beliefs, and it, therefore,
makes more sense in their eyes. In essence, they
have used their own, often unprovable presumptions
as a key or blueprint for how facts should be
interpreted.
This key is called the "Basic
Assumption." It defines how we see information.
It defines how we see the world. It quite literally
defines how we see everything.
Let
me show you how it works:
In the United States we have been able to create
fake diamonds for many years now. Whereas a real
diamond takes millions of years under the earth's
relatively low pressure to change carbon into the
clear stone adored by men and woman around the
world, a fake diamond can be manmade in a few hours
by taking that same carbon and putting it under
intense pressure. Though made in different amounts
of time, and though they have different sale values,
both are diamonds.
If you take a fake diamond, which can be
distinguished from real diamonds because they are
too perfect, to an American jeweler and ask him how
old it is, he will identify it as a fake and tell
you that it is only a few hours old.
If, however, you take that same manmade diamond
to some village gem maker in a remote village in the
deepest Africa, a place where modern technology
won't reach for many more years, and then ask him
how old the diamond is, he will probably tell you it
is millions of years old. Why? Because his Basic
Assumption is that humans can't make diamonds. He
will be forced by his own beliefs, therefore, to
conclude that it is a real diamond, made in the
natural pressure of the earth, and is, therefore,
very old.
Our Basic Assumption is what defines how we
interpret the facts around us. And as our example
shows, different assumptions can create wildly
different truths from the same facts.
Basic Assumptions fill in the gaps when we're
forced to interpret what the facts mean. But more
than that, they link the facts together into whole
realities that make sense to the person doing the
interpreting.
It's no wonder people can't agree on anything. We
all think we know the truth, but all of our truth's
are mutually exclusive. Well, not all. Sometimes we
band together into groups of people who share the
same Basic Assumptions, and thus, the same
interpretations of truth. But rather than diminish
our differences, by grouping together we only
provoke bigger conflicts between groups of people
with different Basic Assumptions. With a group
surrounding us and telling us our interpretations
are correct because they agree with their own
interpretations, the members' Basic Assumptions are
fortified and given an even greater role in creating
a reality palatable to the interpreter. The group's
truth becomes an absolute truth in the minds of its
members. And everyone else's truths must be
interpreted as falsehoods, misconceptions, or
downright lies.
In such a scenario, Muslims think Christians are
tools of the Devil who spread across the globe with
their "missions" in order to subvert the
truth of Allah. Likewise, Christians think Muslims
are living in deception, no doubt also from the
Devil, and that their militant faith is a threat to
God's people, both the Jews and the Christians. In
both cases each religion gives its members a huge
set of Basic Assumptions that are used to create
completely separate realities for their members. And
these realities don't just exclude other religions.
In America, people who believe the Bible to be
completely accurate in every word have vastly
different Basic Assumptions that the rest of
society. They will interpret current events and find
a way to fit them into biblical prophecy. Suddenly
every headline becomes an omen of the end of the
world; every non-biblically-based political
organization is a tool of Satan; every cultural
trend not in line with the New Testament is called a
"decline of our Nation"; and the
protection of freedoms that don't fit their beliefs
is called "a loss of national morals."
And just as they test the world against their
interpretations of truth based on their group's
Basic Assumptions, they will even test their own
people to make sure they are actual members, and not
infiltrators wishing to dilute their beliefs. Anyone
whose interpretations of current events are not the
same as the group's will be labeled a heretic or an
unbeliever.
Christians call these people
"Backsliders." Muslims call them
"Tools of Satan." Jews call them
"Secular Jews." Conservatives call them
"Closet Liberals." Liberals call them
"Moral Conservatives." And every other
group whose presence is formed around a communal
Basic Assumption has its own way of perpetuating its
truths in their most "pure" form.
Alas. Human conflict is a self-perpetuating
problem.
How much better it would be if we could just
remember that our Basic Assumptions are just that:
assumptions. We do not know for a fact that anything
is true because we are humans, and our minds are
interpretive machines. We may believe something with
all our hearts and still be wrong. We might fight
and die, or even kill, for our interpretation of
truth, but it won't make it any more true. All we
can do is learn as much as we can and then remove
everything that cannot be true and start seeing what
is left. It'll never be a perfect truth, but at
least it won't be a self-created one based on our
personal or our group's own Basic Assumptions.
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