Recently, I heard of a university student standing in front of a noisy crowd, yelling into a microphone, “TRUTH is whatever I believe to be TRUTH; and I am the one who determines what is TRUTH! I believe I am a female frog - and that is the TRUTH – if you don’t like it – then I hope you croak on it!
It seems that in our present culture, we have assumed a position of entitlement that would allow us, as individuals, full right and authority to judge reality in terms of how it would exclusively benefit us, according to our own desired story line or narrative of reality.
Expedience seems to be the new referee judging and calling the shots. Culture seems to give a green flag to being able to say whatever needs to be said at a given moment that will advance the desired scenario. All the while, the truth may be clear down at the other end of the playing field.
Do you suppose that it is even possible to put aside our subjective notions long enough to discover and embrace objective reality?
Perhaps, an even better question might be, whether it is possible to ever put aside our need to manipulate such perceived or desired outcomes, long enough to discover and embrace objective reality or truth? I have observed that arrogance obstructs wisdom, and selfish interest is, perhaps, one of the most common impediments to the discovery and acknowledgement of truth.
I grew up with the idea that Truth is conformity with reality or fact regarding that which is - that which has been - or that which shall be. Regarding the subject of truth, I have become totally convinced during my lifetime, that Who you determine God to be, will absolutely determine your concept of truth.
Even though some folks would like to see themselves as truth-declaring gods, yet, there is still that nagging intuition that a verifiable fact is something more than just a thought in the head of the thinker. Two contradicting propositions cannot both be true in the same way, in the same place, at the same time. There has to be such a thing as recognizable reality.
I like the way that C.S. Lewis approaches the issue that truth is just a figment in the mind of the person thinking the thought. He explains that the reason why your idea of New York is truer or less true than mine is that New York is a real place, existing quite apart from what either of us thinks. If when each of us said “New York” each meant merely “The town I am imagining in my head,” how could one of us have truer ideas than the other?
C.S. Lewis then suggests something quite obvious and quite profound – if there are disputes regarding New York, then simply go visit the place and determine which of the two accounts of it is closer to the reality – so that the city being imagined in the one head can be rejected in the favor of that being imagined in the other, for good and sufficient reasons. In other words, what is empirically real, regardless of the pre-supposed thoughts in either head? Truth must be an account of New York that is closer to the real place that exists quite apart from what any one of us thinks. Is that account true? Does it correspond to the way things actually are in the real world?
One of the apparent problems with seeking truth is that it takes effort, energy, and integrity to try and ferret out truth - and in so many instances, individuals are simply too lazy and undisciplined to diligently seek and find truth. The temptation is to get sidetracked in our pursuit and lose our way, or else we acquiesce to our biases and end up manipulating the facts in order to build our own narrative. It is so easy to begin majoring in deflected questions about race, gender, class, or power.
Instead of putting the effort into determining whether something is true or false, it is more fashionable to argue that an issue is “not culturally significant”, or “more practical”, or “racially unfair”, or “way outmoded”, or “not academic”, or “bigoted”, or homophobic”, or. . . whatever!
Extending the possibility of ever actually discovering and embracing a universal reality allows for the acceptance of the argument that there is “no such thing as real truth.” At that point, anything and everything must be allowed to be true.
I am finding that it is reality that rewards us in the search for truth. There is no experience quite like diligently searching for truth and actually finding it. It is such a delight to watch an individual who begins to grow in confidence and integrity as he or she begins to experience the understanding and reality of truth, rather than trying to conjure up a case in order to sell their own agenda or pet whim.
There seems to be a conscientious and scrupulous longing to find authentic truth rather than needing to rely on just the expedient thing to say. There seems to be a desire in humans to want to know things and to find out universal reality, simply for the sake of knowing.
Humans, having been created in the likeness or image of the God of Truth, seem to long for fellowship and identity with the God of Truth. That entails not just the knowledge but also the embracing of truth and the rejection of the lie – it’s more like a moral obligation to discover and embrace truth. It appears that every attempt at a philosophy, or some other approach that reduces truth to merely a subjective state of mind, almost dehumanizes us and tends to cut us off, not only from God, but from all that is good and real.
The importance of truth cannot be overstated. The seeking, and discovering, and embracing truth is not just an issue of intellectual curiosity, but of moral and spiritual life and death. Morals and values are, therefore, objective realities and not just subjective feelings or suggested perceptions.
In a paragraph above, I stated that “Who you determine God to be will absolutely determine your concept of truth.” The most critical truth to be discovered and embraced, or rejected and discarded, is the truth regarding Almighty God, the eternal source of all reality.
All individuals, therefore, have the moral obligation to investigate his claims very seriously. C.S. Lewis reminds us that Christianity claims to give us the presentation of facts that will instruct us regarding what the real universe is like. That account of “how things really are” may be true, or may not be true at all. Once the question is presented to you, then your natural inquisitiveness must stir something inside you and make you want to know the answer. If Christianity is untrue, then no honest person will want to believe it, however helpful it might be. If it is true, every honest individual will want to believe it – even if it gives that person no help at all.
So, we don’t just get by with judging truth just because we can argue that the idea is “more practical”, or “more fair”, or “or it seems better for the present culture”, or “more appealing”, or even “more academic.” Truth has to come before any use we might make of it.
Today, it appears that our culture’s social Marxist-leaning advocates would conspire to render truth claims as nothing more than subjective responses and cynical power plays. But truth for the Christian, is a serious intellectual matter that can never be only intellectual. It must include the entire individual’s body, soul, and spirit, if there is to be fulfillment of the relationship between the individual and the Creator. In that fulfilled individual, truth will simultaneously grant knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, it will spark and revitalize the emotions, and it will embolden and quicken the individual’s will or volition.
I want to close this first segment on “What is Truth?” by going clear back to Francis Bacon’s Essay on Truth in 1625:
“The inquiry of truth, which is the lovemaking or wooing of it,
The knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it,
And the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it,
Is the Sovereign good of human nature. . .
Certainly, it is heaven upon earth to have a man’s mind
move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of Truth.
Next Week: Truth Apprehended is the Knowledge of God