Truth, Justice, and the American Way (Maybe not the America way according to superman returns), for the past week my mind has been consumed with the first word "Truth". Truth and Knowledge can be two concepts that are hard to pin down a definition of, Wikipedia says on truthThe meaning of the word truth extends from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in
general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular.[1] The term has no single definition about which the majority of professional philosophers and scholars agree. Various theories of truth continue to be debated. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth; how to define and identify truth; the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute.
On the subject of knowledge Wikipedia says "...Philosophical debates in general start with Plato's formulation of knowledge as "justified true belief"..." The Idea of truth permeates our society, we are told as children to tell the truth, we get up onto witness stands and swear to tell the WHOLE TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH. As we get older and out into the "Real World" we start to be told that truth is relative and can change depending on your perspective.
This idea of relative truth is convenient but when I look at it I don't see it as being practical, it seems to me that if truth was relative then everything that could be called truth would be called into question, every lie could just be called a "truth from the wrong perspective". Therefor it could be said that we weren't led in to a war under false pretenses but under right pretenses from the wrong perspective, Hilary didn't lie about landing under sniper fire in Bosnia she told the truth but from the wrong perspective.
Absolute truth would have to come from some where, there would have to be a way that we can look out into the world and say that is wrong and that is right. Gandhi is quoted as saying that God is truth (which he would latter change to say truth is God), Jesus says in John 14:6 "Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." In one verse He states that He is both God and that He is truth, there is no separation from God and Truth.
When we look at what most would consider truth you can see the same sort of pattern emerge, Don't steal, murder, cheat, lie all things that can be found in the Bible. Even if someone doesn't believe in God the chances of them not believe in one of the those simple moral codes are slim. This (at least in my mind) proves that Truth isn't relative, the aplication of truth may be but truth is self isn't, it is only found in Jesus and any seeking after truth is therefore a seeking after God Himself.
1 comment:
This topic came up in a Bible study I was at recently. We were watching a video series, and one theologian defined truth as "reality as it is viewed from God's perspective." I think that's essentially what you're getting at. And I think that's true. Er, at least I think I think that's true. Wait. Crap.
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