Truth Confused - P1

The Truth Is?

Why is important to define what is considered "The Truth"?  Well if you ever get into a religious "discussion", you will quickly find out, that belief on any religious topic differs  among those who are part of this discussion, that each one involved will claim to have The Truth!  But how can that be?  Can there be that many Truths?

I had just had one of those discussions, and it had left my beliefs battered and bruised.  So I had decided to go looking for the Truth.  What I found was in today's world there are many so called Truths.  Popular Opinion, the politically correct thing called Past Truth, even religious Doctrines and Beliefs have been passed off as Truth.  But are they?  (In my next blog I will discuss these)

As a Christian, to understand what is Truth is at the foundation of all faith.  Therefore it must be defined. For the Christian must understand that to place your faith in something that is not true no matter how great your faith, is a useless endeavour.   For the power of faith is based on the object of your faith being able to deliver that which is deemed Truth by the believer's faith.     

Now we all would agree that the truth is a factually and logically correct statement.  That Truth; is not error, is not self-contradictory, or deception.  The problem in defining Truth is not so much in arriving at a definition, but in arriving at a definition that works when applied.  Why?  Because there is something involved, we all call reality.  In reality, each individual has their own personal reality and each persons reality is equally valid, therefore Truth could be relative to each and every one' individual personal reality.  

However, it is more likely that Truth and any definition of Truth should be determined by what it is not, rather than what it is.  So in dealing with an individuals reality in regards to Truth, we have a problem.  For this does not follow basic reasoning.  For example; 

           [a] if my individual reality is that an individuals reality is false, then based on my personal reality, this would be true, (even if I believe it to be false) and therefore any and all individuals realities are false. 

        [b] However if your individual reality regarding my belief is that I am wrong.  Instead your individual reality is, that any and all  personal realities are Truth, your reality and mine would have a contradiction of the Truth.  Seeing Truth cannot be self-contradictory, my reality regarding personal realities would be false, and in being so also makes your reality regarding them being true, false.  Therefore Truth based on personal reality by the very nature of what Truth is not, that being contradictory, cannot be Truth.  

Again I asked what is Truth if there is such a thing? Then realized the question should be what type of Truth are we looking for?  Now I will concede there are conflicting truths based on culture (which side of the road we drive on) and personal preferences (black over white, mathematics over language) for each individual. However for the Christian to define Truth is apart from  and greater than those truths regarding cultural or personal preferences.  The Christian Truth needs to be based on reality, facts, is the same for all persons, and does not change.  Does such a Truth exist?  

Well yes that Truth does exist, but before I arrived at that point on my journey, I stumbled upon the definition one day, can't really remember how it happened, but it is the best definition I have ever read.  It read: “Truth does not contradict itself or deny the facts.  It does not go contrary to reality, nor is it one thing to one person and another thing, even a contradictory thing, to another person.  The one truth applies to all persons, whether they recognize it or not.  It does not change because of location or of time.  The truth is provable by actual fact.  The truth endures, persists, because it is genuine, actually existing, in harmony with reality.”   [Copyright 1965, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania].  In the 2^nd Chapter, 4^th Paragraph

I remember thinking as I read this, that I needed to put this definition to the test, and that I had some great subject matter to test it on.  That will be my next blog. 

Where It Began

I'm not sure who said it or when, or even exactly how it was said.  Generally the theme is; "You are what you believe".  However how many of us really, and I mean really, really know what we believe in?  Or do we blindly adhere to beliefs that are an illusion of what we assume is "our truth".  If I were to ask you to defend what you believe in, and construct the foundation of how you came to this belief, could you?

I have to admit that for a long time, I floated along with a false security about my "Christian" belief's.  Not in way that made them immoral, but in the "WHY" I believed in the manner I had to this point?  It was at that point in time that I began a journey, it did not involve travelling about the country or the world.  It is a personal journey, one that I believe many "Christian's" do not even realize they should take and complete.

The First Few Steps:

Really as I look back, I didn't even know that the journey was even under way.  It all started with polite challenge of my Christian beliefs.  Now I would like to tell you that I knew what, and why I believed the things I did.  In fact, up until this point in time, I would have confidently asserted that I could tell you what those beliefs were, and felt I could offer up an explanation as to why.

     Embarrassingly this was a false confidence; I couldn't defend my beliefs.  I didn't even know where to look in my Bible to defend against the inquisition that slaughtered and shredded what I had believed and held as truth.  If this was a street fight, I was left lying beside the curb almost dead.  Those "Christian" beliefs I held, could they have been wrong.  What was the message contained in the Bible?

I had grown up in a Baptist Church, attended church regularly for years, but not so much over the last decade.  Had never really questioned, or maybe should say doubted, what I had been taught.  I had just accepted it.  This led to what I would call a complacency regarding my religious beliefs.  Truth be told, I was too comfortable in regards to this area of my life, ill prepared for any challenge.  I had a personal crisis, but one that I knew I could make several choices in regards to.  I could ignore it, after all it wasn't physically life threatening.  

     The other choice was intimidating.  Test those beliefs, see if they are as true as I believed them to be. Personally there was a lot of uncertainty about the second choice.  I knew I was going to have to examine, my core values, my Christian beliefs.  Dare I test them?  Are they true?  I knew I needed the answers.  Honestly I wasn't even sure if I could find the answers.

Direction Needed:

Well where do you go when you need answers?  To a Source that has them.  Seems quite logical to me, and being Christian, that source would be the Scriptures.  After all this was the one thing my friendly and polite "religious antagonist” and I had agreed upon.  The Bible is the authority, the giver of direction and of understanding. 

It was the understanding part that had me concerned.  It was all too clear to me, that although we may be reading the same book, we are definitely not coming to the same understanding.  Each of us had a different understanding of what the Bible taught.  What I really needed was a clear and concise foundation for the  how-to in understanding the message contained in the Bible. It occurred to me that what I was looking for was something called the "truth". However that question now became, "what is truth"?