What is truth?

• … you sure use that word “TRUTH” a lot … but unfortunately your definition of truth is “whatever agrees with what I think is right.”
• And they (mainstream media) speak TRUTH when they say former president Trump is a bald-faced liar and worse – the election was not stolen, et cetera.
• As usual, every time you missed the point, you missed the TRUTH. You don’t … and can’t … contest the investigation’s TRUTH.
• RELATIVE TRUTH IS NOT TRUTH. I believe wholly in ABSOLUTE TRUTH (not the so-called truth pushed by the Republican or Democratic Parties … or the mainstream media) … which is the truth established by the One who created ALL THINGS (that includes you and I).
• Definition of truth

1a(1): the body of real things, events, and facts: ACTUALITY

(2): the state of being the case: FACT

(3) often capitalized: a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality

One of these statements is mine. One belongs to Merriam-Webster.

We do use the word “truth” a lot.

Actually, there’s no such thing as “relative truth.” If it’s true, it’s true – for all people, in all cultures, in all situations, for all time – past, present and future.

Well, when we’re dealing with the events of today, that may be overstating it a bit.

For all time

But let’s start there.

As human beings, we need oxygen to breathe. That’s truth.

The earth is round. For centuries men believed otherwise, but they were sincerely wrong. Truth is true, whether anyone believes it or not.

Humans bleed when our skin is punctured. All living things, including humans, die at some point. We may not like these truths, but they are true nonetheless.

Truth has nothing to do with what I think, feel, desire or believe.

Partial truth

The first four statements above are political statements. Politics, by definition, is partial truth, which is what the writer meant by “relative truth.”

Republicans have their truth. Democrats have their truth. Neither has the whole truth – and this is why compromise and, even better, listening and learning from each other is the only way to discover what “truth” actually is.

Let’s take one hot-button issue as an example: abortion.

Republicans claim that a fetus has a heartbeat very early in his/her pre-infant life. This has been documented to be true by scientists.

Democrats claim that women should have control over their own bodies, including their womb – that the choice is hers, and hers alone.

Republicans see the issue from the fetus’ point of view. Democrats see the issue from the woman’s point of view.

Both are right – and both views are incomplete.

That’s what I mean about partial truth.

Abortion is a complex issue. What are its root causes? Are there ways to prevent it by changing the hearts of human beings – not just women, by the way, but the men involved as well (who might be forcing a woman to abort a baby)? Is there such a thing as a safe, moral abortion? Don’t be so quick to judge.

Truth has nothing to do with what I think, feel, desire or believe.

Put that statement in a different context than humans needing oxygen to breathe, and it takes on a different meaning. But is my statement still true?

Beyond comprehension

Merriam-Webster’s (3) definition of truth is “a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality.”

What does that mean?

Transcendent, again according to Merriam-Webster, means exceeding limits or ordinary experience, or being beyond comprehension. Something that is transcendent is bigger than me, bigger than I can possibly understand.

Perhaps I can learn or discover such a truth. Perhaps not.

Fundamental is a synonym for basic (the Constitution ensures our fundamental rights), or essential structure, function or facts.

Spiritual refers to sacred or religious matters.

Reality means real, actual, factual.

This definition of truth, then, refers to basic facts that might be beyond our comprehension and/or on a spiritual level.

In other words, there are some truths that we don’t know. Yet.

This is why COVID was such a divisive issue. We like to know things, to be in control of our lives. When a new coronavirus appeared on the scene, we didn’t know much about it. We couldn’t control it.

Scientists have been studying coronaviruses for nearly a century; the viruses were found in humans for the first time in 1965. While the COVID version (SARS-CoV-2) is new, coronaviruses in general are not. So, scientists were not starting from ground zero with COVID-19.

We discovered – learned – new things about COVID almost by the day in 2020, and adapted treatments and protocols based on what was discovered. Protocols changed as we learned new things.

Vaccines were developed in record time – again, not from ground zero. And multitudes of scientists shared their work in unprecedented ways to come up with the vaccines as fast as they could.

• Transcendent. Beyond our comprehension. But we learned.
• Fundamental. The point was survival and preventing illness. Life doesn’t get more basic than that.
• Spiritual. God allowed COVID-19, if He didn’t create it. God had (and has) His reasons, which we do not always understand.
• Reality. COVID-19 was, and still is, highly contagious. It killed millions worldwide, and sickened many millions more. We cannot deny this.

Truth has nothing to do with what I think, feel, desire or believe.

No one understands truth completely

Courts of law seek truth, but because flawed humans who “see life dimly” run them, we have a hard time applying justice evenly.

That’s why truth (absolute truth, as one of the opening statement writers called it) rests exclusively with the living God. He creates all things, including all reality.

Truth is out there, on every issue for which we seek it. Truth is bigger than any individual, and possibly is bigger than all of us put together.

We cannot find truth within ourselves, because “your truth” and “my truth” may clash. Whose truth is truth, then?

I need to test “my truth” with other “truths” out there, to see what holds and what does not. I must swallow my pride and see the “truth” from your side as well.

And, especially, from God’s side.

Because neither of us has the full picture.

That might be the most truthful statement in this essay.