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What is Truth?
Have you ever wondered what ‘truth’ is?
Pontius Pilate famously asked the question “what is truth?” He was confronted with a situation that potentially threatened his political career and he did not know how best to manage it. Was his question a genuine enquiry searching for truth, or was it a means to avoid the truth of what was before him?
We can only speculate what his motives were in the moment; and yet we presume to do so based upon a few clues that history has left to us. We have a few facts about his life and the Roman culture he lived within and even fewer about his behaviour in specific moments – yet we believe we know him and why he did what he did.
With the benefit of hindsight we find it easy to make a judgment on Pilates’ behaviour. We back project, presuming that our twenty-first century cultural values are relevant and appropriate to previous cultures not realising just how vainly insular and self-justifying our culture is. We believe our truths are valid to measure all of mankind’s behaviours and motives.
It would appear that Pontius Pilate had been placed in an awkward situation and he wanted to get out of it in the easiest way possibly. He seemed to be a man on the run stuck between a rock and a hard place. But was he running toward or away from the truth he questioned? In a way Pontius Pilate characterised all of us when presented with life’s challenges. It could be said that we are all men or women on the run – but are we running toward or away from truth?
The reason for the political and legal awkwardness revolved around a character called Jesus of Nazareth. He had been accused of crimes against the establishment but who had not apparently done anything wrong. Jesus had previously made a claim that he was “The Way, The Truth, and The Life”. But where was the ‘Way’ leading to? Who or what was the ‘Truth’? What kind of a ‘Life’ was he talking about?
It has been said there are only two things in life that are certain – death and taxes. But could there be a third – our relationship to ‘truth’? Could this be the one thing that determines our behaviour and the eventual outcome of our life?
Logically constructed truth
So, what is truth? Is it a collection of reliable true facts about things, people and situations? For much of the twentieth century scientific fact has been worshipped as the measure of the truth of our world. Scientists were considered the custodian of the truth about the universe and to be the prophets of a new hope for humanity.
The hope was that through a better understanding of any situation we would be able to control it to our advantage. It is only a matter of education – accumulate more knowledge and become more powerful, as in the adage - knowledge is power. Through education mankind will eventually become masters of the universe and of our own destiny. This belief is fuelled by the underlying belief seeded in the 19th century that man had grown-up and was coming-of-age to rule the universe. It was only a matter of education.
Has the promise of ‘truth’ worn thin?
But, as many scientists would tell you - any fact is only reliable until the next theory or discovery either disproves it or evolves it into a new context thus changing its meaning and implications. Thus, in the world of science truth is transient. This is at least a little better than in the world of politics and economics where truth is a matter of convenience or inconvenience depending on whether it serves the higher purposes of ambition and greed. The media takes this even further by using facts merely as good material to be massaged into whatever story will sell more copy. Who can you believe and trust now?
Alas, the hopes and expectations that modern science and technology would solve all of humanities problems have worn thin – we have become disillusioned because they have not fulfilled the high expectations. Yes, there have been phenomenal developments and provisions for health and lifestyle as a result of science and technology, and mankind has reached into places far beyond the imagination of previous generations. But has it come any nearer to solving the basic problems of human life on earth? For the chosen few million out of 6 billion souls alive on the earth today, life has become more comfortable and we can easily accumulate stuff that makes us feel good and satisfy our need to be entertained.
Curiously, even scientific facts have now moved into the realm of entertainment for the general public in western capitalist society. The various virtual and terrestrial media streams now available spectacularly present us with increasingly more awesome, fantastic and inspirational facts as research reaches deeper into the macro and micro dimensions of how the elements of the universe exist and work together. We have grown to hunger for entertaining facts like intellectual trinkets, but do we trust them with our lives?
Close encounters of the curious kind
As a result of the increasingly rapid rate of change in the world my teenage years feel as if they’re in a very different world to that of today as we embark on the 21st century – the gateway to the third millennium after Pontius Pilates awkward encounter. But even then, I was surrounded by a multitude of must have things from the consumerist corner-store promoted via the media - demanding my attention, promising entertaining fulfilment while selling discontent. Like most teenagers I tried to navigate my way through it all seeking to come to terms with my place in the world. I was searching for truth, although I wouldn’t have called it that. I came across many religions and philosophies that contained many true facts that were very useful and inspiring. But somehow, when I put all facts together none of the religions and philosophies seemed to ‘ring true’ for me.
In my late teens I had an encounter with ‘truth’ and it changed my life. Since then I have been searching to understand and apply what that means in the life I have been given to live. What was it? The only way I could describe it was that it was like a pure thread of reality that runs through all of time into eternity. It had no beginning or end and there was no way around it. There was no change in it, or escaping from it. It was consistent and authentic in every respect.
I saw that everything we considered to be ‘reality’ was dependent upon it and came from it. It was above and beyond life and under girded everything. What’s more it was ‘personal’! That doesn’t mean that I defined truth, but the encounter with truth defined and measured me. In a sense I am still recovering from that encounter. I saw that truth was a person and a relationship and I just had to engage in that relationship on his terms – otherwise it just wouldn’t work.
Since then I have been wondering about everything I come across as I travel through time and space on life’s journey. In fact, now that I am semi-retired, I still stand in awe and wonder at most things that I encounter especially people and what fascinates them. Alas, I now know much less that I ever did before, being more aware of what I do not know and of the fragility of life. I should have attempted this in my youth when I knew everything and was invincible.
Life changing adventure
This is an adventure in correlating ideas and concepts that have been explored over the years. There is nothing new under the sun and much of what will be covered will be familiar. However, I am interested in how the different elements holistically network together, pointing to that one time and space that is always with us – NOW. As we gather and quieten ourselves to savour the moment we may discover that life as we know it is only part of the story. The familiar can be transformed through changes in context, perspective and interpretation which can change the meaning of everything. The implications of what we already know, or fantasise about, points to a reality that is far more awesome than we could ever imagine. There is more to life than meets the eye.
What if ‘truth’ is far more radical and profound than we could conceive and more simple and accessible than we could comprehend?
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