Pontius Pilate, a first century Roman official, gained notoriety when he attempted to avoid condemning Jesus Christ by asking, “What is truth?”. That question, far from being an original thought of Pilate, has been asked in many ways throughout history and is still asked today.
People of all sorts -- intellectuals, the minimally educated, those steeped in religious orthodoxy, nonreligious, and citizens of all possible political persuasions –- hold to their respective tenets and principles and generally believe them to be true. Because these beliefs and values are what determine how we live our lives, the means by which we choose them is critically important.
Some invest substantial time and mental energy in a ‘search for truth’, trying to determine which of the many competing ideas and theories about politics, religion, economics, education, etc., most closely align with the reality of life as they experience it (those who go to such effort are probably at best a small proportion of the population). More adopt the views proposed by parents, teachers, peers, and religious or political leaders without testing these ideas against a standard of truth criteria.
Each person is, of course, free to develop a set of beliefs which they hold to be true using whatever means or methods they desire. This can range from a vigorous, lifelong search for the ‘truth’ about some topic or issue, to simply adopting the beliefs and values of one’s family or other influential group. For those who see value in consistently applying a set of presuppositions/criteria as a tool for judging which ideas one will accept as ‘truth’ I suggest the following:
1. Truth exists. I state this only because there are those who suggest the opposite: “There is no such thing as objective truth.” I flatly reject this idea as a non sequitur (perhaps the simplest way to approach this assertion is to ask, “Is the statement that there is no such thing as truth, true?”).
2. Truth is not relative. We live in an age when some suggest multiple, conflicting truths can coexist. This idea -– which is often voiced as, “This is true for me, and that is true for you.” -– is nonsensical. Consider as an example the statement, “The earth is flat.” The world either is flat or it is not -– there is no rational room for both sides of this issue. Suppose I believe the earth is flat and you believe the earth is not flat. These two conflicting ideas cannot both be true; one is true and the other is false.
3. Truth is not decided democratically. That is to say, the weight of public opinion has no effect on truth. A majority believing anything does not make it true, and a minority believing it does not make it false. At one time, virtually everyone believed the earth is flat.
4. Truth is not influenced by the attitude of those who believe something. If we believe something that is false but hold to that belief with great sincerity -– we may even say we believe it ‘with all our heart’ -- it is still false. Our adamant insistence on its importance to our belief system and values has no bearing whatsoever on whether it is true.
5. We ought to be careful of the language used when we discuss truth. For example, it is not unusual to hear statements in the form, “I decided _________ is true.” Statements of this type are not to be taken literally. If objective truth exists then we are not in a position to ‘decide’ what is true. Properly expressed, the thought in mind is –- “after reading, research, thought, or whatever -– I concluded _______ is true” or “I deduced that _______ is true.” This may seem a matter of semantics that could be ignored, but the words used are important because words are what we use to express truth.
