When we hear this word, truth, we think of different things, sometimes very different things. And in the right circumstances, we can all be right. Is mint chocolate chip the best ice cream flavor? It might be–for you. Is it 127 miles to Edgemont? That depends on where you are in relation to Edgemont. Does fiction teach truth? Perhaps. Does 4 x 25 = 100? Always and absolutely. Is truth absolute? Sometimes.
There are different kinds of truth, and sometimes I think we get them mixed. Some things are relative, like how far it is to Edgemont. Other things are not up for debate in any society, such as the solution to a mathematics problem. For me, the best flavor of ice cream in the world might be Moose Tracks, but you might disagree with me. In a case like this, neither of us is right or wrong.
Then there are elements of truth mixed with fiction. For example, many Christians would agree that C.S. Lewis’ children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia teaches a great deal of truth, though none of us believe that an actual country of Narnia exists geographically in space and time in some other world accessible only through magic. Our problem isn’t that there are many kinds of truth. Our problem is that we’ve gotten them mixed up so that many of us no longer understand which type of truth applies to this or that situation.
Let’s start with favorite flavors. If my husband and I disagree as to the best restaurant in town, can either of us be wrong, excluding danger of food poisoning? Even if he likes a dive with great ribs and horrible music, and I prefer a cute, cozy place with the best bagels in town? The answer, of course, is no. We have different tastes. There’s nothing morally superior about bagels and cute, nor anything evil about sugary ribs and tinny music. So in this case, we can both tell different truths and we can both be right–for ourselves. This sort of truth can apply to any preference . . . cars, cities, climates, music, social environment, style of worship, method of bible study, breed of dog . . . . God has given us an infinite variety of favorite things to choose from. Pleasures enjoyed within His guidelines are all and always good.
But let’s talk about Edgemont. How far away is it? I’d have to look at a map, but it’s most likely closer for me than it is for you. Some things are different–really different–for me than they are for you. I love teaching children. Teaching children is a good thing for me to do, but it might not be good for you. Maybe God has gifted you to provide accounting services to people like me who hate, hate, hate doing numbers. I’ve actually met people who love to do bookkeeping. This mystifies me, but I do not call these people liars. They think it’s mystifying that I enjoy teaching children. Maybe God has called you to be a mechanic. Maybe you’re supposed to care for your family at home. That’s where you love to be. That’s where you’re happiest. Maybe God wants you in full time ministry. Or not. God has given each of us a path to follow, and we will do different things as we walk that path. Our paths may be parallel, but they will never be identical. What is right for you may be wrong for me. In this case, truth is relative. It depends on the person, the stage in her life, her giftings and situation . . . lots of things. So truth is relative, but not all truth.
Next we have truth in story form. I remember meeting young parents, when I was also raising my small children, who believed that fiction was sinful because it was a lie. Even though I was young and impressionable, I understood that this was silly. Fiction is capable of lying, telling the truth, and of being neutral.
Some fiction writers want only to tell an engaging story and in the process, hopefully, to make money and maybe to help people understand the world around them, to create a work of literary art, to expound on a favorite hobby, educate children, etc. Their fiction can depict lifestyles we don’t want to expose ourselves to, let alone our children. It can tell charming stories about rabbit families trying to outsmart a vegetable gardener. Neither of these scenarios is necessarily truth or lie. The gritty street-smart story might tell fables of the con-artist with the heart of gold, and the anthropomorphic rabbit family might depict a human family with sensitive accuracy.
Fiction is often engaged in for sociopolitical purposes. Fiction that promotes an agenda I disagree with turns me off. I think it is a lie. This isn’t a relativistic lie. This is the sort of lie that goes like this . . . If I’m right, the author is wrong, and, if the author is right, I am wrong. This is the sort of lie (or truth) where you can’t both be right. Now in some cases, I’m willing to admit that I might be the one who’s wrong. I often have been. The thing I’m not willing to go along with is the possibility that we’re both right.
This is not a favorite flavor. If it were, I wouldn’t care. Does any reader mind reading an otherwise excellent story about someone who thinks coffee is ambrosia, though the reader may prefer tea? Certainly not. But let’s say the reader believes adultery to be a sin, and the story shows adultery in a favorable light while mocking chastity. This reader would consider the story to be a lie. So, is it a lie, merely because the reader sees it that way? No. It is only a lie if the reader is right in his beliefs about adultery. However, if the reader is right in his beliefs, the writer of fiction has presented a falacy. If he believes it to be the truth, he hasn’t personally lied, but he has certainly presented a lie to his readers though he knows it not.
Most works of fiction will contain some truth and some lies and a lot of neutral material. We can’t expect to agree with the author on every point. Works of fiction do, however, often have a definite slant in one or another direction. Fiction is a gray area. Did the writer slant too far in one direction for me to approve the overall message of his story? Perhaps, perhaps not. This is a judgement call and not an absolute. The absolutes come in small doses. Since we’re talking about adultery, I’ll stick with this subject. Given that it is absolutely wrong to break faith with your spouse and willingly engage in sexual relations with another person, no matter what, that part of the story, if it presents otherwise, is a lie. If a story contains too much of this sort of thing, I tip it into the kitchen trash. I can’t enjoy it and I can’t, in good conscience, sell it or give it away because it’s telling lies. I want nothing to do with it and am only sorry I contributed one more sale to its roster.
This is why I can’t swallow things like the DaVinci Code promoting itself as a “harmless work of fiction”. It is not a harmless work of fiction. It is a lie. It contains numerous black and white factual deceptions and untruths about history. The sort of things we admit as evidence in a court of law. The kind of lies that can be legally proved. Of course, the mere fact that a truth cannot be legally proved does not make it any less an absolute, but let’s talk about the easy stuff first.
Math is the gold standard when it comes to explaining absolute truth. If 2 + 2 doesn’t equal 4, the world falls apart. That’s not hyperbole. It really does. Math is not an opinion. It’s true for me and it’s true for you. It’s true if you live in New Jersey and it’s true if you live in Papua New Guinea, or even if you’re hanging out on the space station. It’s true if you’re a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew, a Baha’i, or a worshipper of Italian opera singers. It’s even true if you don’t believe in math. It doesn’t matter what you believe. Some people would call that narrow, but there’s really nothing anyone can do about it. If it’s true, it’s true whether we approve or not. In this case, truth is absolute.
My argument is that we put a lot of things into the relativistic or the preferential truth category when they belong in the absolute category. Does reality change for you if you believe there is no God? No. You’re either right or you’re wrong. The existence of God is not a matter of preference, and it’s not something you can affect by your belief or lack thereof. God either exists or He doesn’t. There are plenty of reasons to believe in the existence of God, and this argument isn’t aimed at persuading atheists to leave their foolishness, so I’ll assume, for the purposes of this article, that you do believe in the existence of some sort of deity. What is or are he, she, or they like? Who’s right? Is anyone right? Does it matter what we believe in, so long as we’re on a spiritual path? A journey of some sort? Are there many roads?
In the western world, we are blessed with many roads–too many to count. We need a lot of roads because we want to go to a lot of different places. The road to Miami won’t do if you want to go to Tampa, and it won’t do if you want to go to Denver, either. Some places have only one road in and out. If you want to go to Alaska, the Alaska Highway is your only real choice. Different roads go to different places. That’s why we have so many roads. Otherwise we could save a lot of money and have only one road which would take us wherever we want to go. Some roads don’t go anywhere at all. I remember hiking in the Appalachian mountains and coming to a beautiful, new, paved four-lane highway. We walked on it for a while. No one was using it but us, because it didn’t go anywhere. It stopped short right in the middle of the wilderness. Apparently, funding had run out. Some roads don’t take you anyplace except out into the middle of nowhere.
So, if you want to go to the afterlife, are there many roads that will take you there? Well, yes and no. If it’s Nirvana you’re looking for, you want Buddhism or maybe Hinduism or some other eastern religion. But does Nirvana exist? Maybe the road goes nowhere. Are you looking for a paradise with gardens that have rivers running below them, and which Allah may let you into if your good deeds tip the scale against your sins and if he’s in a good mood? That would be Islam.
Men have made up all sorts of stories about life after death. It would take a long time to look at all of them. But making up a story doesn’t make it true. If Nirvana exists, Nirvana is all that exists. It is the complete unity with all things and so must encompass all things, including all places. If the paradise of Islam exists, then no other paradise can, for Islam teaches that all Infidels are consigned to hellfire. That pretty much rules out alternative paradises. If the Heaven of YHWH exists, then the paradise of Islam is no longer in play. Only one can be correct. The afterlife is not a smorgasbord. It is a family meal. You have to eat what is on your plate or nothing. God will not changed it out for you because you were expecting Valhalla.
Pretending that all religions are true is silly. They cannot all be true, for they are mutually exclusive. If any one of them is true, it is the only one which can be true. Most religions proclaim their exclusivity. Those that try to include other faiths invariably make the mistake of including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, which spoils the whole game. These three are exclusive religions. By their own teachings, each declares itself to be the only true story. Because they make these claims, they cannot logically be included in a fruit punch type religion such as Baha’i. They are either lying, and thus not worthy of inclusion, or they are telling the truth (well, one of them is) and thus negate the other religions in the punch bowl.
How do we tell which if the many beliefs of men is the true religion? We’ve taken the first step in realizing that there can be only one. Which one should you invest your future in? That is the most important question you’ll ever ask in this life. Make sure you get the answer right. And as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (And meanwhile, I’ll talk more about this truth business in a future post.)
Grace and Peace to you,
Cindy
Whew … so many topics, where do I start? First, to touch briefly on the life and ministry of Paul (Saul of Tarsus), I read your commentaries, but didn’t comment since my familiarity with his work is somewhat lacking. I know the basics of his life, some of his high and low points, and of course his teachings, the epistles, chronicled by him personally and possibly by other writers/ scribes. But to delve into his life and times a little more, I happened to pick up a well worn copy of ‘Roots of Christianity’, by Michael Walsh, a book a little old to be listed on amazon.com (1986), but a good historical narrative nonetheless. I’m sure it will be only one of many that I read. I have ‘Jesus and His Times’ on my shelf also, and will read that one as well.
So just what is truth? Yes, math is true, at least ‘integer’ math, although the term ‘infinity’ (1 divided by zero) to me is problematic. Relating it to mass and quantity, it is falsifiable, and thus non-existent, since any quantity can be increased; thus an infinite mass (or quantity) is impossible. Relative to time (whatever that is), there are two ways to look at it. Either a beginning with no end (or the reverse), or no beginning OR end. But even there, if there is no end in sight, it doesn’t preclude an end from occurring.
But what of the truth regarding reality?! Many possible scenarios, but possibly no concrete answers. From an early age I just had to take things apart, including window hardware and door locks, and later radios and TVs. I had an interest in science, collected hundreds of science fiction books (Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Arthur Clarke, et al), and read them all. But at some point, decided it was more appropriate to experience the world, rather than play it out in your mind. The books went to Goodwill, and I haven’t cracked another fiction book since. I feel that fiction provides ideas, is entertaining, but also a time waster. Instead, today I read science, technology, philosophy and religion texts, as well as historical and political rags, and plan on writing one myself, altho I can’t at this time reveal too much about it!
You touched on the monotheistic religions (and others). Does Nirvana exist? A Mormon might say yeah, but it’s called the seventh heaven, with intermediate planes in between. A Catholic might say sure, but it’s called heaven, with a possible stop over in purgatory. Living as we do in a corporeal existence, it’s hard to know, but I do know personally that there are worlds beyond, whatever you’d like to call them. In my 20s, I experimented with OBE, and yes, it’s real! I could write a book on it, but I won’t. I don’t preach it, since if everybody knew, for example, that this life was one of many, for some it might degrade the experience, and even lead to bizarre behavior. I feel there’s more, but we need to live this life to its fullest, nonetheless.
Is there a God? Of course, but there is also a vast, angelic (spirit) community out there, from which we get direct support. God works through them, and we may at some time serve in similar roles (guardians, mentors, overseers). This is probably how the polytheistic religions deduced multiple gods. When you pass, you enter a new community of sorts, perhaps one from whence you came. To give you an illustration, I once had a strange visitor. I posted the experience 5/13/2003 at rec.music.makers.piano, and got one measly response. But it’s true, I have no reason to lie. The news link regarding Mr. Dennis no longer works, but to get his ‘bio’, Google his name in quotes + died.
http://tinyurl.com/5s4wjg
As a result of the above, I now try to practice my keyboards daily!
So why am I out to enlighten the Skeptics? The die-hards are free to believe what they will. Actually, they may even be harder workers than most, and get more done, believing that its now or never for them. Rational though has its limits, but if they think they’ve got it (truth), then so be it. Atheism seems to be a direct result of ‘intellect’ coupled with ‘ego’. The ones I’m concerned about are those who might chose a spiritual path, but are constrained by the dogma of Darwinian evolution, to which they must adhere to, to succeed. I’ll do all I can to see that that fascist, academic position is removed (or at least softened), and I trust that you Cindy, and your daughter will do the same!
Intelligent Design is the approach that speaks best to Skeptics, since it’s based on empirical verification of complexity, synergy of systems and asthetic qualities that offer no survival advantage to become fixed in populations, and yes, ‘rational thought’ as well.
Well Cindy, you beat me on words (2246 to about 884), altho I posit that the ‘truth’ portion of both rants is much less. But truth is something we should all seek, cause what the heck, it gives us something to work towards. Someday we’ll likely tally the count to see how close we actually were …
Shalom, and Yahweh be with you
Hi, Lee
Thanks for writing. 🙂
I haven’t studied Paul much either (except for his writings, I mean). I have some books about him and his times on my reading list, but I haven’t gotten to them. The Bible is just this incredible, living book. The more you look into it, in a prayerful way, the more truth you see. I never cease to be amazed. It’s a thing that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, to steal a phrase from CS Lewis.
While it’s true that most fiction is, at best, harmless amusement, there are fiction works that go deeper. Jesus chose this way to teach (His parables) much of the time. I think maybe He did this because people digest a truth more readily in story form. But I agree that the great majority of fiction works are a leisure activity that shouldn’t be indulged in to excess.
It was, of course, integer math I was talking about. The infinity thing kind of boggles my mind. As I said, I’m not really a numbers person.
Quantum physics, multiple realities, and so on . . . what difference would it make? This is the only world we have anything to do with and it’s most likely better that way, even if there are other worlds out there parallel to us. I hate to sound like a person with no imagination, but I do think that a lot of the more far-out science stuff is only imagination. It’s fun to think about, but as you intimated, it doesn’t accomplish much beyond that.
The idea of Nirvana as envisioned by the folks who created it is different from the Heaven we read about in the Bible. There’s no way you could confuse the two concepts if you study them even superficially. I’ll have to do a post on Heaven (or at least, Heaven the way I read it) one of these days. That said, I know this isn’t what you were getting at.
I think polytheism was a natural concept for people to come to, having refused to retain God in their minds. Read Romans 1:18-32 for a better explanation of this than I could give. That said, yes, of course the Scriptures are consistent with your statement that there is a vast spiritual world out there that we can have only limited knowledge of in this life.
Whether restless spirits who perhaps have nowhere else to go wander around the earth after death and manifest themselves in some way to receptive individuals, I have no knowledge. Certainly men have believed this happens for thousands of years. The Bible doesn’t say much about it–practically nothing, in fact, so I just don’t know. I’ve never experienced anything like this, but I know normal people who feel certain they have done.
Certainly there is more to truth than I have posted here, or than I now know. I think we’ve gotten a bit mixed on the subject, though, and wanted to attempt a limited clarification.
God’s Grace and Truth to you,
Cindy
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation 🙂 Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Vestryman!
Hi, Vestryman
Thanks for stopping by. I’m sorry you found it a bit cryptic. If you’d like a clarification, please feel free to explain what you’re hanging up on. As it is, I’m not sure . . . Unless you’re wondering why anyone would need to define truth. I wonder that myself, but in my experience it is actually necessary.
By the way, I’m sorry about your reply not showing up right away. For some reason the spam filter snagged it, and I only just found it.
God Bless,
Cindy