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Tag: "truth"

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What is truth?
By Mike Pulcinella on October 18th, 2009

What is truth?

What is truth?

Big question, right?

It’s something philosophers have been pondering for as long as there have been philosophers pondering. I’m not going to pretend to be able to answer it here but I would like to list a few things that truth is not.

Belief is not truth.

Faith is not truth.

Desire is not truth.

Hope is not truth.

Vague prophecy is not truth.

The other day a believer in a religion forum conversation I was a part of told me that he hopes that some day I learn the “truth” and get saved. I am always wary when a word is willfully and consistently misused. There is an Orwellian doublespeak creepiness about the mis-use of the word “truth” by believers that is disturbing to me whenever I hear it.

People often speak of a personal truth and I suppose that concept has some validity, but all too often that personal revelation, which ends up being called truth, is applied to humanity as a whole. In other words, “My truth must be your truth”. That is a very myopic viewpoint and one thing about belief in God that has always rubbed me the wrong way.

That same believer more recently posted that because he knows the truth no one will ever be able to change his mind or shake his faith. He is mistaken if that’s what he thinks the non-believers are trying to do by arguing against certainty. Why would I want to take away from him his life’s philosophy that he has worked so hard to discover? Conversely, why would he want to deny me mine?

As an atheist all I have ever wanted from believers is respect. Respect for my doubts. Respect for my journey. Respect for MY personal “truth”.

Does belief rule out respect and understanding for other paths of life? I don’t think so but if that is the case, that is just one more reason that I would prefer to hold on to my doubts.

Meaning of Life • Religion
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On Truth and Power
By Mark Tiedemann on May 13th, 2009

On Truth and Power

Recently on Dangerous Intersection, an article was posted about the problem of Power in relation to truth. I wrote a response and decided to post it here, at more length, as a short essay on the (occasionally etymological) problem of Truth.

When people start talking about what is true or not, they tend to use the word like a Swiss Army knife. It means what they want it to mean when they point at something. Truth is a slippery term and has many facets. Usually, in casual conversation, when people say something is true, they’re usually talking something being factual. Truth and fact are conjoined in many, possibly most, instances, but are not the same things. The “truth” of a “fact” can often be a matter of interpretation, making conversation occasionally problematic.

The problem is in the variability of the term “truth”—like many such words, we stretch it to include things which are related but not the same. There is Truth and then there is Fact. 2 + 2 = 4 is a fact. It may, if analyzed sufficiently, yield a fundamental “truth” about the universe, but in an of itself it is only a fact.

When someone comes along and insists, through power (an assertion of will), that 2 + 2 = 5, the “truth” being challenged is not in the addition but in the relation of the assertion to reality and the intent of the power in question. The arithmetic becomes irrelevant. Truth then is in the relationship being asserted and the response to it. The one doing the asserting and the one who must respond to the assertion.

Similarly, in examples of law, we get into difficulty in discussions over morality. Take for instance civil rights era court decisions, where there is a conflation of ethics and morality. They are connected, certainly, but they are not the same thing. Ethics deal with the proper channels of response within a stated system—in which case, Plessy vs Fergusson could be seen as ethical given the criteria upon which it was based. But not moral, given a larger criteria based on valuations of human worth. To establish that larger criterion, overturning one system in favor of another, would require a redefintion of “ethical” into “unethical”, changing the norm, for instance in Brown vs The Board of Education. The “truth” of either decision is a moving target, albeit one based on a priori concepts of human value as applied through ethical systems that adapt.

Civil Rights • Communication • Community • Culture • Featured • Language • Law • Meaning of Life • Politics • Psychology Cognition • Religion • Science
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By Erich Vieth on May 11th, 2009

That strange relationship between power and truth

I have a question for readers and a request for guidance.

My gut feeling is that political power has nothing to do with truth. It doesn’t matter that someone is encouraging me or threatening me to believe that 2 + 2 =5. The truth is that 2 +2 is always 4. Even if someone enacts tax incentives for me to say otherwise. Even if police officers put guns to my head. Even if every other person in my country ostracizes me and calls me immoral.

It seems, though, that there are what seem to be (to many people) strange but unrelenting version of truth that are guided by the exercise of power. This occurs most often in closed systems. For instance, one would be scolded if one stood up and announced that Mary wasn’t a virgin while in a Christian church. If you take a megaphone at a Fourth of July picnic in middle-America, you’d better damn well say that the United States is the world’s greatest democracy, even though our voting rates are pathetically law and even though our political system is thoroughly corrupted thanks to legalized bribes termed “campaign contributions” (see this telling comment, which SHOULD shock us into starting a massive revolution).

Within a closed social system, then, it seems as though political or social power can be used to make many people mouth many blatant untruths. After mouthing them for long periods, many of these people start believing these untruths. For instance, did we invade Iraq to confiscate known weapons of mass destruction? That idea served as truth to many people during the run up to the invasion (some people still cling to that falsehood). Now, with a new power order in place in Washington DC, the prevailing truth is that the Bush Administration intentionally conjured up fake evidence regarding WMD.

This inter-relationship between truth and power reminds me of Thomas Kuhn’s suggestion that scientific fields undergo periodic revolutions (”paradigm shifts”), in which the nature of scientific inquiry within a particular field is abruptly transformed. I’m also somewhat acquainted with various “post-modernist” writings that seem to address this general issue. For instance, consider this definition of postmodernism by Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, which I pulled from Wikipedia:

A worldview characterized by the belief that truth doesn’t exist in any objective sense but is created rather than discovered.”… Truth is “created by the specific culture and exists only in that culture. Therefore, any system or statement that tries to communicate truth is a power play, an effort to dominate other cultures.

Censorship • Communication • Community • Education • Language • Law • Politics • Psychology Cognition • ignorance • scientific method
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By Dan Klarmann on May 11th, 2009

Elephant’s Wings

PZ Myers has produced a parable; an updating of the ancient saga of the Blind Men and the Elephant. The gist of every version of this tale is that several blind explorers each encounter one point on an elephant, and decide from that point what the whole must be. PZ presents a version with an intractable dissenting opinion among those considered as experts.

After their consternation at their initial dissimilar conclusions about the true nature of an elephant,

The first three, being of a scientifical bent, quickly collaborated and changed places, and confirmed each other’s observations; they agreed that each had been correct in the results of their investigations, except that there wasn’t a hint of feathers anywhere about, but clearly their interpretations required correction and more data. So they explored further, reporting to each other what they were finding, in order to establish a more complete picture of the obstacle in the path.

“Feathers?” you ask. The fourth had suggested that it simply must have iridescent, transcendent wings. So as the others checked their evidence, he:

yawns and stretches in the shade of a tree. “It has wings, large wings, that it may ascend into the heavens and inspire humanity. There could be no purpose to such an animal without an ability to loft a metaphor and give us something to which we might aspire.”

The disagreements between those who explore and those who are sure, escalate. A worthy short read.

Communication • Humor • Religion • Science • Web Site • ignorance • scientific method • snake oil
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By Erich Vieth on January 16th, 2009

Ten lessons we must learn from the Bush Presidency

In the Washington Post, Bob Woodward has written an excellent summary of the ten lessons we have hopefully learned from the Bush Presidency.    The article is titled “10 Take Aways From the Bush Years.” Here are the titles to these ten lessons, which Woodward carefully illustrates throughout his article:
1. Presidents set the tone. Don’t [...]

Politics • Psychology Cognition
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By Erich Vieth on December 13th, 2008

George W. Bush: The Bible is probably not literally true.

Now that he doesn’t need the evangelicals to get elected (and now that John McCain doesn’t need them either), George W. Bush can safely say the the Bible is “probably not literally true.”
In a recent interview on ABC with Charles Gibson, Bush freely admits that Muslims can go to heaven.
CHARLES GIBSON:Do Christians and non-Christians and [...]

Politics • Religion • ignorance
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By Erich Vieth on October 10th, 2008

Satisfying non-explanations: an intriguing non-dream about ball lightning

My interest in explanations was brought to a new higher intensified while I watched a movie. I must regress many more years to tell the entire story. Before I begin, though, I need to assure you that my story is absolutely true.
About 20 years ago, I awoke at about 3 a.m., and I [...]

American Culture • Psychology Cognition • Science • snake oil
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By Tim Hogan on September 17th, 2008

John McCain and Sarah Palin continue with their ongoing campaign of lies

John McCain and Sarah Palin are running a campaign of lies, half truths and distortions and destroying America as a Republic. There’s even a website now to keep track of the lies. As of September 17, 2008 they are at 56 lies, up from 54 lies as of yesterday.  Also, see here, here, here, here, [...]

Corruption • Politics • ignorance • snake oil
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By Erich Vieth on April 30th, 2008

What is truth? Here are some quotes to consider.

What is truth?  Such a timely topic these days, now that we seem to be in the post-truth era.  I gathered these quotes on the meaning of truth from my favorite quote site, The Quotations Page.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell (1903 - 1950)
Any fool can tell [...]

Politics • Psychology Cognition • Quotes
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