What is Truth?
I laughed at and shared a blog post this morning from satire site 'Babylon Bee', titled: 'Mark Zuckerberg Finishes Off Another Long Day of Deciding What People Can Believe', with the comment "many a truth...".
It chimes with something I've been chewing over a lot recently, especially with the 'Dominic Cummings incident'.
Truth.
What is truth?
With the rise of Donald Trump to the US Presidency and the new #FakeNews label, disinformation became a topic that rose to the forefront. Sure, there has been misinformation, limited facts and distorted truth for thousands of years - as a Christian, I believe since the dawn of time, beginning with the words, "Has God said...?" Now, with the advance of technology and the internet age, our world has become one steady influx of information, everywhere. Facts, stories, news, global, political, local, everyone, everything, everywhere. And to spread their own agendas, others share their own stories, their own take on things, or even blatant falsehoods - things that people in little towns and villages, with their own very human thoughts and basic fears, take to heart.
We cannot trust the Government - many would say that, especially in the current pandemic with the Government operating under scientific advice. Few dare question the scientists openly, but many do privately - the amount of information I've seen both sides from 'scientists' who negate the impact of 5G, or support the impact of 5G on COVID-19.
Then there's the vaccinations - how dare anyone query the positive impact of vaccinations? I personally have had, and watched my twin brother have, negative experiences of vaccinations, and have been called a liar to my face when I have stated this publicly. I've also had positive vaccinations, and I'm convinced that it's particular to someone's genetic make-up as to what is in the vaccine and how they respond. There are the quiet payoffs from Governments and medical bodies to survivors and descendants of people impacted by vaccinations - but yet, these problems still remain mythologised. Is it the scientists, is it the Government - is it that both don't always know what they are doing, but make the best judgement on what scanty facts they have?
Then there's the media. King of bias. (Which is bias in itself, but there.) I have always tried to read a portion of left-wing and right-wing media to achieve a stable balance (even though some make me want to become a pyromaniac afterwards! Joke), and the comments and opinion pieces from my right-wing and left-wing friends are hysterical. Why? Because the same article or video clip is claimed by some to be right-wing, and some to be left-wing, serving some invisible evil corporation or big bad money baron's agenda.
But the media IS biased, because it's made up of people. Beautiful, wonderful, terrible people, who have their own minds and own views and own opinions on how things should be done, or events performed, or laws carried out. They automatically infer their own bias into everything that is produced, filmed, spoken or read. Every news item does carry its own agenda.
So there is no verifiable source of information that is unbiased or trustworthy. Facts. Statistics. Surely these cannot be questioned.
Weighted data.
Percentages applied.
The inference of doubt behind every calculation.
No, statistics - while being one of the hardest sources of facts, are not infallible or reliable. In fact, some would even go to say that statistics make us inhuman (hello, people who query why measuring the economy against human life is even a thing).
Then there's free speech, opinions and opposing views. The whole world wants everyone to get along with everyone else. As long as it doesn't impede on their subjective morality. As long as everyone falls in line with the majority of morality.
Their opinion.
One of my favourite political stories is from back when I attended my first election count for the 2017 General Election. I spoke to a nice chap who was there from the Labour Party; it went something like:
Me: Long night! My feet are killing me.
Him: Me too! Not long to go now.
Me: Really? That's good.
Him: I shouldn't be talking to you; I've been told off by the Party before.
Me: Oh! Why?
Him: Being too friendly with the opposite side - something like that.
Me: See, I don't understand this; I want what's best for the country, you want what's best for the country. We both might have different ways to achieve that or of seeing how it should be done, but there's no reason that we can't have a pleasant exchange in doing it.
Him: Exactly!
A better, kinder politics. Oh, how I wish for that.
The Bible has long been declaimed for all of the horrible stories in it. But it was never meant to be a Book of Perfection. It was also never meant to be a running commentary on all of the evils of mankind.
It laid out the law of God, and then documented the messes of man.
It was meant to show us the path to Perfection, to our own redemption. To show us that through all of the evil that we create, that God will make it right. That this...this horrible s**tshow of a storm of life is a blip in a moment of non-linear time.
This whole path is snapshot in Judges 21, a chapter that details a tribe which, instead of breaking their own silly oath to not 'give' their families in marriage to another tribe, decided to kidnap their wives from them instead.
It concludes the whole book, tellingly, with this one verse.
People today still decide their own morality. 'Who are you to judge me?' But I can judge you for judging me and how dare you have that opinion and that opinion or belief infringes on my right and I think you're stupid or you can't hold that opinion because you will hurt someone else. It's a never-ending storm of confusion and chaos and white and black blend into grey as you try to navigate a world run by people's emotions, which now dictate the facts.
And yet, when facts are presented from any source or statistic, people argue vociferously that they are not facts, or that they come from a questionable source, or that the way they are presented is wrong, if it does not support what they believe.
Which leads to confusion. How to believe what to believe and make sense of the rest of the world. Is there black and white, or just grey? What is objective?
Is truth objective? Subjective? Or a reality of a fixed point.
It all leads to the question, the leading question that resonates through time and was met with silence once asked, because even face-to-face with the reality, it didn't fit with his worldview and his preconceptions.
But it was answered four chapters earlier to those who were ready, whose hearts were prepared, who had sought after the truth, who had put aside preconceptions and asked in earnest.
Facts. You'd think murder is wrong, but even that becomes subjective.
The death penalty is wrong. Okay, let's make it illegal. Now you can kill people, and spend a few years in prison, and come out with a smack on the wrist (simplifying, but what isn't in this whole grey blurry tale of confusion?). What about the victims?
A paedophile. Nearly everyone wants them dead. Except people who believe it's a mental health issue. Why? It challenges their subjective morality.
Children. It's okay if they're wanted, loved, not in pain. If they're not, why not kill them? It doesn't hurt to kill what you can't see.
But apparently I shouldn't share those views, because they threaten or disagree with the subjective morality of the majority opinion.
And then, for those left that share these views, my Christian perspective on life - and death - it becomes an issue of speaking the truth in love. You have to be nice to people.
And trust me, it's my life ethos. I can't cope with discord, or nastiness, or people hating each other. (Don't ask how I like politics - I have no idea.)
But you gotta speak truth to power.
And you can't judge.
Wow.
The politics of Jesus' day weren't much different, but at least He had the blessing of being God and man, splitting through the division to the cutting truth and standing by it. He had no choice. He was the Truth.
I don't often share things I believe in these days. Atul and I both hate tension, arguments, discord. There's enough horror in the world without making any more and, sorry, I'd rather keep admiring the blue sky and fluffy creamy clouds without getting into the gritty dirt of racism, discrimination, bullying, mental health and murder.
Some things are too important to bypass though.
Previously, I had the blessing of helping support two women who were considering abortions because of their situations or age. They now have happy, healthy beautiful children who they wouldn't exchange for the world.
Today, I read the impact of the changes in the bill on Northern Ireland's abortion laws and shared the horror of it online - backed up by facts.
And ended up hurting someone I care about deeply, who has now (completely understandably) walked out of my life. Does that mean I shouldn't share the truth?
It's not pleasant. I feel heartsick and have been teary all afternoon knowing how that must've hurt.
Then there are f***ed up stories about girls being abused by men in their lives which forces them to have abortions at very early ages. Where does the morality lie there - in killing a baby who has been brought into this world through no fault of its own? How does one bring the father of that baby to justice?
The god of lies has sure managed to twist everything up.
Then there are the people whose subjective morality thinks that it's okay to talk sex to an 11 year old. Abuse a 3 year old. A baby. The article I read straight after of people who work to expose child abuse by posing as children is, while heartening, makes me sick. The men who approached me as an innocent 17 year old make me sick. The world is a sick, sick place.
After my own life experiences, if it wasn't for the good man sitting next to me lost in his little warrior game and the good one married to my mother, I'd think that every single man must have a double who was into some sort of sadistic abuse.
The crap in the world today leaves me heartsick. That people should even have to consider this as a option is sickening.
But how much does it hurt those who can't speak for themselves? Should we no longer speak for them because they could not and cannot speak for themselves, because their deaths hurt someone else?
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and of Evil gave us the knowledge of both. The god of lies brought the confusion in differentiation.
To lose sight of the good in the world is to make one life entirely miserable. But to not only survive it, but to thrive in it, one needs the truth.
You can run from the truth, but you can't make the truth.
There is but one Truth, and one Way to Him.
He is the Truth, and the Way, and He will bring you life.
If you seek Him, you will find Him, when you search for Him with your whole heart - abandoning preconceptions, searching for facts, asking for truth.
His Name is Jesus.
It chimes with something I've been chewing over a lot recently, especially with the 'Dominic Cummings incident'.
Truth.
What is truth?
With the rise of Donald Trump to the US Presidency and the new #FakeNews label, disinformation became a topic that rose to the forefront. Sure, there has been misinformation, limited facts and distorted truth for thousands of years - as a Christian, I believe since the dawn of time, beginning with the words, "Has God said...?" Now, with the advance of technology and the internet age, our world has become one steady influx of information, everywhere. Facts, stories, news, global, political, local, everyone, everything, everywhere. And to spread their own agendas, others share their own stories, their own take on things, or even blatant falsehoods - things that people in little towns and villages, with their own very human thoughts and basic fears, take to heart.
We cannot trust the Government - many would say that, especially in the current pandemic with the Government operating under scientific advice. Few dare question the scientists openly, but many do privately - the amount of information I've seen both sides from 'scientists' who negate the impact of 5G, or support the impact of 5G on COVID-19.
Then there's the vaccinations - how dare anyone query the positive impact of vaccinations? I personally have had, and watched my twin brother have, negative experiences of vaccinations, and have been called a liar to my face when I have stated this publicly. I've also had positive vaccinations, and I'm convinced that it's particular to someone's genetic make-up as to what is in the vaccine and how they respond. There are the quiet payoffs from Governments and medical bodies to survivors and descendants of people impacted by vaccinations - but yet, these problems still remain mythologised. Is it the scientists, is it the Government - is it that both don't always know what they are doing, but make the best judgement on what scanty facts they have?
Then there's the media. King of bias. (Which is bias in itself, but there.) I have always tried to read a portion of left-wing and right-wing media to achieve a stable balance (even though some make me want to become a pyromaniac afterwards! Joke), and the comments and opinion pieces from my right-wing and left-wing friends are hysterical. Why? Because the same article or video clip is claimed by some to be right-wing, and some to be left-wing, serving some invisible evil corporation or big bad money baron's agenda.
But the media IS biased, because it's made up of people. Beautiful, wonderful, terrible people, who have their own minds and own views and own opinions on how things should be done, or events performed, or laws carried out. They automatically infer their own bias into everything that is produced, filmed, spoken or read. Every news item does carry its own agenda.
So there is no verifiable source of information that is unbiased or trustworthy. Facts. Statistics. Surely these cannot be questioned.
Weighted data.
Percentages applied.
The inference of doubt behind every calculation.
No, statistics - while being one of the hardest sources of facts, are not infallible or reliable. In fact, some would even go to say that statistics make us inhuman (hello, people who query why measuring the economy against human life is even a thing).
Then there's free speech, opinions and opposing views. The whole world wants everyone to get along with everyone else. As long as it doesn't impede on their subjective morality. As long as everyone falls in line with the majority of morality.
Their opinion.
One of my favourite political stories is from back when I attended my first election count for the 2017 General Election. I spoke to a nice chap who was there from the Labour Party; it went something like:
Me: Long night! My feet are killing me.
Him: Me too! Not long to go now.
Me: Really? That's good.
Him: I shouldn't be talking to you; I've been told off by the Party before.
Me: Oh! Why?
Him: Being too friendly with the opposite side - something like that.
Me: See, I don't understand this; I want what's best for the country, you want what's best for the country. We both might have different ways to achieve that or of seeing how it should be done, but there's no reason that we can't have a pleasant exchange in doing it.
Him: Exactly!
A better, kinder politics. Oh, how I wish for that.
The Bible has long been declaimed for all of the horrible stories in it. But it was never meant to be a Book of Perfection. It was also never meant to be a running commentary on all of the evils of mankind.
It laid out the law of God, and then documented the messes of man.
It was meant to show us the path to Perfection, to our own redemption. To show us that through all of the evil that we create, that God will make it right. That this...this horrible s**tshow of a storm of life is a blip in a moment of non-linear time.
This whole path is snapshot in Judges 21, a chapter that details a tribe which, instead of breaking their own silly oath to not 'give' their families in marriage to another tribe, decided to kidnap their wives from them instead.
It concludes the whole book, tellingly, with this one verse.
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. - Judges 21:25
People today still decide their own morality. 'Who are you to judge me?' But I can judge you for judging me and how dare you have that opinion and that opinion or belief infringes on my right and I think you're stupid or you can't hold that opinion because you will hurt someone else. It's a never-ending storm of confusion and chaos and white and black blend into grey as you try to navigate a world run by people's emotions, which now dictate the facts.
And yet, when facts are presented from any source or statistic, people argue vociferously that they are not facts, or that they come from a questionable source, or that the way they are presented is wrong, if it does not support what they believe.
Which leads to confusion. How to believe what to believe and make sense of the rest of the world. Is there black and white, or just grey? What is objective?
Is truth objective? Subjective? Or a reality of a fixed point.
It all leads to the question, the leading question that resonates through time and was met with silence once asked, because even face-to-face with the reality, it didn't fit with his worldview and his preconceptions.
Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” - John 18:38a"What is Truth?" He answered every question but this.
But it was answered four chapters earlier to those who were ready, whose hearts were prepared, who had sought after the truth, who had put aside preconceptions and asked in earnest.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” John 14:6
Facts. You'd think murder is wrong, but even that becomes subjective.
The death penalty is wrong. Okay, let's make it illegal. Now you can kill people, and spend a few years in prison, and come out with a smack on the wrist (simplifying, but what isn't in this whole grey blurry tale of confusion?). What about the victims?
A paedophile. Nearly everyone wants them dead. Except people who believe it's a mental health issue. Why? It challenges their subjective morality.
Children. It's okay if they're wanted, loved, not in pain. If they're not, why not kill them? It doesn't hurt to kill what you can't see.
But apparently I shouldn't share those views, because they threaten or disagree with the subjective morality of the majority opinion.
And then, for those left that share these views, my Christian perspective on life - and death - it becomes an issue of speaking the truth in love. You have to be nice to people.
And trust me, it's my life ethos. I can't cope with discord, or nastiness, or people hating each other. (Don't ask how I like politics - I have no idea.)
But you gotta speak truth to power.
And you can't judge.
Wow.
The politics of Jesus' day weren't much different, but at least He had the blessing of being God and man, splitting through the division to the cutting truth and standing by it. He had no choice. He was the Truth.
I don't often share things I believe in these days. Atul and I both hate tension, arguments, discord. There's enough horror in the world without making any more and, sorry, I'd rather keep admiring the blue sky and fluffy creamy clouds without getting into the gritty dirt of racism, discrimination, bullying, mental health and murder.
Some things are too important to bypass though.
Previously, I had the blessing of helping support two women who were considering abortions because of their situations or age. They now have happy, healthy beautiful children who they wouldn't exchange for the world.
Today, I read the impact of the changes in the bill on Northern Ireland's abortion laws and shared the horror of it online - backed up by facts.
And ended up hurting someone I care about deeply, who has now (completely understandably) walked out of my life. Does that mean I shouldn't share the truth?
It's not pleasant. I feel heartsick and have been teary all afternoon knowing how that must've hurt.
Then there are f***ed up stories about girls being abused by men in their lives which forces them to have abortions at very early ages. Where does the morality lie there - in killing a baby who has been brought into this world through no fault of its own? How does one bring the father of that baby to justice?
The god of lies has sure managed to twist everything up.
Then there are the people whose subjective morality thinks that it's okay to talk sex to an 11 year old. Abuse a 3 year old. A baby. The article I read straight after of people who work to expose child abuse by posing as children is, while heartening, makes me sick. The men who approached me as an innocent 17 year old make me sick. The world is a sick, sick place.
After my own life experiences, if it wasn't for the good man sitting next to me lost in his little warrior game and the good one married to my mother, I'd think that every single man must have a double who was into some sort of sadistic abuse.
The crap in the world today leaves me heartsick. That people should even have to consider this as a option is sickening.
But how much does it hurt those who can't speak for themselves? Should we no longer speak for them because they could not and cannot speak for themselves, because their deaths hurt someone else?
The Tree of Knowledge of Good and of Evil gave us the knowledge of both. The god of lies brought the confusion in differentiation.
To lose sight of the good in the world is to make one life entirely miserable. But to not only survive it, but to thrive in it, one needs the truth.
You can run from the truth, but you can't make the truth.
There is but one Truth, and one Way to Him.
He is the Truth, and the Way, and He will bring you life.
If you seek Him, you will find Him, when you search for Him with your whole heart - abandoning preconceptions, searching for facts, asking for truth.
His Name is Jesus.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. :)