Truth
Created | Updated May 14, 2006
Throughout the last several thousand years of history1, mankind has sought The Truth. Not just a truth, or one of several truths which may or may not be out there, but the One Truth which is unquestionably The Truth and everyone will be forced to bow down before it and acknowledge its massive... um... truthfulness.
This search has diverted into endless religious offsprings, much like a giant looking glass diverts into endless shards of glass when dashed to the floor, and of course, almost every one of these religions demands that they are The One And Only Truth and you'd better bow down now if you know what's good for you.
Not only does each of these religions demand everyone acknowledge its truthfulness, but also that they seek out and destroy all the 'false truths' that are out there, which is predominantly from where wars come. While some religions never became very popular; at least when compared to other things like world economics, pro wrestling, Star Wars or towels. Some of these religions are still more popular than some things, like Karaoke. Though many religions boast large congregations and faithful followers, it seems that not all of those followers go along because they believe they have found The Truth. Some of these followers are going along out of fear of something or other, like fear of death, for example, going along blindly with a given truth but not really putting a lot of emotion into it2. This isn't a question of faith, but a question of boredom. After all this time, the search for truth is just no longer all that popular.
Why is this?
Humans are not only curious by nature, but also have an urge to dominate others. Why these violent and destructive urges exist is uncertain, but if humanity could let go of its more barbaric roots and concentrate on curiosity and the search for answers, then in theory everything on this planet would come much closer to the truth. Unless of course science turns out to be just another religion.
'Why are we here?' is one of the basic questions on earth. Of course it can be waved off by saying 'We don't know!' but somehow that just takes all the fun out of it.
A lot of humans have spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. They haven't gotten very far though. Cogito ergo sum3 is the only truth anyone has come up with, and even that might be proved to be wrong, particularly if human beings continue using truth and religion as an excuse to bop one another on the head4, or if they continue to use lawyers to settle disputes, thereby circumventing truth altogether5.
Trying to find the answers to this world's questions while still an integral part of humanity is like sitting inside a sealed box and trying to figure out what colour it must be on the outside. Is it even possible? Do we have any clues? Is it possible the one who originally constructed the box6 could have spilled some drops of paint on the inside of the box when She/He/It made the box? Or maybe She/He/It painted a bit over the edge in one of the corners?
And what if everything is true? What if nothing we have seen so far is true? What if only a percentage of what we perceive to be true actually is and that percentage coincides with the square root of whatever the Dow Jones is doing at this very moment coinciding with the value of the Euro?
We may never truly know, and that more than anything may be the only true truth: 'The more we think we know, the more we know we don't know' or even 'The more we know, the more we know how much there is left to learn'. Frustrating, isn't it?
Anyway...
The Truth is (or at least should be) out there. And we humans might be able to figure it out. Someday. In the meantime, if there are any absolute truths you would like to share with us, please feel free to do so in the forums below.