3.1 | what is truth?

III | TRUTH

‘Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked…’ // John 18:36-38

what is truth?

It seems that as long as humans have existed, we have considered the nature of truth. The nature of truth has been elusive to us as long as we have walked this planet. So we have created artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements in attempts to understand truth.  These movements are roughly identified as occurring in three sequential phases: premodernism, modernism and postmodernism.

According to researchers, the premodern age spans from roughly 10,000 BC to 1450 AD. The modern age took place from 1450 to 1960, and the postmodern age from 1960 to today.

What are the differences between these ages?

Paulo Coelho tells this story on his blog:

The devil was talking to his friends when they noticed a man walking along a road. They watched him pass and saw that he bent down to pick something up.

“What did he find?” asked one of the friends.

“A piece of Truth,” answered the devil.

The devil’s friends were deeply concerned. After all, a piece of Truth might save that man’s soul – one less in Hell. But the devil remained unmoved, gazing at the view.

“Aren’t you worried?” said one of his companions. “He found a piece of Truth!”

“I’m not worried,” answered the devil.

“Do you know what he’ll do with the piece?”

Smiling, the devil responded. “As usual, he’ll create a new religion. And he’ll succeed in distancing even more people from the whole Truth.”

What is truth? This is the sixth question that we can use to establish and clarify our worldview. A question we haven’t yet discussed. As we can see, something being “true” today is much different than what was considered “true” a thousand years ago. Truth is presented to us as elusive. Think about a disagreement between two of your friends and you find yourself in the middle. Both believe their opposing perspective to be true. But you know the truth lies somewhere in the balance between their stories.

What creates a further distinction between the worldviews of Kingdom and Critical Theory is the different ages in which they were revealed. In some ways, Critical Theory embraces the idea of modernist truth—that some things can be observed and recorded as true. But mostly, CT embraces a postmodern definition of truth—that objective truth either doesn’t exist or is unknowable. This means that anything I claim is “true” is only true to me and those who agree with me. The only source of truth is “my truth,” what I believe to be true.

CT makes room for some absolute natural truths. One of these is that we all need food, water, and air to live. This is – hopefully – an uncontroversial objective truth. There’s nothing that you or I can do to change it. One of the greatest things about food is that there’s almost an unlimited variety.

The term “food” can mean different things to different people. So, although there is an absolute truth that says you and I need food to live, the food we eat can be different. My cousin is a dietician. One of the things dieticians teach is that we need a rainbow-hued plate. Don’t just have brown, white or yellow on your plate. Add some green, purple, and even blue. A healthy plate is a rainbow plate. So a dietician will tell you that “food” is a huge bowl of salad, with fresh greens, colorful fruits and veggies, and golden olive oil to dress it. But “food” to me is a meat patty sandwiched between two halves of a soft baked bun. This patty is topped with melted American cheese, tomatoes, pickles, mustard and (sometimes) mayo. However, it doesn’t end there. Next to this delicious burger is a side of fries layered and covered in melted cheese.

Here’s the thing: I’m down for the truth that says we all need food. But I can’t stand when people tell me that I need to eat healthy food. When I think about it, I can’t believe that there are people who want us to believe that a salad is in some way better for us than cheese fries. There are so many people who make the claim that having a healthy diet is important.  Who are these people to tell me what is good for me? That might be true for these doctors and dieticians, but that’s not true for me. I certainly agree that we need food to live, but it’s their opinion that a salad will help me live a better life than cheese fries. This all comes down to our definition of what it means to “live.” That’s highly subjective.

You might want to be physically fit and not die of a heart attack. I might just want to be happy for today.

Salad makes me sad. Cheese fries make me happy. Therefore, cheese fries are healthy for me because they improve my emotional and mental health. Salad, on the other hand, is depressing. Along the same lines, there’s water in soda, so I don’t need to drink just water. Society has advanced to the point where we have all forms of flavored water. If I really want to be healthy, I can just drink Sprite, because it’s clear. It’s basically water with bubbles in it. If it had all kinds of unhealthy stuff in it, it wouldn’t be clear. Clear = healthy. That’s my truth.

Just because you – or the salad lobbyists – think salad is healthier for me doesn’t mean it’s true. All the data you could use to prove your point is just in service of your truth.

I’m joking – kind of – but that is what happens when we take the subjectivity of truth too far. Yes, we all have opinions and perspectives, but sometimes “our truth” is, at best, unhealthy and, at worst, destructive.

the power of subjective truth

Look at these circles

Despite what you might be thinking, these circles are not equal. Can you figure out which one is bigger and which one is smaller?

Blue? Or red?

What was your initial thought when you saw these circles? Probably that they were the same size. The reason they look equal is because they are. The only thing different about these circles is their color. Why would you think they were different sizes? Because I suggested they were. I asked this same question to an audience I was speaking to. More than 80% of the crowd raised their hand that one circle was larger or smaller than the other.

There is an inherent danger in believing that most truths are subjective. The danger is that we can be easily manipulated into seeing and believing things that go against what we know to be true. When you add peer pressure to subjective truth, its even more dangerous. By themselves, an individual audience member may be more willing to think that the circles are the same size. When we’re in a group, we have the pressure of group conformity. When you combine subjective truth and peer pressure, you only increase delusion, dysfunction and chaos.

Critical Theory and other postmodern thought teach us that most of the truth we encounter is subjective. There are many potential problems with this premise, a key one being that humans are hardwired to mostly “fit in.” If our primary truth is subjective, we will frequently find ourselves controlled by the perspectives, feelings and opinions of ourselves and others.