Truth
Copyright © August 1, 2018 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
In some ways things are not that different today when compared to thousands of years ago.
For example, some people have always been careful in choosing what they will believe and they diligently examine the things they are told in order to separate the truth from the half-truths and the outright lies.
On the other hand, some people have always simply made up their own minds about what they wanted to believe and then they accepted everything that supported those beliefs as being true and they rejected everything that contradicted those beliefs as being false, regardless of the source of the information.
This article will very briefly look at how a person who has a sincere and honest heart can avoid being led astray by half-truths and outright lies.
Discussion
A person who sincerely wants to know the truth will quickly discover that it is not always easy to figure out what is true and what is not. Therefore if you decide that you want to know the truth then be prepared for a struggle within your own mind as you carefully weigh the conflicting "facts" that are presented to you.
As you search for the truth it is easy to become frustrated and to want to just give up, and you may be tempted to simply believe whatever seems reasonable to you. This is called "the path of least resistance" and it is the path that most people take. Hopefully you will not be one of those people.
If you decide you are not going to give up until you are certain you have found the truth, then you may wish to consider the following general principles:
- The truth is not always popular. The reason is because there are lots of competing half-truths and lies and a lot of people prefer to believe a half-truth or a lie. In order to intellectually justify their choice they ridicule or ignore anyone who does not believe as they do. This helps them to maintain their own self-image as being a smart person in comparison to the people who do not believe as they do.
- The truth is not always easy to find. Sometimes you may have to invest a considerable amount of your time trying to distill the truth from all the false information that has been created to obscure, hide, and bury the truth.
- The truth is not relative. In other words, the truth is not true in some situations and false in other situations. The truth is always the truth regardless of the situation.
- The truth does not change with the passage of time. In other words, if something was true yesterday then it is still true today. If something was not true yesterday then it is still not true today.
- The truth does not contradict other truths. Some truths are easy to prove, such as the moon orbits the earth and the earth orbits the sun. If some of the information that is available to you is in direct contradiction to something you absolutely know is true, then that information is simply not true.
- The truth should be provided by a source that you know has always been true in the past. If your source has a history of being wrong, or of providing new details that are in contradiction to details they provided previously, then that source is not a reliable source of the truth.
- The truth is not always easy to accept. Sometimes the truth will reveal that something you formally believed is actually a lie. It is difficult for most people to admit that they were wrong about something and it is much easier to ignore the truth and to pretend that the lie they believed for so many years is actually still the truth.
Conclusion
Good luck in your search for the truth.
Be open minded but not naive.
When you discover something that you think might be true then test it against everything else that you positively know is the truth. If it passes this test then you may have found the truth.
Respectfully,
Grandpappy.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com