Some friends and I were having a discussion the other day and the subject came up, of what is truth? We drew a number of conclusions just in our conversation. People who seek out truth usually gravitate toward one another. People who don't like truth will surround themselves with people that will believe the fictitious world that they can control. One of the more profound conclusions was, in order to find truth you must seek it out on your own. Simply accepting other people's version of truth is not always a good idea.
So I decided to look up the word "truth". The dictionary version is very simple to understand. The dictionary says that truth is the actual state of matter or conformity to fact or reality. I liked those statements, then I looked in the encyclopedia. Dear God was that a mistake. According to the encyclopedia, truth is one of eleven different theories! There is Pragmatic theory truth, Coherence theory truth, Performance truth, math truth, etc, etc.... I think you get the picture. Some of them make perfect sense. For example, Correspondence theory says statements that correspond with fact or reality are true. But some are very disturbing. Consensus theory states, that truth is what two people agree upon. It doesn't have to agree with reality. I have a huge problem with that. There are far to many people who are willing to agree on fictitious things in this life, but I won't get into politics here. (maybe another day) Then there is this fairly new idea called Deflationary theory of truth. This theory states that you should not have to verify or attest to a statement being true. It says that saying a statement is true is an unnecessary redundancy. So this is more than frightening. Let's get a few million people together, have them come to a consensus theory truth and stand on the ideal of deflationary truth (which you don't need to prove) and see what results. You pretty much end up with millions of people believing lies. These simple lies can end up being carried out on a grand scale. Some examples, all Jews should be exterminated, the world is flat, and my personal favorite, I'm entitled to something because I was born in a certain country or with a particular last name.
I happen to believe a different theory of truth. My theory states that the truth stands the test of time. The truth will not change based on my mood. My happiness, fear, joy, or anger can't change the truth. The truth cannot be bought for a price. Amendments and conditions void the truth. Half truths are just fancy lies. People that lie to others have no respect for others. If you bend or change the truth, you end up stressed out on how to stay ahead of the truth. And most of all if you are not truthful to yourself, you will lead a miserable life.
So seek out the truth at all cost. You just might find some people like you and you can live a worry/lie free life.
So I decided to look up the word "truth". The dictionary version is very simple to understand. The dictionary says that truth is the actual state of matter or conformity to fact or reality. I liked those statements, then I looked in the encyclopedia. Dear God was that a mistake. According to the encyclopedia, truth is one of eleven different theories! There is Pragmatic theory truth, Coherence theory truth, Performance truth, math truth, etc, etc.... I think you get the picture. Some of them make perfect sense. For example, Correspondence theory says statements that correspond with fact or reality are true. But some are very disturbing. Consensus theory states, that truth is what two people agree upon. It doesn't have to agree with reality. I have a huge problem with that. There are far to many people who are willing to agree on fictitious things in this life, but I won't get into politics here. (maybe another day) Then there is this fairly new idea called Deflationary theory of truth. This theory states that you should not have to verify or attest to a statement being true. It says that saying a statement is true is an unnecessary redundancy. So this is more than frightening. Let's get a few million people together, have them come to a consensus theory truth and stand on the ideal of deflationary truth (which you don't need to prove) and see what results. You pretty much end up with millions of people believing lies. These simple lies can end up being carried out on a grand scale. Some examples, all Jews should be exterminated, the world is flat, and my personal favorite, I'm entitled to something because I was born in a certain country or with a particular last name.
I happen to believe a different theory of truth. My theory states that the truth stands the test of time. The truth will not change based on my mood. My happiness, fear, joy, or anger can't change the truth. The truth cannot be bought for a price. Amendments and conditions void the truth. Half truths are just fancy lies. People that lie to others have no respect for others. If you bend or change the truth, you end up stressed out on how to stay ahead of the truth. And most of all if you are not truthful to yourself, you will lead a miserable life.
So seek out the truth at all cost. You just might find some people like you and you can live a worry/lie free life.
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