A post on another blog led me to think about the nature of truth.
It occurred to me that there can indeed be more than one variety of truth. There is the truth of your perspective. If you were to see a wire-frame diagram of a six sided figure, you may well call what you're looking at a cube. In fact, it is not. It is a two dimensional representation of a cube.
Then there is poetic truth. As Masons, we should be well acquainted with this idea. Much of our "work" is not meant to be taken as literal truth, but is meant to teach certain moral lessons by allegory. Does this make the lesson any less "true"?
There is of course scientific truth. That which can be verified by observation and experiment. To most of us perhaps, this is the definition we carry around in our heads. If we cannot verify a statement by data gathered in experiment then an idea is relegated to the dustbin of our minds.
This week, millions will hear the question: "What is truth?" Perhaps that question should mean more to us as Masons.
Just a thought.
Stay tuned, or not, it's up to you.
Mar 20, 2008
In Search For Truth
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And further, does it matter in concrete terms? It is great when the real, hard, provable, objective truth matches the perceived subjective truth, but this isn't always the case, and the subjective tends to trump the objective in these cases. It doesn't matter what was really said, but how it was interpreted.
We all know that Bro. Washington probably didn't throw a dollar across the Potomac River, but we sure do have a picture in our heads of him doing it.
The New Testament is filled with this conflict between the perceived truth and the actual truth. Jesus is asked if he is the Messiah, and he responds, "You have said it." and this is enough to condemn him. He admitted nothing other than that it has been said of him that he is the Messiah, and believers hear this as a testimony of his Messiahship, but that's not what is said.
What is truth? It's what we make it.
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