Sunday, September 06, 2009

Reflections on Truth

What is Truth? According to Chesterton.

1) Truth will always be true. It's veracity does not rest on what day it is or what age in which we live. What was true in 1398 B.C. was true in Mexico in 1600, in China in 400 A.D., in Rome in 66A.D., in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., in the United States in 1775, in Ireland in 1916, England in 1940, in Georgia in 1864, in Germany in 1987.
2) Truth is consistent.
3) Truth is whole. Anything less than the whole is a heresy, a lie, a half-truth or perhaps even less. If you are missing a piece of the truth, you cannot be said to know the truth.
4) Truth is good, never evil. Truth always coincides with virtue, as a lack of truth always coincides with vice. Though we all love the truth, it makes us uncomfortable. A lack of truth lives with evil.

Fiction Vs. Truth.
Truth is stranger than fiction because we have made fiction to fit ourselves. Truth is real whereas fiction is realistic. Truth is holy, superior, and high and fiction low, debase, and evil.

Other than the fact that truth makes us uncomfortable is the fact that speaking the truth can get you into a fight. Every person knows that they are to love truth and to hate evil. If this were not the case, people would not spend so much time, effort, wind, and energy to make evil appear true. One should always defend what you love. Therefore, though perhaps unpleasant, a fight for truth is an act of love.

Truth is muddy, which encourages doubt and a lack of faith. Doubt is reactionary and prejudicial. Tolerance is preferred nowadays to truth. Those who denounce intolerance have no theory to denounce it. The idea is that it doesn't matter what you believe now so long as you don't hurt anybody else. The logic of that statement is debatable. However, on the flip side is that everyone is concerned with what everyone else believes. People are never so hypocritical and intolerant as when they are being impartial. Tolerance refuses to fight, to act for the truth, and if it is not true, it must needs be a lie.

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