Truth Telling

Of all the endangered species, truth is the most endangered.

 Someone said, “Truth, absolute truth, defines and governs the cosmos. It exists independently of our perceptions or our capacity to comprehend reality.”  Truth is not subject to our thoughts, biases, or desires.  It is what it is regardless of how well we may or may not understand it. It is what it is whether we accept, reject, or ignore it. Truth is constant and immutable. It is unchanging. Finally, absolute truth is internally consistent: it cannot contradict or be in conflict with itself.

 In the Biblical account between Jesus and Pilate, Jesus said, “In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.” In reply to Jesus’ declaration of his mission, Pilate asks this most important question: “What is truth?”

Indeed, Jesus came to earth for the important and influential purpose: to be a truth teller. We may surmise correctly that truth is very important.

Jesus indicates that we should not be seeking political power. In the end, it is not power that can right wrongs, but something more enduring than power. It is the truth. Jesus instructs us that telling the truth is the best remedy to the political, social, religious, and any other wrongs of any time.

 Someone said the opposite of being a truth-teller is to be a teller of lies. Whereas truth works, lies frustrate. Whereas truth endures, lies falter. Whereas truth expands, lies diminish. Whereas truth welcomes discussion, lies become defensive. Whereas truth promotes reconciliation and healing, lies lead to betrayal and distrust. Without truth-tellers telling the truth, a civilized moral, ethical, and honorable society cannot exist.

 Brigham Young said something like this, “How easy it is to live by the truth. In every circumstance of life, no matter whether among the humble or lofty, truth is always the surest guide and the easiest to square our lives by. I delight in this, because truth is calculated to sustain itself; it is based upon eternal facts and will endure, while all else will, sooner or later, perish.”  He also said: “Our religion is simply the truth. It is all said in this one expression, it embraces all truth, wherever found, in all the works of God and man that are visible or invisible to mortal eye.

 It is important to learn some truths about truth. The answer to Pilate’s question “what is truth?” is long, for the list of truths are endless.  The marvel of truth is that it is self-sustaining as it needs no artificial support.

The discovery of truth is a lifelong search. With the desire to learn, discover, and tell truths, we may learn truths through different methods such as philosophical, historical, and scientific methods. As truths are discovered they are found to exist at different levels.

 Dr. Henry Eyring said about truth in science, “If a thing is wrong, nothing can save it, and if it is right, it cannot help succeeding.”

Henry David Thoreau observed that many of us are not very curious. Thoreau paraphrased said, “It is remarkable how long men will believe in some stated fact without taking the trouble to examine it for its truth content.” Thoreau points out how rare it is for humans to search for the truth and how much more willing we are just to accept that which we are told. Thoreau admonished us to search thoroughly for the truth, settle ourselves, and work through the mud and slush of opinion, prejudice, tradition, delusion, and appearance . . . through church and state, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom which we can call reality. Yet, in these days of information overload and opposing opinions, few will seek any clarification and evidence of truth. 

Truth requires us to examine our narrow interests, assumptions, a priori beliefs, biases, prejudices, and customs. As Socrates recounts, the search for truth is usually difficult, requires great effort, and can be uncomfortable. However, the journey is rewarding as one’s worldview is expanded and one’s knowledge of truth is increased.

We need to be careful that our search for truth does not just reflect to us what we want to be true or what just benefits us or confirms our biases. We need to look deeper into the premise, beyond a mere superficial reflection of our preconditioned belief. Truth is often at the bottom of our search, and it can be hard to discern.

 Speaking of the dangers of seeing only what we want to be true rather than what is actually true, Hugh Nibley said, “True knowledge never shuts the door on more knowledge, but zeal often does.” Nibley reminds us that though we know many great truths that have been passed on down to us from earlier scientists, philosophers, historians, prophets, and others, there are endless truths yet to be discovered, encountered, and learned from. We should embark on a continuous, conscientious, honest acquisition of knowledge.” This knowledge we seek after should include historical, scientific, social, and moral truths.

We need to look for the truth ourselves, for there is a self-reliant aspect to truth-seeking. Being self-reliant in our truth-seeking emphasizes the importance of studying difficult issues out in our own minds and of being willing to change our minds. A most challenging task as who among us wishes to be wrong about an issue.  Even on the most trivial of issues!

Always willing to change his mind, Socrates sought out others to prove him wrong. He liked to be proven wrong, for in that case, he could discard a mistaken idea and learned something new. In contrast, to be proven right is not to learn anything new.  An important insight in truth-seeking. Socrates engaged in dialogue after dialogue with religious leaders, politicians, artists, and philosophers, always trying to learn something new, always willing to change his mind.

Often, however, Socrates’ fellow dialogue participants were not as eager to learn new truths, for they were reluctant to acknowledge they had been wrong. Also, new truths required them to reassess and modify their worldview.