What is Truth?

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Greetings in Christ,

I hope I have not opened a can of worm in posting this question ,as it may be unanswerable. But in my dealings with non-catholics, they are oftentimes obstinate in their views, which is their right and I respect that. They constantly refer to the Bible passages, usually the KJV, whose language is beautiful. But when I read a Shakespeare sonnet to them, his works being written around the same time, they are at odds certain meanings of words…and completely ignorant of History in general. I feel this is a dangerous practice, especially for pastors who are in charge of their flock. It is foolishness to discuss religious topics if one does not understand the historical and political situations involved during King James’s reign.

I am oftentimes flabbergasted at the gross errors that they firmly believe, but due to human nature, it is “easier” to simplfiy things if one simply accepts what they hear or taught by those who are qualified to dispense advice and teach. This seems dangerous to me and I could cite many demoninations that could end up in a “Jim Jones” type situation. Heaven Forbid.

So, when someone, either Catholic or Protestant, brings up the question of “What is Truth” what are some of the best ways to answer, without prejudice, such a philosophical question.? Did Pontius Pilate, when he asked Jesus that question, already knew the answer, as did Christ Himself ?
I’ve always been perplexed at that episode, and felt that Pontius Pilate was simply doing his job, as would have been expected of him, considering the power of the Roman Empire, social/political situations, etc…

In my experience, I’ve noticed that truth, in general, could be based on cultural practices and beliefs, accepted as truths because it is the “social norm” of the time. If this is the case, it could, in some circumstances, be disasterous.

Of course, in my own opinion, truth in itself, religiously speaking, is all of what Christ taught, which could be broken down into a set of rules that we should follow and teach others to practice as well. The Bible itself is not only a surperb account of Human History, Moral Stories and Lessons and Instruction on how to live and prosper as a human species.

Truth , in all of it’s essence will be revealed unto us after our Death which may be completly different than any “truth” we can concieve of here on Earth.

With that, I would be very interested in hearing other opinions on this possibly unanswerable question.

Yours in Christ,
Jerald Franklin Archer (Tartini)
 
Maybe overly simplistic, but I remember a homily saying "Truth is not a thing - it’s a PERSON (Jesus). “I am the way, the truth and the light…”
 
Quite a deep - and interesting - question. I don’t pretend to have the intellect to delve very thoroughly into such a profound question, but our Doctor Angelicus, St. Thomas Aquinas, dealt with the issue completely in Summa Theologiae, Question 16. Your thoughts on “truth” seem to me to be quite similar.
 
“I am oftentimes flabbergasted at the gross errors that they firmly believe, but due to human nature, it is “easier” to simplfiy things if one simply accepts what they hear or taught by those who are qualified to dispense advice and teach. This seems dangerous to me and I could cite many demoninations that could end up in a “Jim Jones” type situation.”

You hit it dead-center. Whenever something is printed in a *book, *it automatically takes on an exaggerated sense of importance. Raise people to view a certain book as sacred, holy and literally written by God, and watch a crop of utter fanatics come to life. That’s Fundamentalism. I knew a Fundie who believed Jesus *literally, physically *in His Earthly lifetime, *wrote *the New Testament.
 
I’ve come across some interesting ideas on the nature of truth on some Deist websites. The below is from Modern Deism.

moderndeism.com/html/deism_defined.html
  • Deists develop a belief in God based on the foundation and the application of our ability to use Reason. Through the use of Reason, the individual is able to develop a belief in God based on the observation of the order and complexity found in the nature coupled with our personal life experiences of the world we inhabit. Interestingly enough, there are many misunderstandings about what Reason actually is. Generally, Deists consider Reason to be a methodology that utilizes intuitive and logical thought processes coupled with knowledge to develop rational inferences based on degrees of evidence (empirical and circumstantial). It is made up of a balance between logic, intuition, knowledge and inference and this balance must be maintained for proper Reason to flourish.

    Reason is the foundation with Nature and Experience being the basis for a belief in God. Many religions base their belief in God on prophets, holy books and revelations. Deists are tolerant of these alternative viewpoints but base their beliefs on other factors and have come to different conclusions. Deism views nature as the metaphorical “word of God” and can be seen as the holy book of the Deist. Unlike these other methods, nature is not limited but is a vast expanse of knowledge and discovery for the Deist that can continue for life. God’s fingerprints can be seen in the structure of a leaf, the complexity of DNA, the beauty of life and the elegance of the known universe. All of nature is open to the Deist for contemplation, inspiration and reverence from the mundane to the spectacular.

    The application of Reason as the foundation of Deism causes this philosophy to view the world from a different vantage point than most religions. An example is that science is not seen as an enemy but one of many tools that Deists can learn and grow from. In fact, Deism as a belief system thrives on diversity of thought. Modern Deism incorporates the latest interpretations found in the areas of physics/quantum physics, biology, evolution, philosophy, theology, psychology, mathematics and many other fields in the arts and sciences. However, the modern Deist movement is a dynamic concept in that it integrates classical and modern viewpoints with the wisdom of the past and the discoveries of the present*
IOW, a belief in God based on reason and personal experience and grounded in the natural order. I actually just happened upon this today so haven’t had time to think it through so don’t want to offer an opinion other that to say that I find it very interesting and plan to read more about it. Many of the the nation’s founders were Deists, BTW, Thomas Jeffereson, Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Paine.
 
Deism has taken a good idea to its extreme. That is the usually how heresy works.

The Catholic Church always taught the value of reason, but also saw its limitation. Although the Church has always taught that there are some things that we can know about God, such as His existence, reason itself would also tells us that God is also beyond our reason. Reason would tell us that we, being finite, cannot completely comprehend the infinite. It is like an ant comprending that it is crawling on a human hand. As St Augustine once said (a paraphrase) “If you think you fully understand God, then it is not God.”

This is why reason is not enough. But reason itself tells us it is not enough. Reason tells us that unless God reveals Himself, we will not know about Him except for the fact that He exists. God did reveal Himself through Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh. And He proved it by rising from the dead. So we can use our reason to see if His revelation through Christ is true. We can use reason to see if Christ did rise from the dead.

We can then use reason to determine how did Jesus reveal His truth to us. Jesus did not write any books. Instead, Jesus poured His truth into His disciples. And He commaned these disciples to also make their disiples. This is how ancient people communicated truth before the printing press. They had disciples that would pass on the teachings to the next generation. Eventually, some put this truth into writing. This is what we call tradition. Jesus also gave special mauthority to Peter, which was communicated to subsequent successors.

So reason eventually leads us to something that is beyond our reason. Reason teaches us that it is reasonable not bthe fully trust in our own capacity to reason, but to trust in God and His revelation through Christ and His Church.
 
packermann said:
Deism has taken a good idea to its extreme. That is the usually how heresy works.

The Catholic Church always taught the value of reason, but also saw its limitation. Although the Church has always taught that there are some things that we can know about God, such as His existence, reason itself would also tells us that God is also beyond our reason. Reason would tell us that we, being finite, cannot completely comprehend the infinite. It is like an ant comprending that it is crawling on a human hand. As St Augustine once said (a paraphrase) “If you think you fully understand God, then it is not God.”

This is why reason is not enough. But reason itself tells us it is not enough. Reason tells us that unless God reveals Himself, we will not know about Him except for the fact that He exists. God did reveal Himself through Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh. And He proved it by rising from the dead. So we can use our reason to see if His revelation through Christ is true. We can use reason to see if Christ did rise from the dead.

We can then use reason to determine how did Jesus reveal His truth to us. Jesus did not write any books. Instead, Jesus poured His truth into His disciples. And He commaned these disciples to also make their disiples. This is how ancient people communicated truth before the printing press. They had disciples that would pass on the teachings to the next generation. Eventually, some put this truth into writing. This is what we call tradition. Jesus also gave special mauthority to Peter, which was communicated to subsequent successors.

So reason eventually leads us to something that is beyond our reason. Reason teaches us that it is reasonable not bthe fully trust in our own capacity to reason, but to trust in God and His revelation through Christ and His Church.
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The problem with revleations, as I think the Deists see it, is that the revelation is by its very nature, limited in scope. Those of us who weren’t there to see Jesus must depend on hearsay evidence. And though that church claims that that evidence is divinly inspired, the fact that the church claims to get the very authority to validate this claim from the very source they are validating is circular enough, IMO, to at least invite question if not an outright refusal to accept.
 
Hi Tartini,

I always get the impression that Pilate is jesting whenever he asks, “What is truth?” The fact that no answer is returned (at least in the text) suggests to me that the question was rhetorical.

As far as the nature of truth is concerned, I like Aristotle’s definition:

“To say of what is that it is, or of what is not that it is not, is true; to say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false.”

Truth is what corresponds to the reality.
 
Greetings in Christ,

Your observation about the situation and episode that happened between Pilate and Jesus, (for we really don’t know what their thoughts were at the time it was occuring) is very insightful and very intelligent. As to the whole philosophical question of what is truth… and I commend you for citing Aristotle’s definition of the nature of Truth in itself, it is one of such deep mystery that when someone claims the know the “Truth”, rarely can they prove it outright. In “proving” what is turth may attempt to show you a bible verse, and are adamant in their opinions, often refusing to hear other arguments or learn about the history, politics, customs, etc. of their sources.
That is obstinate and ignorant as well, as has been proven in the past, dangerous.

You seem to be a very intelligent individual and presented your comment with surperb observation. It is human nature to want to know what is truth, no matter what religion ( of lack of it) a person professes. Reason ( and sometimes pure logic) seems to be a rare thing today, due to , in both my opinion and observations of society, confused and distorted. I witiness very illogical actions perfomed by human beings and sometimes (although I hope I don’t seem too critical) blame it on lack of the educational processes and restrictions (placed on them by administrators who are only protecting thier job) that are practiced today. Young people need so much guidance, but we lack the proper qualified personnel and are too restricted to administer the remedy. Parents should be the primary teachers of Personal Morality and Dicipline, but some lack this duty due to , in my opinion, their own limited education. I believe the Victorian Period school system was the pinnacle of proper education, as it produced not only good solid learning experiences and proper social behaviour and dicipline, but the subjects they taught, even in the earliest grades, were more advantagious to foster a desire to learn. Nowadays, teachers must be careful in all they do and say to an with their students for fear of accusations. It is a sad fact that we must all simply accept. As a Catholic Christian I profess Jesus Christ as Truth, but in my original post I was posing the question to all persons, in more of a Philosophical realm.

God Bless You and Your Family,
Jerald Franklin Archer (Tartini)
 
Pilate, in John 18, is the original moral relativist. He will say or do anything to please the mob. He doesn’t think Jesus is guilty of anything deserving the death penalty, but if that what the mob wants, he will hand Jesus over for crucifixtion. Jesus is the truth, the way, and the life, and he is willing to give his life for the truth. Pilate will do whatever is beneficial to him at that moment.

That’s what a lot of people today do - deny that there is any objective truth and assert that their own subjective desires are in fact the truth. If there is no truth, there can not be any objective right and wrong, so all morality is also relative. It gets boiled down to “What’s right for me is whatever makes me feel good.” Feelings become the criteria for morality instead of God’s word and the teachings of the Church. The Ten Commandments become the Ten Suggestions. Catholic teaching on faith and morals becomes a cafeteria buffet line, where you can pick and choose what you feel is right, and reject what you feel is bad. If you feel that an abortion is right for you at this time in your life, then that is what you should do, according to this moral relativism. The Church teaches that abortion is wrong - but that’s their Truth. My Truth is that it would be inconvenient for me to have a baby right now, so I’m going to get an abortion. After all, - What is Truth? http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon13.gif
 
Greetings in Christ,

From what I understand in your post, you are considering an abortion, for what reasons or circumstances I do not know, and I hesitated in replying to it due to both the controversial nature of abortion, your own personal reasons, health issues and not necessarly because the Church looks down upon the practice. And in addition, no male can really, ever will understand what a woman must endure in making a such a decision. It is a personal decision that only you must make, and deal with for the rest of your life.

But if you pray for guidance to Our Blessed Lord, the answers will come.

But I would urge you to, if you are properly and mentally capable and healthy, to have the child to place it up for adoption, as there are many couples who are unable to have children themselves. And there are many couples whose most cherished desire is to be able to adopt. There are many organizatons that can be of assistance and support.
Life, in even it’s most simplist form, is a precious thing and having the child would be a blessing that you would never regret. I sense you are scared and confused, but the Lord will strengthen you in all cases. I know that in many instances, by personal experiences with other women in your situation, that after the child is born, it can be very emotionally difficult to place them up for adoption. It is a complex psychological process and trial upon the mother. But the question will always br on your mind forthe rest of your life, if an abortion is performed, as to what the child could have become. I am adopted, and although my blood mother was’nt considering abortion, she had severe emotional problems. If my adoptive mother had not adopted me I would have died. But the Lord preservered me and now I have a very musically gifted life in which I hope to bless others with.​

In your post you wrote: *Pilate will do whatever is beneficial to him at that moment. * (This denotes Selfishness)​

And you also wrote: My Truth is that it would be inconvenient for me to have a baby right now, so I’m going to get an abortion. After all, - What is Truth? (This may a denial of what God might be asking you to do for Him, no matter how inconvenient it would be for you) Jesus Christ is the Truth, so go straight to the Source and pray for the Wisdom and Guidance for Him to show you what to do.The answers will come.

I will pray for you.

May God Bless and Keep You,
Jerald Franklin Archer (Tartini)
 
Tartini said:
Greetings in Christ,

From what I understand in your post, you are considering an abortion, for what reasons or circumstances I do not know, and I hesitated in replying to it due to both the controversial nature of abortion, your own personal reasons, health issues and not necessarly because the Church looks down upon the practice. And in addition, no male can really, ever will understand what a woman must endure in making a such a decision. It is a personal decision that only you must make, and deal with for the rest of your life.

But if you pray for guidance to Our Blessed Lord, the answers will come.

But I would urge you to, if you are properly and mentally capable and healthy, to have the child to place it up for adoption, as there are many couples who are unable to have children themselves. And there are many couples whose most cherished desire is to be able to adopt. There are many organizatons that can be of assistance and support.
Life, in even it’s most simplist form, is a precious thing and having the child would be a blessing that you would never regret. I sense you are scared and confused, but the Lord will strengthen you in all cases. I know that in many instances, by personal experiences with other women in your situation, that after the child is born, it can be very emotionally difficult to place them up for adoption. It is a complex psychological process and trial upon the mother. But the question will always br on your mind forthe rest of your life, if an abortion is performed, as to what the child could have become. I am adopted, and although my blood mother was’nt considering abortion, she had severe emotional problems. If my adoptive mother had not adopted me I would have died. But the Lord preservered me and now I have a very musically gifted life in which I hope to bless others with.​

In your post you wrote: *Pilate will do whatever is beneficial to him at that moment. * (This denotes Selfishness)​

And you also wrote: My Truth is that it would be inconvenient for me to have a baby right now, so I’m going to get an abortion. After all, - What is Truth? (This may a denial of what God might be asking you to do for Him, no matter how inconvenient it would be for you) Jesus Christ is the Truth, so go straight to the Source and pray for the Wisdom and Guidance for Him to show you what to do.The answers will come.

I will pray for you.

May God Bless and Keep You,
Jerald Franklin Archer (Tartini)
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Hi, I’m not planning on having an abortion (I’m a man). It was an example of moral relativism at work. Sorry about the confusion. Your personal witness against abortion is very powerful - thank you for sharing it. Again, I’m sorry for not being clear in my post.
 
Q) What is truth?
A) Something that can be understood as a fact.
 
Wesley7 said:
Q) What is truth?
A) Something that can be understood as a fact.
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To understand is an action performed by a subject. Namely, in humans, it belongs to the intellect. Human intellect is darkened by sin. Therefore that which is understood as a fact may be understood in error, and thus not truth.
 
Miles_Mariae said:
To understand is an action performed by a subject. Namely, in humans, it belongs to the intellect. Human intellect is darkened by sin. Therefore that which is understood as a fact may be understood in error, and thus not truth.
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A fundamental tenet of Catholic teaching is the use of human reason. There are certain truths that can be observed by making concrete observations. These are plain and elementary and do not require any philosophy or explanation.
 
I am going to add my two cents.
Truth is what is. It represents what actually is. Although we all have different perceptions about what is, Truth transcends what we perceive. It is independent of our thoughts and feelings. Everyone on Earth can hold a particular view and hold it as true. But if it actually goes against what is true, then it it is false. Who decides what actually is? God. This is one of my favorite quotes, although the source eludes me:
“I am Truth and I do not change.”-God
So simple yet so profound…
 
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