What is truth? What is untrue? How do we know whether something is the truth, or not? We see the truth as it is presented to us through our society, our family and our culture, and as these variables change so does our truth. Proof of this is the ever-changing opinion about how the world came to be, for example first it was thought everything was made up of four elements (Earth, Wind, Fire and Water), then it was thought that gods (Greek or Roman) with human flaws had created all in existence; and yet again the theory changed to a single god, all-righteous, all-knowing, punitive and forgiving had etched Earth from scratch in 7 days. Finally we come to the most recent idea: There was no higher being that forged the world and all its beauty, but really a matter of coincidences such as the Big Bang, the formation of our planet, and even the flourishing of life. Throughout the ages the truth has changed and so have society, the family model and the culture that we absorb. Perhaps the only true manner of knowing whether something is true is through these things as they are our only reference; for example, hundreds of years were spent in believing the Christian demographic of creation, then in the past 200, science arose to contradict creationists. And yet, to this day people argue over ‘Truth’ and continue to do so as they express their personal beliefs to one another. ‘Truth’ is relative.
From our birth to our death, we are bombarded with information about our world and it seems that the data that most stands out is usually that which is repeated to us through our peers, our parents, and media. To us, this IS the truth as we see it, for example an Amish child almost knows nothing of what’s outside his/her community and so, takes the little his parents have told him and regards to it as a world enticed by the devil and **** and yet it can be completely changed from the moment they step into the modern world during rumspringa. This means that our ‘Truth’ no matter how well reinforced it is, can be changed by even a simple trip, much like our Amish friends’ children. It seems that by this example, our ‘Truth’ is much more like an opinion, as we can see that someone’s view of the world can be changed by a new experience, educational, traumatizing or just plain persuasion. In other words, by this theory we can see that we ourselves set our ‘Truth’ through the individual mediums of education and experience (through family, society and culture). Do we live our life self-indulging ourselves in our own ’Truth’, while absorbing knowledge around us like a sponge? From our birth to our deaths we live in our own conception of our ‘Truth’, we change our opinions as everything around us changes, why do we suddenly like salad after denying it for a good part of our lives? Nobody holds the ‘Truth’ except for ourselves.
For 2000 years, Christians have taught in the teachings of God and his messenger (and apparent son) Jesus Christ, and for most of this time this was thought to be the truth among many European societies at first, and then later adopted into the newly discovered American continent. For all this time, The Church’s view of things was rule, it was the ‘Truth’ due to the fact it was the most influential culture of the time. However, as its influence grew and dwindled throughout the ages, opposers rose up to try and disprove its ‘Truth’; some may have called this a sort of uprising of intellectuals who in turn, against the culture of the time attempted to discover their own ‘Truth’ regarding their world. To much discontent, none of these men (like Galileo) were credited (at the time) for their work and were easily discredited by the Christianity’s influence and control over the populations education. In this epoch, it was regarded as the ‘Truth’, and still is nowadays by followers everywhere, but is it really ‘Truth’, or much like an opinion such as the lifestyle of the Amish? The grip of religion in our world remains but it continues to dawdle as more and more people begin to question it while still there are those who try to maintain their beliefs true to them, their family and their morals.
In recent years, (200 or so to be, in fact) science has risen as the ‘Truth’ of the intelligent scholars who utilize the scientific method (experiments = evidence = ‘Truth’ or theory) to try and come up with their own theories towards the creation of our world and what resides within it. For example, one of its pioneers was Darwin, a simple naturalist who was able to prove the relations between ape and man through mere characteristics without the use of DNA. Scientists have proven a great number of misconceptions of our universe wrong, such as the orbit of our solar system or the true elements that make up our world and have earned the trust of society; but there have been other scientists that have forged their results in order to just continue their research or to attain future grants for them, an example of this is Andrew Wakefield (A British ex-doctor, his license was revoked upon his findings being found to be false) who falsified his work on the relation between autism and vaccines something that has caused concerned parents to stop vaccinating their children. Because of Wakefield, the ‘Truth’ for about 25% of parents in the USA regarding vaccines; his results have harmed greatly our trust in science and continues to bring up the question: what can we believe in now? Even the scientific method of resolving things seems to have its problem regarding the honesty of its users. This also provides us with another contradiction in our search for ‘Truth’, people lie.
So which is right: Religion or Science? For the past few years, we’ve seen the two battle off in a brawl of epic proportions as people have taken to the streets their beliefs and values in an attempt to visualize their ‘Truth’ as universal. As mentioned before, the two dogmas disagree at most points regarding creation, evolution, medical studies, etc. But, after all which is the ‘Truth’? Let’s take a look at the ways of knowing we have established: Family, culture, education and society; the founding pillars of anyone’s knowledge. So, in a matter of speaking, ‘Truth’ is relative; for example the anti-vaccine parents, they will pass on to their kids their belief that if you use a vaccine on your children, they will have a higher chance to develop autism. Religion and Science are just two brands of culture, not deities, not institutions; they are opinions much like our own personal ‘Truth’ defined by the musings of men. This means that not only is it relative but it can also be manipulated by lies, much like Ex-Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s studies or the Church’s Spanish Inquisition. Could we create ‘Truth’? Perhaps, following in the steps of so many past role models that have lied for one reason or another.
‘Truth’ is relative. Most of the time, we will only reason with the facts we’ve been given as we can’t just out of the blue use something we have no idea could exist. What we can do, however is create ‘facts’ to try and support our ‘Truth’. Since its creation, mankind has looked for it, and yet we have not found it yet as people continue to debate over what their ‘Truth’ is; perhaps this will remain for another millennia, or until the end of the universe, what we do know however is that everyone sees it in their own special way and it is something no one may take away but maybe change.