Friday, February 15, 2008
What is Truth?
(7)
I love the idea of 'the truth.' What is 'the truth?' What is the difference between 'the truth' and 'the lie?' Clearly, as intelligent beings we prefer 'the truth' to 'the lie' as a matter of personal preference. It is easy to see that individually we prefer 'the truth' because this knowlege enhances our lives. Yet on the other hand we often lie for the same reasons. We prefer to import the truth while simultaneously exporting the lie. It seems to be human nature. Indeed, importing Truth and exporting Lies is analygous to the processes of digestion: first we eat, then we poop. We love truth and we hate lies in the same way that we love pork (food) and hate excrement (poop.) We necessarily do both as a matter of survival. It is a 'love-hate relationship.' Apparently it is a natural process which will never change because it is essential to continued life. Life will always love 'truth' and will always hate 'Lie' because this is at bottom a necessary process and life will continue to do both. Nature has ordained these processes as essential to life.
But most of us are queasy in the presence of the lie. Why so? I think that the reason for our queasiness in the presence of The Lie is similar to our queasiness in the presence of shit. Shit stinks. Shit is an ungodly brown. So is the lie. But shit is everywhere, at least until modern technology developed toilets. Nowadays we flush our shit. Furthermore when we shit on ourselves we use toilet paper to remove it. We do it every day, hence the thriving toilet paper industry. In the old days we used our left middle finger. The left hand became the dark hand. The middle finger became the ultimate insult.
Which brings us back to the original question.
I love the idea of 'the truth.' What is 'the truth?' What is the difference between 'the truth' and 'the lie?' Clearly, as intelligent beings we prefer 'the truth' to 'the lie' as a matter of personal preference. It is easy to see that individually we prefer 'the truth' because this knowlege enhances our lives. Yet on the other hand we often lie for the same reasons. We prefer to import the truth while simultaneously exporting the lie. It seems to be human nature. Indeed, importing Truth and exporting Lies is analygous to the processes of digestion: first we eat, then we poop. We love truth and we hate lies in the same way that we love pork (food) and hate excrement (poop.) We necessarily do both as a matter of survival. It is a 'love-hate relationship.' Apparently it is a natural process which will never change because it is essential to continued life. Life will always love 'truth' and will always hate 'Lie' because this is at bottom a necessary process and life will continue to do both. Nature has ordained these processes as essential to life.
But most of us are queasy in the presence of the lie. Why so? I think that the reason for our queasiness in the presence of The Lie is similar to our queasiness in the presence of shit. Shit stinks. Shit is an ungodly brown. So is the lie. But shit is everywhere, at least until modern technology developed toilets. Nowadays we flush our shit. Furthermore when we shit on ourselves we use toilet paper to remove it. We do it every day, hence the thriving toilet paper industry. In the old days we used our left middle finger. The left hand became the dark hand. The middle finger became the ultimate insult.
Which brings us back to the original question.
