In
the past few months, I have been doing a considerable amount of thinking about truth. What is truth? Is it as simple as a truth is the opposite of
a lie? I don’t think so. I am not writing on the topic of truth to
expound on how telling a truth versus telling a lie. I think that would simply cause us only to go
round and round with defining truth. My
goal is to delve deeper and address the differences between subjective and
objective truth. I have reached the
conclusion that more often than not any person’s truth tends to be more
subjective rather than objective, especially regarding the topics of God,
humanity, the origins of the entire creation, and religion.
Dictionary.com defines “truth” as
the “true or actual state of a matter,
conformity with fact or reality, a verified or indisputable fact, or the
actuality or actual existence of something”.
Pontius
Pilate spoke the words “what is truth” to Jesus just before Jesus was condemned
to be crucified. In looking at the four
different Bible translations I prefer to use, I find each one reads a little
different. In each of those
translations, the punctuation varies causing the meaning of the words to also
vary. Commas are arranged differently
and the use of question marks, exclamation marks, and periods also varies. Punctuation was not part of the ancient Greek
writings and was added to the scriptures over the years in order to bring ease
to their reading. However, punctuation
holds the power to affect the meaning of words.
Observing the differences between the translations only reinforces my
desire to write this article on truth.
Here
is John 8:37-38 in four different translations:
Pilate, then, said
to Him, “Is it not then so? A king are
you!” Jesus answered, ”You are saying
that I am a king. For this also have I
been born, and for this have I come into the world, that I should be testifying
to the truth. Everyone who is of the
truth is hearing My voice”. Pilate is
saying to Him, “What is truth!” (Concordant Literal
New Testament, CLNT)
Pilate,
therefore, said to him, `Art thou then a king?' Jesus answered, `Thou dost say
[it]; because a king I am, I for this have been born, and for this I have come
to the world, that I may testify to the truth; every one who is of the truth,
doth hear my voice.' Pilate saith to him, `What is truth?' (Young’s Literal Translation, YLT)
Hence,
Pilate said to him: Hence, are not also
you, yea you, a regent? Then answered
Jesus: You, you say, that I am a regent;
into this I, I have become (born) and have come into this, into the cosmos, so
that I may witness concerning (on account of) the truth; every one being out of
the truth hears My voice. Then Pilate
says to Him: Who (what) is truth? (The Writ, Dabhar Translation)
Therefore
Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for
this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of
the truth hears My voice.” Pilate
*said to Him, “What is truth?” (New American Standard Bible, NASB)
Those
are four different variations of the “truthful” dialogue between Jesus and
Pilate. In his question to Jesus, I
believe Pilate was making a rhetorical statement, not one he expected an answer
to. I read it as him saying to Jesus, “Who can really know what the ultimate truth
is? Your truth is not necessarily my
truth. If only we could get to the
actuality of truth.” The four
different translations of the very same event in John 8:37-38 highlights the
point I will be making in this article: human beings are often speaking in a
context of subjective truth rather than objective truth.
What is the difference between subjective
and objective?
I found a simple and easy to understand
explanation at the site http://www.differencebetween.net/. Their article titled “The Difference Between Objective and Subjective” says this:
In
stories, newspapers, and the spoken word, people all over the world are trying
to convince you to think as they do. They are bombarding you with facts and
figures, opinions and projections. It is up to you to create order within this
chaos and find the patterns that will help you to understand what is true, what
could be true, and what is outright false. In order to do all this, you need to
have a firm grip on what is objective and what is subjective.
Objective is a
statement that is completely unbiased. It is not touched by the speaker’s
previous experiences or tastes. It is verifiable by looking up facts or
performing mathematical calculations.
Objective statements are facts that can be verified by third parties while subjective statements may or may not be entirely true as they are colored by the opinions of the speaker.
Objective statements are facts that can be verified by third parties while subjective statements may or may not be entirely true as they are colored by the opinions of the speaker.
Subjective is a
statement that has been colored by the character of the speaker or writer. It
often has a basis in reality, but reflects the perspective through with the
speaker views reality. It cannot be verified using concrete facts and figures.
Subjective can be
used when nothing tangible is at stake.
“Objective is a statement that
is completely unbiased.”
“Subjective is a statement that has
been colored
by the character of the speaker or
writer.
It often has a basis in reality,
but reflects the perspective through
[which] the speaker views reality.”
Bias
I
hope this doesn’t come across as a shock, but every human being is biased! We are so biased that we are typically blind
to our own bias while quickly pointing out the bias of others. And right here, I will admit that this
writing will be tainted with my personal bias based on who I am and the
experiences of my life.
Bias
is part of who we are and how we feel and act.
Bias
is part of our character and our personality.
Bias
is ingrained deep within our soul.
For
the most part, our bias stems from things over which we have had no control. It is continuously being embedded deeper into
our human soul as our body and mind react to all the experiences that began the
moment we were conceived. What is truth
to me simply may not be truth to you and vice versa. Why?
Because we are unique individuals, and we have had very different life
experiences. As human beings, we are
similar in the aspects of human nature, but within our heart and soul, we are as
distinct as our fingerprints.
In
my previously posted article “Is There Such a Thing as Free Will?” I
stated:
“Every single choice we make has been influenced
by something that has touched us in our lifetime. Every single thing that we have
ever heard, seen, felt, and experienced in this earthly world has influenced
our thought processes and the choices that we make.
When we were conceived and formed in our mother’s womb, we had no
choice and no control over:
the day of our conception
the circumstances surrounding our conception
the genetic make-up of our parents
if we would be male or female
what time period we were born in
the exact day we were born
in what location of the world
what we would look like, “attractive” or “not so attractive” to
the human eye
the color of our skin, our hair, our eyes
the shape of our body
if we would have all ten toes and ten fingers and be of sound mind
and speech
our personality or talents
into what family we would be born in
the behaviors, traditions, or beliefs of that family
what kind of parents we would have
if we would have any siblings and what their personalities would
be like
or the day we will die”
Every
choice we make and every belief we hold dear and proclaim as truth has been
influenced by the combination of who we are at the most basic level and all
else which has touched us in our lifetime.
Every one of the factors predetermined for us at the moment of
conception and every single experience we’ve had since then (from the most
mundane to the most complicated) has played a part in developing our bias
towards what we believe is true or not.
Bias and
subjective truth in action
People
are capable of understanding and expressing objective (tangible) truth. But I've discovered that we often get caught
up in a great amount of subjective truth and try to put it off on others as being objective. It is an objective truth that
I am alive and breathing, sitting here at the computer typing these words, and
my dog lays asleep at my feet. However,
the words I write in this article contain subjective (biased) truth.
This
morning, I was considering the Muslim women who are made to wear burqas and be
completely submissive to those of the male gender who proclaim that is the way God
(their version of God) says it must be.
I thought of how those women are subjected to such humiliation and
oppression and that for them to speak or act against it could mean serious physical
harm or even death. Thinking about them
being subjected to that life out of no choice of their own, but simply because
they were born as female in that part of the world and into that culture,
during a particular era, reminded me of the scripture that says God subjected
all of creation to vanity on purpose.
For the creation was subjected to futility [vanity],
not willingly,
but because of Him who subjected it…
(Romans 8:21 NASB)
And that also reminds me of the scripture that says God will be merciful to all.
"For God locks up all together in stubbornness,
that He should be merciful to all."
(Romans 11:32, CLNT)
Ultimately,
we are all subject to God and His plans.
Now, I am completely aware that the belief of God being real and true
can be considered a subjective truth and that my statement may be found offensive by some people. But
I did admit that in writing this article I would be guilty of inserting my own
subjective truth. There are people who
cannot believe that God exists. They
have never seen or heard God, and to them it cannot be proven that He does exist. Any amount of “proof” a God-believing person
can offer an atheist to convince them God is real will be as effective as the
atheist offering their “proof” that He is not real to the God-believer. Faith is an act of God, not of man.
A
few weeks ago, my questioning in certain matters became so intense that I even
began to wonder about the existence of God, “What
IF God isn’t real?!” The world is
such a chaotic place and some of what happens in this world can bring any
person to their knees with anguish and doubt.
God allowed me a couple of days to mentally question His existence and
for whatever reasons, He chose to bring about a little event for me which convinced me He was telling me this: “MaryAnn, don’t doubt my existence. I am very real. You can question the writings, but don’t
question my existence. I am real. Don’t give up believing in Me. That is not the way I want you to go.” And that little event, its message, and my past experiences with the presence of God were more than
enough to reassure me again, “God IS
real!”
I
was recently reading a book in which the writer, who used to be an Episcopalian
bishop, professed his beliefs that there is no creator, all that exists came
into being by accident and evolutionary processes, and that all of life is entirely
accidental. In his book, he proposes
there is no one God who is over all and responsible for all and instead, “God”
is humans reaching a higher level of consciousness. He even capitalizes the word “God” all
throughout his book. Every time I read
his word “God”, I had to keep reminding myself that he was speaking of an
utterly different God than I am familiar with!
His usage of “God” was bizarre to me but perfectly normal for him. I read his writing with respect for his
beliefs and for his life journey, but within my soul I felt a disturbing
friction with his beliefs. My soul could
not accept what he was saying. My soul cried
out, “These ideas feel so wrong to
me! I cannot agree or currently consider
such things to be remotely true.” As
I read the book, the reaffirming
words of the “God is real” event kept coming back to me. I’ve come to a gracious realization that the
writer's truth of God cannot prove to me that God does not
exist anymore than my truth of God can prove to him that He does.
Where
does that leave us as we face our differences of truth?
I believe that where each
one of us stands in our belief system of what is true or not ultimately rests
in God’s hands. All the factors that
affect our beliefs, from the most basic in nature to the most complex
experiences, have been ordained and set into motion by His doing. Once again, I understand that my truth that
God exists and is in complete control is subjective because I cannot tangibly
show you God. I cannot drive you to
God’s residence, knock on his door, and have you lay eyes on Him and hear Him
speak to you in a tangible way. My personality and life experiences have
led me to conclude that God is true
and that He is ultimate truth. Your
personality and life experiences may have led you to conclude the total
opposite. And I will respect that.
There
are all kinds of beliefs and religions out there in our big world! I came across the Big Religion Chart on the internet
listing many of the world’s religions and some quick facts about them. Each varying religious belief proclaims to be the truth that all should seek
and live by. That is subjective (biased)
human reasoning. On the other hand, it
is an objective (unbiased, tangible) truth that under each main religion there exist
a variation of individual beliefs. Even within
each religious camp there is not one hundred percent conformity.
The
Christian camp professes God is revealed in the son of God, Jesus Christ, and the
writings of the Bible. The Muslim camp
professes that the prophet Muhammad and the Quran writings reveal God’s
character and will. The Hindu camp
believes in one God made manifest in many gods and trusts the Vedas to be the holy
writings. The camps question each other’s
beliefs about God, who or what reveals Him, and their holy writings. Each camp proclaims that only their version
of God and their followed writings are the absolute truth. Each camp worships God in diverse ways and also questions the ways others worship. The God defined by the Christians, Muslims,
and Hindus has very different characteristics.
Which one is true?
This
week a Facebook friend posed this question on his timeline: “If there is only one God then who's God is the right one?”
What
an excellent question! I would challenge
anyone reading this not to simply say, “Well,
only mine, of course! “The [writings or teachings of so and so] say it is true!” Each one of our personal versions of God is
subjective to countless factors from the
moment we were conceived. I challenge
readers to think long and hard about that question and its implications before
formulating an answer.
Regardless
of whether you believe God exists or not, I believe it is an objective and
tangible truth that whatever we believe about
God,
the origin of this earth and whole
universe,
humanity,
what happens after we die, and
what will happen in the future,
they
are all in correlation with who we are in our soul (genetics/personality) and how
all of life’s experiences and our culture have affected us.
Day
after day, the differences of beliefs between people all over the world go on
and on. These beliefs are used for good
and evil. I observe much judging and
attacking, in person and through the internet, and a huge amount of it
is due to people wanting to push and force their beliefs upon others. “Your
truth is a lie, and my truth is right.”
“You are wrong, and I am right!” I am not suggesting we do not have the
freedom to share what we believe to be true.
We do! I am suggesting we do not
have the right to ravage people’s character or emotions or to demoralize them
because their version of truth does not align with our own. We do not have the right to condemn others
and murder them with our words (or hands) if they do not conform to our line of
thinking.
I
believe in the one God and His son, Jesus Christ. Yet, my beliefs are no longer in complete alignment
with the way Christianity is typically defined.
Therefore, I no longer call myself a Christian. I prefer not to label or define my beliefs under
any particular religious camp. I am looking to and trusting God, not man, to direct
my life journey and faith. Since arriving at the belief that God will one day
ultimately reconcile all people to Himself and that there is no place called
hell, my love and graciousness toward other people has grown by leaps and
bounds.
I
often think of this account of mankind’s and God’s actions in Genesis 11:1-9
(NASB) and how much it has affected humanity, generation after generation:
Now
the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east,
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick
for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said,
“Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us
make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face
of the whole earth.”
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower
which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same
language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose
to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down
and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one
another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth;
and they stopped building the city.
Therefore
its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth;
and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the
whole earth.
By
God’s design, we were not meant to always agree or understand one another. But beyond that moment in time, when God
caused confusion in the languages and the people became scattered over the
whole earth, I am convinced we are called to love and care for one another generously,
in spite of our differences, and to come to a realization that we are all from the same lump of earthly clay. Not one of us is better than another. Not one.
I
posed the question of truth on my Facebook timeline:
Question of a whole lifetime ... "What is truth?"
Here were some of the responses I received:
Your question is a really good one.
Knowledge of things
as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come. Truth also refers to
light and revelation from heaven
I believe each one of
us holds our own truth so my truth doesn't void out your truth and your truth
doesn't void out mine but in the end anything that is believed passionately and
without reservation is truth.
Truth cannot change
or it is no longer true. I can only think of One who does not change.
Jesus
Reality as God sees
it.
I keep asking the
same question on so many levels.
It's interesting that
good olé Pontious Pilate SAID " What is truth." He wasn't asking. It
would seem some aren't really interested in its discovery.
I have to say that to my mind what I believe at any
given moment is MY truth until something else comes along to adjust my
understand of said truth. Having said that it still comes down to relative vs
absolute. There is an absolute truth that comes from the Almighty God it may or
may not match up with MY truth (or the relative truth from my immediate
perspective) at any given moment and only when HE is ready for me to be aware
of HIS absolute truth will my truth be adjusted.
Feel free to respectfully share your
definition of truth in the comments section below. I am interested in reading your viewpoint.
Maybe, instead of demanding adherence to our truth, we should be more concerned with grasping and defining what true love for our fellow man means and acting on that?
Maybe, instead of demanding adherence to our truth, we should be more concerned with grasping and defining what true love for our fellow man means and acting on that?
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