What Is Truth
Blaine Hokama
November 4, 2014
PHIL 3010
Informed opinion paper 2
What is Truth? Many of us have experienced elders like older siblings or friends telling us there “girls have cooties”, that there is a “boogie monster in your closet”, or that there is “a child eating monster under your bed”. As we become older, we experience that it is all just a lie. All this time it was all just a lie and we believed it. What is the truth? What makes it true? Is the boogie monster real? Truth is one of the most fundamental questions in philosophy, and many questions faced by philosophy are in some way or another related to truth.1 Truth is which conforms to reality, fact, or actuality. If the boogie monster is not real, is it the truth because is does not conform to reality, fact, nor actuality. Truth cannot be false or self-contradictory, it needs to be factual and real. Truth is one of the most fundamental questions in philosophy, and many questions faced by philosophy are in some way or another related to truth.2 Therefore, truth cannot be both true and not true (false) at the same time. If there are two truths that contradict themselves, both can be false, but the both cannot be true. 3
If there is truth out there, how can we possibly know it is certain? Charles Colson demonstrated this by dropping a pen on a table.4 Every time he did it, the pen hit the table, demonstrating mass hitting another mass. Truth was demonstrated and thereafter it is known. We have to realize that truth is like a river. It is a force that exists outside of us. And I believe the best way to discover and know it is by going to the source–the Creator of reality, God himself. Truth is part of who God is and all truth comes from him. It would be logical to use the source of all truth as a “reference point” in order to discern, which claims are true, and which claims are false. Little by little, we humans are capable of knowing some truths as they correspond to reality. Our only problem is that our
November 4, 2014
PHIL 3010
Informed opinion paper 2
What is Truth? Many of us have experienced elders like older siblings or friends telling us there “girls have cooties”, that there is a “boogie monster in your closet”, or that there is “a child eating monster under your bed”. As we become older, we experience that it is all just a lie. All this time it was all just a lie and we believed it. What is the truth? What makes it true? Is the boogie monster real? Truth is one of the most fundamental questions in philosophy, and many questions faced by philosophy are in some way or another related to truth.1 Truth is which conforms to reality, fact, or actuality. If the boogie monster is not real, is it the truth because is does not conform to reality, fact, nor actuality. Truth cannot be false or self-contradictory, it needs to be factual and real. Truth is one of the most fundamental questions in philosophy, and many questions faced by philosophy are in some way or another related to truth.2 Therefore, truth cannot be both true and not true (false) at the same time. If there are two truths that contradict themselves, both can be false, but the both cannot be true. 3
If there is truth out there, how can we possibly know it is certain? Charles Colson demonstrated this by dropping a pen on a table.4 Every time he did it, the pen hit the table, demonstrating mass hitting another mass. Truth was demonstrated and thereafter it is known. We have to realize that truth is like a river. It is a force that exists outside of us. And I believe the best way to discover and know it is by going to the source–the Creator of reality, God himself. Truth is part of who God is and all truth comes from him. It would be logical to use the source of all truth as a “reference point” in order to discern, which claims are true, and which claims are false. Little by little, we humans are capable of knowing some truths as they correspond to reality. Our only problem is that our