Over the last 8 months, I’ve fallen in love with blogging.
What I’ve learned about myself, refining my thoughts, sharing my best ideas with the world, the priceless self-confidence builder of engaging in consistent action – all beautiful gems along my journey.
But here’s another major diamond to be treasured – learning from others.
Yesterday I sent out a post called What is Truth, where I shared some of my inner longings and search to understand what is to me, one of life’s greatest questions.
I learned so much by reading the comments people left. (Thanks to everyone who shared!)
I can always count on my friend Jeff Brown down in El Paso Texas for some comic relief as he sent me this response…
Lol – agreed and, as always, thanks for the laughs Jeffro!
On a more serious note…
One of the comments, I felt deserved its own post on my blog, as I would like to refer to it and come back to read it from time to time in the future.
It comes from a gentleman named Tremain out of Pheonix Arizona.
Here’s what he wrote.
Paul,
I rarely take the time to comment on anything, but your topic was too important not to share some of my own conclusions as I’ve thought deeply about this same question.
For me, I had a breakthrough when I made a clear distinction between truth and facts.
Truth will always be factual, but “facts” do not meet the strict definition of Truth.
Facts give us information. Truth gives us meaning.
Facts are important. They can tell us something specific and perhaps useful about the past or present, but they never extend into the future. Facts are temporary and can change. Truth is a knowledge of things as they were, as they are, and as they will be.
Truth is permanent and cannot change. It is eternal.
An example of how to distinguish the two would be that it is a “fact” that I’m writing right now, but since this will not always be the case, then I could say that it’s not true.
We usually use the words fact and truth interchangeably and most of the time there’s no problem with this, but it can lead to problems in our thinking if we’re not careful. Indeed, it can lead to very serious problems.
The most devious and destructive lies are always supported by facts. We believe these lies about ourself and others when we draw permanent conclusions based on temporary facts. We hear or think things about ourselves that are negative: (I’m ugly, overweight, unintelligent, an addict, worthless, etc.).
Whatever the negative conclusion is that we draw about ourselves, others or our present circumstances is NEVER TRUE, regardless of the facts that seem to support that negative conclusion.
They can’t be true, because facts can’t extend into the future, but Truth can. I can change. Others can change. Circumstances can change. Accepting a negative conclusion AS Permanent denies this reality.
Faith in that which is True allows us to act in the present despite all challenges and facts to the contrary with hope that God will work in us and around us to bless ourselves and others.
This is how the Truth sets us free.
Thank you so much for your great post! And thanks for letting me share!
Peace and Blessing
Peace and blessing back to you Tremain for sharing this valuable insight that I know has helped me and hopefully will help & inspire others to continue to search & latch onto that which is everlasting.
Video Version of Today’s Post
Paul,
Wow.. You were very generous in your praise. Thanks for that and the good work you do.
I really do appreciate your words Tremain… Thanks so much for taking the time to chare.. I’ve had some really nice feedback from others who read your words as well. Best wishes!
Hmmm… This was very interesting Paul.
Here’s is my one thought about truth….
I believe that in this physical realm of things, there is no one truth…Only countless perceptions and perspectives of the truth. I honestly think truth can be summed up as …Everything…
Similar to Quantum Physics telling us that all things exist at once… Obviously, I haven’t seen that for myself, but if it were true, isn’t everything true on a Universe level and our perception of our life circumstance & experiences only allows us to see part of the truth that we are focused on?
Hey Robin!
Thanks so much for your thoughts! It’s so much fun thinking about different ideas and chewing on different mental food relating to this topic.
Voltaire once said “If you wish to converse with me, define your terms” – which goes back to the original post I made on this topic… It all depends on how we define “truth.”
If you’re definition of ‘truth’ is the same as mortimer adler’s “if it is, it is, if it isn’t, it isn’t’ then yes – absolutely – your assertion that everything is true – would fall in line with that…
But if truth is defined otherwise – like Tremain wrote – ‘that which is eternal and never changes’ – then not everything would be ‘true’.. facts and circumstances would be temporary realities…
And if you define ‘truth’ as ‘that which leads to God (or infinite intelligence – source – or however you want to define that grand place we may be heading) – and there are laws governing how fast or slow we get there – or as some believe – even go the opposite direction – then, again, not everything would be “true”.
Another definition I read that I didn’t share was “truth is the harmonic relation between the facts of nature and the soul.”
If God (or source) has written into the fabric of the code of reality – moral facts of nature, (acting in harmony with or out of harmony with those laws) would be choices anyone of us could make – and acting in and out of harmony with them could both be described as ‘facts’ of existence – but in the higher definition of ‘truth’ – acting in harmony with the laws that lead to the better outcome (vs. out of harmony) would be defined as following the ‘truth’ as expressed in this definition..
So much fun to think about!
Nice! Ya I like the distinction between facts and truth. Facts can change and truth stays the same. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks brother Hobbs! Appreciate you stopping by!
You’re right Paul, that comment was deserving of its own post. I also laughed super hard at the comment from Jeff Brown. I love that we all get to freely be ourselves!
ha ha.. Glad you laughed.. SUCCESS! I hesitated throwing that in there with such a profound and serious part – but risked it in the hopes someone would get a chuckle.. glad you did!