What is truth? | GotQuestions.org

Hi there. Many others like you have asked, what is truth? Let's find out, shall we? You can also discover more and read a longer answer on gotquestions .org. Here is your answer for today. Almost 2 ,000 years ago, truth was put on trial and judged by people who were devoted to lies.

Jesus on Trial Before Pilate

In fact, truth faced six trials in less than one full day, three religious and three legal. After this, a very interesting conversation between the truth and Pilate took place. 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. And what is truth? Pilate's question has reverberated down throughout history.

Defining Truth in a Postmodern World

In a postmodern world that denies that truth can be known, the question is more important than ever to answer. What is truth? Truth is not simply whatever works, is understandable, or what makes people feel good.

Truth is not majority rules, nor is it defined by what is intended. Truth is not how we know, what is believed, or what is publicly proven. The Greek word for truth refers to divine revelation and is related to a word that literally means what can't be hidden.

The Hebrew word means constancy or duration, implying something that can be relied upon. From a philosophical perspective, there are three simple ways to define truth. Truth is that which corresponds to reality.

Truth must match its object, and truth is simply telling it like it is. Thomas Aquinas observed, It is the task of the philosopher to make distinctions. Making distinctions seems to be out of fashion in a postmodern era of relativism, especially in matters of faith and religion.

The philosophy of relativism says the position of the absolutist is wrong, but why can't those who say absolute truth exists be correct too? The philosophy of skepticism simply doubts all truth, which ironically claims to know at least one truth, that you can't know truth.

The patron saint of postmodernism, Friedrich Nietzsche, affirms at least one absolute truth, the truth that no truth should be affirmed. Pluralism unravels at the feet of the law of non-contradiction.

Something cannot be both a and non-a at the same time and in the same sense. Mortimer Adler notes, Pluralism is desirable and tolerable only in those areas that are matters of taste rather than matters of truth.

Hopefully it's easy for you to see each one of these philosophies is easily disproven by their own definitions. When the concept of truth is maligned, it is usually for one or more of the following reasons.

Why People Reject Absolute Truth

Anyone claiming to have absolute truth in matters of faith and religion is narrow-minded, arrogant, and exclusive. Is a math teacher narrow-minded for holding to the belief that 2 plus 2 only equals 4?

Arrogant for insisting that this is the only right answer. Wrong for observing that all answers other than 4 are excluded from the reality of what 2 plus 2 truly equals. Yet another protest is that all that matters is sincerity.

The problem is that truth is immune to sincerity, belief, and desire. Some will admit that absolute truth exists, but only in the area of science and not in the matters of faith and religion. This is a philosophy held by a logical positivist to which all talk about God is complete nonsense.

Those who hold to the notion that only science can make truth claims fail to recognize that there are many realms of truth where science is impotent. Anyone who makes the statement, Science is the only source of objective truth.

They have just made a philosophical claim which cannot be tested by science. Why is it so important to understand and embrace the concept of absolute truth in all areas of life including faith and religion?

Simply because life has consequences for being wrong. Incorrect doses can be fatal. Poor investments lead to poverty. Wrong planes lead to wrong destinations. Consequences are highest in the area of faith and religion.

Truth, Righteousness, and Eternal Consequences

Eternity is an awfully long time to be wrong. During the six trials of Jesus, the contrast between the righteous truth and unrighteous lies was unmistakable. The link between truth and righteousness and between unrighteousness and falsehood is demonstrated across the New Testament.

In conclusion, Pilate asked millennia ago, what is truth? Many things can have truth but only one thing can actually be the truth. Reality is Jesus made the simple statement, I am the way and the truth and the life.

A claim that validated itself and his deity when Jesus rose from the dead. Pilate evidently never knew the truth. Ignoring the truth always leads to undesired consequences. Alright, that answers your question, what is truth?

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