What is truth?
It is a deceptively simple question with a deceptively complicated answer. According to Wikipedia, truth is "the property of being in accord with fact or reality; usually held to be the opposite of falsehood". Although this definition is far better than most I found in various dictionaries, it still doesn't really define what truth actually IS— and as it turns out, there are reasons for that which I will delve into within this article.
ONE TRUTH, MANY ASPECTS
First of all, there is only one truth, and yet that one truth has infinite aspects. (For the purpose of discernment within this article, we can refer to the one with a capital-T and to the aspects with a lowercase-t, although it is vitally important to remember that they are in essence the same). All truth is relative to the individual, and builds forth from the individual. This individual may be a human, a galaxy, an atom, a ghost— literally anything. Every part of our universe has the ability to perceive and understand a part of the Truth. In reality, Truth can only be known in part, never in total. In fact, one must be outside reality to realize total Truth! There are many methods for humans to achieve this, with drugs and meditation being among the most common. Because the Truth is infinite and eternal, it is far larger than anything we know or could possibly ever know. We can spend an entire lifetime— an eternity of lifetimes, actually— finding new aspects of the Truth.
Think about our planet, the Earth. There are many planets, of course, but there is only one Earth. And yet our one Earth contains different land masses, different countries, different climate zones, different living beings, different veins of thought, different patterns of behavior— all of them unified by this umbrella term we call Earth. In the same way, all of the cells composing our physical structure are unified by the umbrella term we call our body, and all of the different celestial forms are unified by the umbrella term we call the universe. The Truth is the ultimate unifying umbrella, and one that is always expanding.
Examples of some unifying structures easily familiar to most of us are governments, schools, tabletop games, gardens, and books. Each of these things contains smaller parts which differ from each other but are essential to defining the whole: governments contain civilian, military, and administrative communities; schools are made up of teachers with different abilities and students of different backgrounds; tabletop games include a board and pieces to be placed upon it representing different players; books contain a variety of letters and words forming a variety of sentences. In each case, the whole wouldn't be what it is without all of the different parts composing it.
“There are many worlds, but they share the same sky— one sky, one destiny.”
ANTILOGY EXISTS
Truth exists everywhere, and yet this fundamental fact does not preclude the existence of falsehoods, which are an absence of truth the same way darkness is the absence of light. And yet, very few of us live in a world of complete light or complete darkness— we live in a world defined by the various blendings of both extremes. In addition to this— and despite what ancient influences such as Aristotle and Plato may have believed— antilogy exists and is a fundamental aspect of our reality. Contradiction surrounds us like the sea surrounds a fish, but we should not confuse partial contradictions with total ones— i.e., the harmony between partly hot and partly cold should not be confused with a conflict between hot and cold. While something may not be completely hot and completely cold at the same time, it CAN be a mixture of hotness and coldness we call warm, OR it may be cold in one part and hot in another part, like a cool pan becoming warmer on the bottom when it is placed upon a hot stovetop. Our world has many fuzzy areas where opposites coexist as a symbiotic unity which may be cooperative or conflicting or, typically, some mixture of both.
If truth is akin to light and falsehoods akin to darkness, all one has to do to illuminate is speak of Truth. Yet darkness exists for a reason— because there are some entities which prefer it— and because of this not everyone wants the world's dark spots to be illuminated. There are many who find confusion more useful than understanding when it comes to achieving their goals. Furthermore, it is wise to remember that both light AND darkness are capable of blinding an individual. While it is true that the Truth will set one free, it is also true that too much of it before one is ready to integrate it into their understanding can cause chaos and potentially may cripple them for some time as they work to achieve that integration. This is especially true for those who have moved quickly from one end of the spectrum to the other, much like people first emerging from Plato's Cave.
A truth has a scope, while the Truth IS the scope. Its like the difference between a universal set and any of the sets it contains. The Truth can be demarcated into different zones of truth, each of them valid within their own scope (this is how infinite worlds exist). The Truth runs the gamut from complete factuality to complete falsehood (the existence of infinite worlds ensures this, as what is false in one world will certainly be true in another, and vice versa), while any given truth can only be true within its own gamut and is considered false in all others. Since any system of truth is valid within its own scope, it can be said that all theories of truth have some Truth to them. Furthermore, it can even be said that when it gets down to brass tacks, everything is true.
No matter how many contradictions and differences there are, we STILL share the same Universe. This will always be TRUE!
FACTS ARE RELATIVE
One of the most interesting and simultaneously frustrating things about the Truth is the existence of the paradox of factual relativism. We can know that Truth is relative because there exist people who, relative to them, find the statement inherently untrue. There is a distinction to be made between truth meaning "fidelity" and truth meaning "factuality", because the Universe itself does not require anyone to remain faithful to factuality. For many, the ultimate goal is to ensure one's truth remains faithful to factuality, and for many others, the ultimate goal is to ensure factuality remains faithful to one's truth. As faithful as one may try to be to factuality, one can never escape the fact that their truth has a scope which does not necessarily extend to the perspectives of others. It is true that people are generally as faithful to falsehoods as often as they are faithful to factuality, and the nature of Truth is such that the actuality of their faith thus lends the falsehoods a modicum of actuality themselves, a modicum which has the potential to snowball from that point forward. Moreover, what is considered fact to some is considered falsehood to others, and vice versa, suggesting that factuality is relative to one's perspective even if one believes in something demonstrably false.
Discovering the degree to which a truth is faithful to factuality is the entire purpose of the field of epistemology. Within our current predominant system of epistemics there is a consensus that certain truths are universally factual whether they are believed in or not (e.g., "the Earth is a sphere" or "1+1=2"). An aspect of the Truth may or may not be in accord with the factuality of any given reality, and to the extent that it is not so is the extent to which it is considered a falsehood rather than a truth (e.g., "the Earth is flat" or "1+1=5"). But the nature of Truth is such that a falsehood will continue to exist as a truth to some whether it is factual or not, and other truths may model it by degrees of fidelity (i.e., "the Earth is a cube" or "1+1=5000"). For example, it is easy for a reasonable person to see that the attendance numbers of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration were paltry when compared with those of Barack Obama's second inauguration, but it is unreasonable to assume that everyone has the same incentive for believing this fact. What Spicer said was demonstrably false, yet that didn't stop people from believing him and behaving as if it were true, mostly because they had, relative to them, more incentive to believe what he said than they had incentive to disbelieve what he said. They wanted what he said to be true, and ultimately they chose to believe in what they want regardless of the factuality— just like people who believe the Earth is flat or that one plus one equals five. They may actually believe these things to be true, or they could be choosing something they know is false just to stick it to others they are not fond of.
HUMANITY DEPENDS UPON PARADOX
People generally believe in whatever they want to be true, and they will build entire communities and civilizations and bodies of knowledge around their beliefs. Nearly every human endeavor depends upon the concept of Truth, and yet its nature is typically unconsciously assumed rather than consciously considered. Truth exists, but no one is actually required to cleave to it. People are just as free to indulge in falsehoods as they are in the truth. While an objective reality may exist as a consensus of opinions on what is fact and what is false, humanity has no universally accepted arbiter which absolutely discerns between the two and reality thus remains predominantly subjective. It is because of this that attempts have been made all throughout human history to artificially create such an arbiter for all people to live by. In reality, the Truth is so versatile, it can be used any way one wants (very much like the Tao is described in chapter 6 of the Tao Te Ching). This fact has proven very useful among the many different human communities that exist both now and in the past, since different truths are useful to different people, and at different times.
Aspects of the Truth are often negotiated between people via dominant versus submissive roles, the most common of these being the relationship inherent between parent and child. Other social constructs have sought to model this fundamental relationship, particularly governments and religions. Legal and/or religious recognition often define what truth is for any given community, and this includes both parents and children within said community. Nevertheless, any given individual remains the ultimate dominant force within their own life, and so whether they go along with consensus or not is the choice which is theirs alone to make. In every moment and every facet of their life the individual gets to choose whether they are fulfilling a dominant or a submissive role— even if society has chosen for them. We are living in a world which was created by the people who came before us, but we have the power to alter our understanding of it, and therefore we have the power to alter the world itself.
While factual relativism may be an ideal breeding ground for conflict, it is also an ideal breeding ground for cooperation. "Why do they believe that, and why do I believe this?" are excellent questions to ask oneself when deciding between responses to an experience. These choices present one with opportunities for tolerance, mind expansion, diversity, friendship, and good faith. Conflict happens naturally, but it needn't become the default mode of our relationships with others. Besides evading conflict to the best of one's ability, a cooperative approach would be to agree to disagree whenever an inescapable conflict occurs. In cases where multiple individuals see different perspectives of the Truth, agreeing to disagree may be the only option available.
REALITY IS EXPERIENTIAL
Truth is closely tied to both human knowledge and to a reality's spacetime itself. There's information, and then there's knowledge, and then there's wisdom. All three are in essence the same, but they differ by degrees of value to the individual. All data (i.e., pieces of information which compose a reality) are aspects of the Truth. But one must remember that data is always susceptible to dual forces: manipulation and interpretation. That means that every single being in a universe has a unique relationship with the data of that universe; every single one of us has our own relationship with the Truth. Data doesn't mean the exact same thing to everyone, and technically it never can. Truth is always relative to oneself, and even people who have experienced something together will not have the exact same experience of it. Truth is ultimately an experiential phenomenon. The best way (and indeed the only way) for an individual to have the ability to discern between truth and falsehoods is GNOSIS— that mysterious inner knowing which is naturally unique to every individual. Even our feelings— ESPECIALLY our feelings— are intimately connected with the Truth on a level so fundamental that no Deus deceptor could possibly ever reach it. Whether you think it's truth or you think it's not, either way you're right. Reality is so versatile it will give you whatever answer you're seeking: "seek, and you will find".
So, back to our original question: what is truth? Truth is a decision, a choice, a taking of a stand, a “making firm” of energy. It is not conformity with reality, because every possible reality already exists. It is a creation of a new reality from the bits and pieces of realities that already exist. It is a unique perspective. Truth Is All That Is. Your truth is whatever YOU decide it to be, and the Truth will reflect that to the degree that you decide to reflect the Truth.
“The fact is: Anything can happen in the future. For some people, that’s exciting. For others, that’s scary. And even if both kinds of people are working toward a better world tomorrow, only one of them gets to be happy today.”
