“You
Can’t Stand the Truth!”
Who can read those words
and not think of Jack Nicolas as Marine Col Jessup in “A Few Good Men?”
Yet, that is a question
that divides people, not just in a movie but in the conduct of life.
The question we all need
to face is this. “Can you stand the
truth?” If one can stand the truth, they
will go wherever necessary to seek out that truth. If one can stand the truth, they will push
their truth paradigm ever deeper until it is either validated or falters.
On the other hand if such a
person limits that truth to what they
choose to believe then such truth is a product of one’s volition*—that is
one’s will. Such may mean that honest
inquiry is lacking. Why would this be
so? Consider the following.
On one side of the
question you have intellectual integrity on the other side intellectual
bias. On one side you have intellectual
vulnerability on the other side intellectual resistance. On one side you have intellectual bravery on
the other side you have intellectual cowardice.
On one side you have intellectual daring on the other side intellectual cowering. On one side you have intellectual freedom on
the other side you have intellectual bondage.
Yet
it is the one who lives in a world of intellectual bias, resistance, cowardice,
and cowering who proclaims his intellectual freedom all the while disparaging
those of differing opinion. One must ask, “Why not hear what others have
to say?” Aristotle observed,
“It is the mark of an
educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
What is most interesting
is that those who claim to be willing to follow the path to truth wherever
necessary, at least in my experience, close off all but what they can mentally deduce. Their position is best described as cynical
of anything that cannot pass their own rational filtration processes.
Classically this is called
rationalism and in the extreme it rejects all other avenues to truth such as
Empiricism and Existentialism. In lesser
degrees it is the filter applied to other avenues to truth.
Three simple observations
are to be made at this point.
First, one does well to
push truth ever deeper to see if it is durable or destructed. If one’s truth is not durable then it most
certainly will fall in the face of challenge.
It is the brave person who can face that eventuality and re-chart his
life and purpose. The coward resorts to affective
responses and personal attack.
Second, there is no new
truth only the discovery of the truth that already exists. For that reason he is prudent who does not
become so ensnared in a truth paradigm that it cannot change with the discovery
of deeper realities.
Third, truth is a
stewardship issue. When one discovers deeper
and deeper truth such vests that person with a responsibility to then live out
that truth no matter the cost.
In summary, underpinning
the above is a simple principle. It is
this. Truth is a character issue and
today in western culture truth discovered, challenged, and lived out, has been relegated
to a place of irrelevance. Indeed it has
been sacrificed on the altar of expedience.
*thought elucidated at http://www.gospeloutreach.net/bible.html
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