“You Can’t Stand the Truth!”

“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

"Freedom? Oh Really?"

Exercise great care in your choices--in particular your choices of the prejudices you choose to embrace.
 
Choices have consequences which at times are subtle and unnoticed and at other times claim almost all of one's life and living.  

How often a person can claim freedom only to be hemmed in by biases, claim insight only to be bound by partiality, claim autonomy only to be trapped in self imposed limits, claim independence from faith and yet be trapped in prejudices against faith, and the list goes on and on?

It is as if one is caught in a vortex of understanding and then while being carried about in that vortex claims all reality outside of that vortex does not exist. That is the freedom some loudly proclaim.  However, the reality is that such freedom is not freedom at all but bondage. 

Any sincere seeker of truth and thus freedom takes down all preconceived notions and follows the trail of truth to wherever it may lead. If one cannot in all honesty say that they do so then such seeking is not legitimate.  

Most often when that trail leads into the arena of faith and in particular Christian faith, one's preconceived prejudices against Christian faith will block one's way. Such a person can be carried along by the trends and current of their prejudices without even knowing it. 

When such is the case they are by choice, blind to all that lies outside of their reality and rather than making a sincere effort as a seeker of truth they loudly make proclamations of special truth, superior insights, experience, and science. 

In doing so such a person purposefully turns a blind eye to that which is not in in one's your knowledge-comfort zone--even going on the attack. Such is not freedom but an enslavement to one's own limited understanding. These are the choices one has the freedom to make however one has no control over the outcomes of those choices.

Chose carefully as there are eternal consequences for how one decides.

“Examining One's Truth Systems”

“Examining Truth Systems”

The following is a quote from a previous blog, "Both sides of the atheism-theism question to some degree must rely upon unfounded belief. To rely upon one’s unfounded belief is to put trust in that belief—that is one puts faith in that belief." (Edited for clarity)

To trust anything or anyone is to place faith in that person or thing.  Take for example, traversing a bridge.  Even though one may not consciously do so such requires several expressions of trust (faith).  There is trust in the bridge itself, faith in the engineer that designed it, confidence in the builder that constructed it, and belief in those who maintainer it. 

The point of the previous blog (“Preponderance of Faith”*) was that beyond the knowable in any truth system, there is an area of unknowns where faith in that system is necessary. To not acknowledge such to be true is to tempt the possibility of naiveté or one might say blind faith.    

However, there is another matter to consider.  It goes something like this.  If a person has placed confidence in some truth system, then at what point is it that such a person to make a choice.  Is he willing or unwilling to interact with the attendant tough question?  It seems to me that among the responses there are five possible to consider.

DENIAL:  At the outset it is not without notice that there are those who will not acknowledge difficulties and disconnects in truth system they embrace.  Such a person is either unknowing or unwilling; either directly or tacitly avoids the tough questions.

That leads then to this.  Socrates is supposed to have said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” (Quoted in Plato’s Dialogues).  Extrapolating the thought yields the following thought, “The unexamined belief is not worth trusting.”

DECEPTION:  Then there is the possibility of being deceived by error.  The greatest of deceptions comes to those who are not willing to ask and seek the answers to the tough questions. Once such an attitude is rooted and grows it seems that such an one as holds to this attitude can become ensnared and thus find escape most difficult. 

DOGMATISM:  Someone once said, "Dogmatism kills." That comment would apply to anyone who has prematurely embraced a particular system without examination.  Once again it is that such a person is not willing to examine their own truth system.  One does not have to have advanced degrees from leading universities to understand the dangers of dogmatism.

DISTRACTION:  Without such an examination, one of the very real dangers is that one can simply gloss over such difficulties as exist.   Such a glossing over can limit one’s perspective and thus distract from another truth system that is much more defensible and thus in greater degree worthy of trust.

DESTRUCTION:  The final point is that of so destroying any and all other truth systems that one has limited his truth options.  It can progress to such a degree that the individual has become blinded to other truth options and in fact proactively destructive of other ways of thinking.  The debate in which the intelligent design people want their theory taught alongside the theory of evolution is an example.  The evolutionist as it turns out spares no effort in blocking such attempts.

The very real danger in denial, dogmatism, deception, distraction, and destruction is that of tunnel vision.  Such then leads to a limited view from which one can choose to never see other possibilities.  Another term for such is blindness.  And here is the real danger.  When the winds and storms of life breakout upon one's particular truth system, such will test the durability and sustainability of that truth system.  Choose wrong and the outcome(s) is/are dire!

*available at http://alviesthots.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-preponderance-of-faith.html

"When Deception Becomes Reality"

Deception is Birthed

 

There is no more serious matter than when deception becomes so ingrained in one’s thinking that it assumes the posture and place of genuine reality.  This is the outcome when one relies so totally upon his or her own mental content and process that there is little room for outside interference and thus intervention. 

Most certainly mental-intellectual function is comprised of at least two separate but related elements.  First there is the content—those things one learns and/or experiences.  Such is than gathered into a set or sets of data or facts.  Second, there is the process or how one acts upon the content.

A breakdown in either area, if left unchecked will result in the most dire of outcomes.  Pushed out to its eventual ends, that breakdown will result in one who is so deceived that the “false” has become the “genuine” and the "genuine" then becomes the "false."

Falsehood Leads Away From the Genuine

Said another way, this is the condition of the person who has come to believe a “falsehood” so thoroughly and deeply that it has gained a measure of control over that person’s life.  Thus there is no volitional capability to question the content or processes of that belief.  Such belief then assumes the great power of reality.  Now to be sure it may not be genuine reality but it assumes the posture of the genuine and the power thereof. 

What is the outcome?  Right and correct belief has the power to lead to greater and deeper insights into reality.  Wrong and incorrect belief has the power to lead into greater and deeper deception and in doing so leads one away from genuine truth.

Exclusive Truth

However, at this point an interesting dynamic begins to unfold.  It is that of superior exclusive truth.  That is to say the one caught in this trap begins to make exclusive truth claims to the point that such a person may even claim superior understanding(s) that are not available to others.   

Illogical Logic Then Isolates

As the process continues to deepen, such an one begins to invest much in such “false” reality that it becomes logical.  Now it may not be logical to others but it is to that person.  The outcome is that person becomes isolated in their illogical notions.  However, once again the process does not end there but continues on.

That “truth,” as false as it is has becomes so real that it now is the paradigm, through which life is viewed.  An attendant outcome is that the one who holds such “false” reality can no longer see nor embrace genuine truth.  Thus there is no challenge and therefore nothing to hold at bay, the ever deepening decent into deception. 

A Sobering Warning to All

While this is not the sum of all the Apostle Paul had to say on the matter in Romans 1, it certainly is a part of that of which he wrote as directed by the Spirit of the Lord.  Such a warning is not limited to those who reject the notion of God but to all who deal in that which is not genuine.  Thus it should be a sobering warning to all.