Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Truth: I got mine, go get yours!

Exciting news today on the truth front: from Shirley Sherrod the ousted USDA official to the “photoshopped “ picture of BP’s Command center, we are inundated with “facts” that have been taken “out of context”. One of “Deception’s” greatest tools is the employment of plausibility, which has inherent the minimizing of truth.

Truth requires first that we know. Knowledge requires study and is NOT gained by being “spoon fed” from the “talking heads” on the TV. Study requires reading varying sources and developing rational thought to understand the issue. Politics is about manipulation of opinions and we must be aware of the barrage of deceptions.

Our English word “truth” comes from the Greek word aletheia: “what is not concealed, but open and known; thence true.” I like that – not concealed. If it is open and known then truth must be an external reality. I like that – external reality, non-subjective.

Employing a rational mind that God has equipped human beings necessitates the realization that there are those who wish to conceal information to propagate their agenda – whether it is “Universal Tolerance” or BP’s current Public Relations gaffe. This “negative of the truth” was written about in Hegel’s Philosophy of Spirit. Glenn W. Campbell wrote an exposition on Hegel in his pamphlet: Ethics – Modern and Contemporary (1996). Glenn writes on page 41:

“If the mind is truly free to choose, it must be truly free to choose wrongly; that is, the negative of the truth… the experience of the negative by the mind leads it to the final presupposition: Maturity. We do really learn from our mistakes. A free mature mind is superior to a free naïve mind.”

Truth is objective, constant, and rational. Truth is knowable and discoverable. We are free to choose to remain in a free naïve mind or develop a mature mind that aggressively seeks the rational, constant truth (non-subjective). BTW Aristotle asked “What is Truth?” Asking the right questions some 300 years before Pontius Pilate asked the same question.


Painting by Antonio Ciserie titled "Ecce Homo" - translated: Behold the Man

Food for Thought
If you are Hungry

C'ya
Eagle Driver
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