Saturday, July 23, 2011

What's True About The Truth?

On a spirituality and mind power forum regularly visited by me, I recently came across a question which though simple and short, shook my basic beliefs to the core. Someone had asked “How many truths are there? 7 billion or 0?”

For once I was totally stumped for an answer. What really is ‘the truth’? Is there anything in this world that we can irrefutably claim as the absolute truth? Let’s take our most fundamental and basic belief – our belief in God. The followers of the monotheistic traditions i.e. Islam, Christianity and Judaism hold the belief in one God central to their belief system, indeed central to their lives. It is an absolute truth. But the followers of polytheistic traditions who believe in a pantheon of gods and goddesses will quickly claim that their view is the absolute truth. Then there are the atheists who subscribe to the view that there is no God at all. Each one holds on to their belief as the truth. Each one tries to reform the other, each one tries to educate the other groups on the folly of their thinking. Being a Muslim my truth is that there is one and only one God, but then that is what it is – my truth and the one subscribed to by millions who share my belief.

What about history and other factual accounts? Again it depends upon whose recounting them. At the end of the day each event, each fact is recorded from the perspective of the person observing them and no matter how hard we try to be neutral our own perceptions and paradigms do come into play. Even in a criminal trial the same event is argued from the perspective of the defendant's as well as the prosecutor. The side that wins is usually the one who shares the majority’s view of the truth. Take the example of honour killings in our country. At one point in time the majority of people shared the view that it was the right thing to do and hence it was sanctioned by society. As the society’s view shifted it became a criminal offence. Hence it seems not only are there various truths, but truth itself changes from time to time.

What about some of the most fundamental concepts of human society? For the majority of people the truth is that the parent child relationship is unconditional, pure and beautiful. Parents nurture, protect and provide us with the emotional support that no other can offer us. But ask the child who was sexually abused by a parent or whose parents sold them to human traffickers. Their truth is completely different.

Science perhaps is the closest we will ever get to absolute truth. Gravity is the truth because we have not found a single person who has held a belief contrary to it since the day it was discovered nor have we found any scientific model which can refute it. The laws of nature are all irrefutable and hence true. So in a way we can say that anything which is observed by all and denied by none is an absolute truth – until the day it can be refuted.

As a Muslim I have grown up to believe that Islam is the religion of nature (Din-e-Fitrat) so all laws governing nature in the universe are true. Since science is nothing more than the observation of natural phenomenon and laws governing them, science is an extension of religion.

Some reading this may wonder if I’m dangerously close to sacrilege in saying that our belief in God is not the truth and only science is true. No, what I am saying is that at the moment laws of nature are the only things we can all say are true whereas our belief in God is our personal truth. Till the day 7 billion people can all identify themselves with the same belief it remains our personal absolute truth.

Personal truths are pivotal to our existence however they cannot become the cause of other people’s extinction. We can hold to our version of the truth with all our fervor and zeal but that does not give us the right to say that the other person’s truth is not valid for them.

Its not just about religion, its about everything that defines us as an individual. Our experiences, our circumstances have all led us to hold as true certain ideas, beliefs, and paradigms – but they are ours and ours alone. Perhaps there are others who shares some of these truths with us and many who don’t. We may choose to interact only with those who share our truths, but that does not mean that we should start negating the existence of those who don’t or start to forcefully change them.



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