How We Know Truth, and Why It Matters

Dear readers,

We have a clear moral and political dichotomy in America and throughout the western world. The political left is replete with politicians who reject reality and desire to be their own and everyone else’s god. They claim that lies are truths, that abortion is not murder, that we must celebrate homosexual behavior, that slicing and dicing body parts (even of children) in the name of transgenderism is an inalienable right, that Christianity is evil, that down is up and up is down, and that almighty God is a remnant of antiquated thinking.

Conversely, the political right looks at reality and sees the value of creation and human life, and they believe that natural law, which governs our behaviors, is written on every human heart. These people know God exists and that He makes every human being in His image and likeness. They believe that everyone, big or small, damaged or not, has an equal dignity that deserves equal respect. They strive for a just country and a just world. Even though they fail to love God perfectly, they at least acknowledge His providence and moral order.

Although neither the political right nor the political left perfectly represents Christianity, one is much closer to it than the other. As a result of this clear divide, we need to get back to basics. Therefore, due to the upcoming elections in America, I am asking you to share this article with everyone you know and on social media. America (and indeed the whole world) needs to know how we know truth and why God makes us for it. If we don’t understand the purpose of our existence, we destine ourselves for hatred, violence, and destruction rather than love, peace, and eternal life. Keep reading to see why. Thank you and God bless!

Introduction

In our world of constant change and cultural rebellion against timeless and universal truths, especially given the backdrop of our current political climate, we need to step back and reorient our moral compasses toward fundamental and objective truths. One of these truths concerns the human acquisition of knowledge. By understanding the way in which we learn objective truths, we can then understand the morality and immorality of various human acts.

How We Learn

From the moment our brains and our five bodily senses form, they begin to engage the world and take in information from their environments. In the womb, we primarily hear our mothers’ voices, and we feel the warmth of the fluid around us. After birth, we see, hear, feel, taste, and smell all kinds of things.

At this point, we do not understand the world around us, but we nevertheless bring information about material reality, including ourselves, into ourselves. This information provides the foundation for future knowledge. It is untainted with lies and opinions and is merely a reception of reality as such.

For example, a baby knows when he is hungry, full, cold, hot, has soiled himself, and so on, and he will let everyone else know when something is not right. He also knows when someone is holding or tickling him, and he even laughs when people make funny faces or sounds. On a sad note, some people abuse babies, and the babies know when this is happening too. During this period of development, babies build a foundational archive of sense knowledge.

Therefore, babies know and respond to material reality. I say material reality because the small child cannot sense or understand immaterial reality, including concepts and spiritual entities, except for perhaps a spiritual entity who might somehow appear to the baby’s senses. Even in such a case, the child would merely see the image without understanding what the image is or represents.

The important thing to note in all of this is that babies and young children absorb material reality as it is and not as others wish it to be. They do not understand truths, lies, and opinions yet, but they know all kinds of things exist. In this sense, the baby’s environment serves as a kind of pedagogue (a meticulous teacher) much more than any human instructor. This early stage of learning provides a baseline for future knowledge. (See Summa Theologiae I, q. 84, a. 6.)

Maturing and Understanding

As babies grow and their minds mature, they begin to understand and seek deeper understanding (click here for more on mental development). They understand to the point of asking countless questions about reasons and purposes. These questions point to one inescapable fact – children want to learn the truth about the world around them, and they expect people to help them build upon the truths they have already discovered through sense knowledge.

For example, a small child asks her mother why the sky is blue. The mother answers with an explanation suitable to the child’s ability to understand. The child then asks why the sky is not blue at night. Again, the mother answers. The child then asks why the sky is not a different color. The mother responds, Go play with your toys. I have things to do. The mother knows that the questions could go on for eternity because the child wants to know everything about everything.

If you have ever lied to children about something they know to be true (like the sky is blue, but you tell them it is pink), they will have a perplexed look on their faces. And they will probably let you know, in no uncertain terms, that you don’t know what you are talking about.

At this point in their lives, children have absorbed countless details about reality, and they want to build upon these truths with more truth. In fact, they have a drive to do so. So, children learn many truths through their senses, and they naturally want to build upon these truths as they develop.

In the foregoing description, we find four principles: 1) sense knowledge precedes intellectual knowledge (i.e., conceptual understanding); 2) similarly, knowledge of material things precedes knowledge of immaterial (including spiritual) things; 3) the world is knowable, and we are inclined to know it; and 4) we desire to understand things and their purposes.

Children’s questions, and indeed everyone’s questions, stem from these four principles. Further, children would not ask questions if they did not have 1) an objective foundation of knowledge upon which to build, 2) could not understand the answers at some level, and 3) did not desire and expect to know the truthful answers to their questions. If a child discovers that you were not truthful with him, the trust he had in you evaporates, and you must now earn it back.

Fictional Stories

I should pause here for a moment and explain why fictional story telling is morally licit. Let us take Santa Claus for example. When parents tell their children about Santa Claus, his home on the North Pole, reindeer, a large man bringing presents down the chimney, and so forth, their imaginative minds whirl with vividly good thoughts. The story increases their excitement and curiosity about Christmas because they find a whole new world opened to them.

The story about Jesus being born in Bethlehem to save us from our sins does not have the same appeal to young children who have not yet developed the ability to fully understand spiritual realities and salvation. But the idea of a jolly man delivering presents and joy all over the world is a good thing to them (as it should be).

However, if a parent were to disclose the truth about Santa Claus abruptly without explaining it, the news would devastate their children…and rightfully so because children trust their parents to tell them the truth about reality.

So, Christian parents must explain that they told a fictional story (an allegory) because they could not understand the truth, to increase their excitement and curiosity, and to teach them the value of gift-giving. They must then explain that this creative story was designed to excite their children’s imaginations and to teach them about the joys of Christmas; it was ordered toward telling them the truth when they could comprehend it.

If the parents explain this correctly, they will discuss how this allegory points to Jesus as both the true Gift Giver and Gift to all of humanity, and that Christmas is really the Christ Mass celebrated around the world in the Church Jesus founded. This explanation typically pacifies children because, at this point in their lives, they understand that their parents told the story to teach them the moral truth about gift-giving.

As we get older, we see, hear, and even tell all kinds of fictional stories. I am willing to bet that more fictional story books exist than non-fictional books. And there is nothing wrong with this provided people know about their fictional nature.

But let’s get back to reality. From the foregoing, we see that children (and indeed all humans) do not want others to lie to them. Although children sometimes lie, they typically do it to avoid trouble. They do not do it because they think lies are good. But this leads us to a question: what exactly is a lie?

Some Definitions

Before defining a lie, we need to define the thing that lies distort, namely, truth. Truth is a statement, in the mind or communicated to another, that accurately reflects reality. Essentially, reality and the statement about it match. A lie, on the other hand, is simply a false (i.e., untrue) statement that one intentionally communicates to another, or tells oneself, as if it were true as its end.

The difference between a lie and a fictional story is that a person tells a fictional story with the intent to reveal its fictional nature. The fictional story’s nature is to get to the truth at some point before, during, or after one tells the story. It is not told to alter the truth as its end.

Phrased another way, a lie is a false statement directed at disguising the truth as its end. A fictional story is a false statement directed at revealing the truth at some point, typically for entertainment purposes or to describe reality analogously (e.g., parables, fables, allegories, etc.).

Still, one might wonder where jokes fall into the picture. A joke is a false statement directed at revealing the truth to arrive at a punch line and get a laugh. Whereas lies are statements directed at disguising the truth as its end, fictional stories and jokes are directed at revealing the truth of their own falsity.

At this point, we arrive at another principle: Reality and the truth about it always precede lies because the very nature of a lie is to disguise a truth that one does not want others to know.

By the way, a lie differs from silence in that a lie is a statement (see the above definition), and silence is not. Both silence and lies conceal the truth, but only lies disguise it. Silence can be either good or evil depending on the situation, but lies are always sinful to some degree (mortally or venially) because they oppose truth (1 John 2:21) and Him who is Truth (John 14:6).

Simplifying and Summarizing

From all we have said thus far, we should surmise that everyone, even the wickedest among us, wants the truth whenever he or she asks a question or otherwise engages in conversation. Afterall, what is the point of asking questions or having conversations if one or both parties lie?

Here, we have reached another principle: Even though people lie, everyone wants the truth.

From the first section of this article, we should see that we are ordered toward knowing the truth about reality. As such, we can conclude that the truth about reality is good, and lies about reality are evil.

Every human begins to learn through his/her five senses engaging material reality as it is and not as others wish it to be. As children develop, they become more aware of what things are and how things work. Consequently, they ask questions that demand truthful answers to build upon the truths they already know.

Why Does This Matter?

The fact that babies take in reality but do not understand its intricacies points to the need to ask questions. The questions point to the need for countless truthful and accurate answers. The countless answers needed point to people with varying knowledge bases who can answer the numerous questions posed. The people point to an interconnected society that increasingly understands reality and helps the children understand it as well.

The need for truthful communications of reality points to how lies undermine truth. The lies point to an erosion of trust throughout society. And, finally, lies and erosion of trust point to relativism, individualism, factions, propaganda, and even violence in the name of false ideologies.

The lies, factions, propaganda, and violence play out in our society today because people refuse to put love of truth and love guided by truth above personal feelings, ideologies, opinions, and movements. As St. Peter wrote, these people are like irrational animals, reviling matters of which they are ignorant, and God has reserved the deepest gloom and darkness for them (2 Peter 2:12-18).

For example, the LGBTQ idealogues do not appear to appreciate the fact that we learn about the physical world and our physical selves long before we become sexually attracted to people. They reject the truth that when a male child observes himself, he sees something different between himself and a female child (and vice versa). The child will come to understand that males and females physically complement one another and conclude they have a complementarity that indicates a special union they cannot have with someone of the same sex.

Even though some people eventually feel a sexual attraction to someone of the same sex, they know that they are physically ordered toward sexual activity with someone of the opposite sex. Afterall, for what are sperm, and for what are ova? No amount of self-deception can erase the ordering of nature from their minds. Consequently, their attraction is disordered, not their bodies.

Since this attraction does not arise from a disorder in the reproductive system, then one possibility is that the person suffers from a psychological disorder. Or, the attraction stems from a neurological disorder in which the brain, not the rest of the body, is the problem. Why is this the case?

Remember, the child learns that he is a certain kind of being by observing his body. He sees that he is different from other species. Physical reality takes precedence here. If the brain were to take precedence in the order of knowledge, it would determine reality, and no one would have a common starting point for objective knowledge ordered toward a properly functioning self or society. Consequently, society could not work together as an organic whole, and all individuals would necessarily become self-centered.

This is the case because physical reality provides the basis for all our thoughts, feelings, and attractions, even if we later dismiss it. If our thoughts, feelings, and attractions were the basis of reality, reality would be different for everyone. Where I see a mountain, you see a lake. Where I see a building, you see an alligator. I see myself as a fish, but you see me as a big bowl of ice cream. We could never work together as a society if this were the case.

This same logic not only applies to the LGBTQ+ ideology, but also to the lies that adultery, fornication, pornography, masturbation, contraception and a litany of other sins are morally permissible. Please read this article for more on these specific sins. (It also applies to the racism, bigotry, chauvinism, feminism, and all ideologies that promote hate simply because someone is different from oneself.)

Realizing the lies upon which the LGBTQ and other radical movements depend, we can see the truths of Catholic moral teaching. The former uses disordered emotions, attractions, and opinions as justifications for sinful behaviors, while the latter uses both divine revelation and a very orderly and systematic structure that builds upon truth from the ground up.

Here, we have yet another question: although lies oppose truth and reality, why are they morally wrong?

Why Lies Are Immoral

Earlier, we said that lies are evil. But in a Godless world, evil can simply mean that one does not like what another is doing. In a Godless world, no one can claim that lies are sinful, immoral, or wrong because no objective standard of perfect goodness who exercises dominion over creation would exist. There would be no perfect justice, and we would become our own judges without any reference to an infinitely perfect God.

So, the answer to this question is that all the above is meaningless nonsense unless God exists. If God exists, however, then lies are immoral. They are nothing other than poor attempts at recreating reality by placing a veneer over God’s creation and purposes. In other words, by lying, one tries to become God, who is ultimate reality, by creating a false reality for others to believe as true. Click here for an argument for God’s existence.

Additionally, lies remove freedom. When people lie to others, they disguise the spectrum of truths from which others can choose. For example, if someone asks what product Baskin Robbins sells, and another person answers that it sells hamburgers only, the inquirer might then omit Baskin Robbins as a choice for ice cream and go to another ice cream shop instead. Therefore, lies have consequences in the real world of human decision-making.

Similarly, when people lie about the Catholic Church’s origins, people erroneously believe that the Catholic Church is just one of many churches (click here for more). Those who peddle this lie want to prevent the other persons from becoming Catholic. The lie, therefore, acts as a deterring force because it eliminates a choice or choices about which people have a right to know.

Returning to God’s existence, if God is infinite good itself, then any opposition to this goodness is immoral. In fact, as beings made for truth and in the image and likeness of God, lies not only oppose God, but they are ultimately detrimental to the one who lies and to the entire human race.

Additionally, as the perfect good, God is also perfect justice, and we should expect perfect justice to proceed from Him. Consequently, He will remedy any and every evil, including lies, with justice. Just keep in mind that divine justice does not equal punishment alone. It involves both punishment and mercy, and God will execute it perfectly.

The Problem and the Solution

So, lies are sinful because they oppose the truth, reality, and God. If we lie, we subject ourselves to God’s justice. By refusing to repent for our lies or for any other mortal sins we commit, we make ourselves subjects of divine wrath. If we die in this unrepentant state, we make ourselves subjects of eternal punishment in Hell.

However, by contritely repenting and asking God to heal us with his grace, He will make us subjects of Heaven. He will begin the process of purifying us here on earth. Through this process, which Hebrews 12:4-11 (RSV-CE) describes, God will sanctify us and help us to grow in holiness and happiness until we reach the blessed vision of God face-to-face (called the Beatific Vision) in Heaven.

Finally, we must never oppose truth with lies and delusions, and then demand that everyone else fall in line with the lies. This is insanity. We must never allow the disordered among us and those who seek to take advantage of them to dictate reality. Therefore, we have a duty to defend truth and live it every moment of our lives. Do not lie and do not give into the lies that the world peddles. Do not give Satan, the father of lies, an opportunity to enter your soul. Live and defend truth no matter the consequences.

Additional Reading

Please click on the following links for more: on sexual morality, on moral perfection in this life, on the left’s fake news about morality, on how punishment and forgiveness work together, on how we merit grace, and on the true Church.

[Social media appeal: Hello, readers! If you think my article, or any other article at Catholic Stand, will help others better understand and/or spread the faith, please post a link to your social media account(s). Thank you!]