Is It True or is it False?

“What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.” This quote is the first line of Francis Bacon’s essay, Of Truth.  Further on Bacon says truth is “the sovereign good of human nature.”

I recently read a review of a book focusing on how to promote the Faith among young people. I cannot comment on a book of which I have read only a review. But it did strike me that something was missing.  The review seemed to focus on what the best strategies might be in capturing the attention and interest of younger people.  However, the review did not discuss emphasizing – to the young or any other person – that the Gospel is true.

I admit that in our post-modern, deconstructionist world a concern for truth can be seen as quaintly old-fashioned. Being definitely old-fashioned and (possibly) even quaint myself, I’m okay with that. But given that this is the world we live in, a review of the nature of truth might be in order.

Defining Truth

The simplest route to a definition of truth is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Running down the variations, the best wording I can find is “that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality.” Deleting the redundant use of the word true, we get a reasonably useful definition: “that which is in accordance with fact or reality.”

As definitions go, this is useful, but some might find it a bit uncomfortably circular (try defining “fact” or “reality” without using the words “true” or “truth”, for instance).  But as Mercutio said to Romeo after being wounded, “. . . ’tis enough, ’twill serve . . . ” (Romeo and Juliet Act 3 Scene 1).  Mercutio says this before he dies in response to Romeo’s wishful hope that the injury to his friend is not serious.

Drawing from the OED again, we find that in the study of philosophy, epistemology is the theory of knowledge – that is, epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.

Epistemology is how we discern “what is in accordance with fact or reality.” To people of a certain temperament, it is one of the most fascinating branches of philosophy.

Most People Mostly Agree

I think most people would mostly agree that there is such a thing as truth.  Though it may be difficult to find and at times even more difficult to express adequately, there is, at the base of things, something we can call “reality.” Further, I think we can, with some degree of precision and accuracy, describe that reality in a manner we can comfortably describe as “the truth.”  We may not be able to describe some aspect of reality in a way that satisfies everyone.  And we may not be even able to describe it in a way that satisfies anyone!

But, for the most part, people are content with the idea that no matter how difficult it may be to express, and no matter how many people disagree over the specifics, there is such a thing as reality.  And the more precisely and accurately we describe reality, the more we are justified in saying we are speaking the truth.

The Nice Thing About Science (And The Hard Thing About Theology)

The nice thing about science (today) is that it is concerned with the realm of controllable variables and reproducible results. Since the publication of the book “The Logic of Scientific Discovery” by Sir Karl Raimund Popper, science has focused more and more on “falsifiability.”

This is an assertion that nothing in the empirical world can be proven completely, but if it (1) can be shown false, and then (2) it can be demonstrated that none of the ways of proving it false succeed, one may take it as more or less tentatively proven. (This is a bit of an oversimplification, but like Mercutio’s wound, should be enough, at least for now.)

Unfortunately, the hard thing about theology, and much, if not all of philosophy, is that it is not particularly open to controlled experimentation. And neither does it always lend itself to falsification.

Skipping Over The Weeds

The problem with philosophy is that it seemingly delights in complications. What we refer to as science seeks to reduce complications and exceptions.

One of the basic tools of science is Occam’s Razor. It states that among competing theories, the one with the fewest assumptions or entities is  preferable.

Early attempts at astronomy were complicated by some false preconceptions.  One is that the Earth was the center of the universe.  A second is that the heavens were a series of spheres, and so objects in the heavens must move in circles.

The notion of epicycles eventually reconciled this second preconceived notion with the actual movements of the stars and planets. Planets, for instance, moved in circles, the center of which moved in other circles, and sometimes even more circles than that. The accumulation of circles grew very complex at times, but one could work out navigation in this system so well that the tables of Ptolemy were still in use as navigational aids into the 20^th century.

Copernicus had one simplifying idea – have the planets (including the Earth) rotate around the sun. But circular orbits were even harder to reconcile to this idea than they were to a system where everything revolved around the Earth. Enter Johannes Kepler.  He showed how using ellipses made the heliocentric model work even better than the old, circular, earth-centered version of Ptolemy and the ancients.

Thus a complicated system went to a simpler one, which turned out to be true, so far as we can yet tell.

Enter Immanuel Kant

When it comes to the epistemology of truth, however, we are still awaiting our Copernicuses and our Kepplers.

Instead, we got German philosopher Immanuel Kant.  He published “Critique of Pure Reason,” in 1781, followed by “The Critique of Practical Reason,” in 1788, and “Critique of Judgment” in 1790.  These works threw philosophy into a turmoil.  And some say the turmoil continues.  In general, the Catholic Church treats Kant’s philosophy with skepticism.

So when it comes to philosophical technicalities, we should perhaps, take our advice from Thomas à Kempis rather than the state of the academic world.

In “The Imitation of Christ,” Book 1, Chapter 5, he says, “Men pass away, but the truth of the Lord remains forever.  And in Chapter 7 he further states, “Put no trust in your own learning nor in the cunning of any man, but rather in the grace of God Who helps the humble and humbles the proud.”

What We Can Depend On

Fortunately, we begin with simplicity; complications in our faith come with our history – with the need to put down misunderstandings and heresies. We can short-cut complications in philosophy and theological technicalities when we remember Jesus’  answer to Thomas in John 14:6, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In the end, our Truth is Jesus. Jesus is Who we embrace.  Jesus is Who we witness to.

If we do not know Him well enough to give a clear and sustained witness, we know where He can be found.  First and foremost, He is found in the Eucharist.  He is also found in the reading of Scripture and in diligent prayer.  And He can be found as well in classes and study groups reached through our local parish.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, help us to see in you the actual Way, the Truth, and the Life. Give us the clarity of mind and speech to witness to your holiness and your presence in the world which was created through you, and which cannot be at peace until that time when “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” AMEN