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Absolute
Truths
Evidentiary
Truths / The Truest Truths
Faith-based
Truths
.
.
The
truth comes in all shapes and sizes. For ease of discussion, we'll
examine "truth" from three major perspectives:
1) what actually is the truth, 2) what the evidence tells us is most
likely the truth, and 3) beliefs about the truth.
.
Absolute
Truths:
The
more humans study our amazing universe, the more we realize that no matter how
much we know about something, there is still so much more that, at this time in
human evolution, we simply cannot know. The actual truth transcends
our ability to comprehend it. As Einstein once said on this
topic, "I now realize that I know nothing." In this
document, we will refer to this aspect of the truth as "The Absolute
Truth."
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Evidentiary
Truths / Fact-based
Truths / The Truest Truths
In
the absence of complete knowledge we, as humans take two roads. One path
is to study a topic, develop hypotheses about what is most likely the
truth, then test the theory and adjust it as the evidence is unveiled. In
this document, we will refer to this aspect of the truth as "The
Truest Truth."
For
it's dramatic effect the evidentiary truth is sometimes referred to as "The
Real Truth." This is slightly misleading because it implies
that everything else is "not the truth." For example,
partial truths are still true. They are simply
incomplete. That incompleteness often makes them extremely
deceptive.
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Faith-based
Truths:
And
then there are the declared-to-be-true
truths. These are stories about reality that are believed to be true
with no conclusive evidence to support them. A vast number of very
significant, traditional, religious beliefs fall into this category.
In order to believe them, one must take what in religious terms is called
"A leap of Faith." And as is abundantly obvious,
with regard to religion, humans have jumped in several very different
directions.
The
result is that millions (and in some cases billions) of people believe things
the are in direct contradiction to the beliefs of millions (or billions) of other
people. For example, billions believe in reincarnation.
Billions more believe in Religious
one-life-ism. They can't both be correct. In
this document, we will refer to this aspect of the truth as "
Faith-based Truths."
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Faith-based
Truths in Action:
Much
of the information passed out about abortion by those opposing abortion rights
falls into the "faith-based truth" category. These are
personal and/or religious beliefs that have been proclaimed to be factual
truths. These are stories that, for years, have been
told as if they were true and, today,
are simply accepted as being true even though there is no proof of their
truthfulness. Two examples of faith-based truth
are: 1) "Life begins at
conception" and 2) "A human being is his or her physical
body."
The
people speaking and spreading these stories are usually intelligent,
highly respected leaders of their communities and so their words are taken
as truth. These unsubstantiated statements have been accepted as
true because the listeners have not bothered to check their sources or look for
evidence to support them. The general attitude is: "Our leaders are
the professionals, the experts, the authority figures, so they must be
right."
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Evidentiary
Truth and Abortion:
The
second category of truth we hear regarding abortion includes those truths which are backed
up by physical and experiential evidence. With evidentiary truths, the same evidence always leads to the same
findings. Interpretations may vary, but regardless of one’s personal
beliefs, the physical evidence is there to examine.
Many
of these truths have been known for centuries. They have been found
to
true at all times and in all places. Two examples of evidential truth are: 1) "All human beings have an instinctive
sexual nature;" and 2) "Sexual intercourse is the one and
only cause of unwanted pregnancy."
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Dealing
with Conflict:
When
we hear someone speak about abortion, we would be wise to ask which variation of
the truth are they speaking? Since we can't know the absolute truth,
they are expressing either evidentiary truth of faith-based truth.
If they are speaking faith-based truths, they have absolutely no business
attempting to pass secular laws supporting their beliefs.
If they are speaking evidentiary truths, we have to ask and answer several unanswerable
questions such as: What is the significance of
abortion? What does abortion mean? Which truth are they
talking about? Who's truth is the correct truth?
When
there are choices to be made, who gets to make the decisions? Is the
anti-abortion war a war for or against personal freedom? And one
other question: "Who owns a woman's body? -- she,
herself, or the growing, right wing, slightly disguised, fascist,
police state headed by "Resident" Bush, Jerry Falwell and Pat
Robertson. If you think those three aren't in bed together, guess
again. Check the
evidence. More
Evidence
When
we have conflicting beliefs, a common way to decide who's
truth is the correct truth is to examine the
evidence. We base our decisions and one's actions upon what the evidence
tells us is most likely the truth. In this document, we'll follow
the technique used in law and in life to resolve differences of opinion.
In
dealing with conflict, we will base our proposed actions on what the
evidence tells us as the most probable truth. We shall refer to that
truth as "The Truest Truth."
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