What is Truth?

“What is truth?”

Pontius Pilate

In this response to Jesus’s declaration that He had come to be a witness to the truth, Pontius Pilate exemplified the futility of depending on political leaders to lead us into truth. Pilate’s cynical question demonstrates a hopelessness regarding the knowability of Truth, and the sense that the question is hardly worth asking, as it has no answer. In the presence of the Son of God, he does not wait for a response to his rhetorical question, but leaves to address the political situation. Pilate was like most other politicians before him, and the ones who would follow; for him the question of what truth is was pointless; the question he concerned himself with was “What is politic?”… what would further his political ambition and agenda. Likewise today’s politicians are generally agnostic where truth is concerned; the standard they raise instead is their ideology, and their ideology finds its center in what will sell.

This is how we end up with ridiculous statements from pandering politicians after such incidents as the shootings in Charleston. “…This type of violence doesn’t happen in other advanced countries.” It took little more than a week for incidents in Tunisia and France to put the lie to what was already a preposterous claim. It doesn’t matter though, because truth doesn’t matter anymore, if it ever did. What we deem more imperative is what we wish the truth to be, and we close our eyes to all else. It’s why we can’t have an honest discussion on “climate change”; you can’t have an honest discussion if you can’t be honest. It’s why Democrats don’t want to know what happened in Benghazi, or why they don’t care about missing emails. It’s why we’ve dumbed down the whole meaning of the sacrament of marriage to be simply a committed relationship; straight, gay, or otherwise.

Increasingly, we seek to impose our will on the state of the Universe, yet the Universe rolls on as it ever has, heedless of our protestations. A woman can mask her age with layers of makeup, but she cannot actually make herself younger. A white woman can get a deep tan and change her hair, but she can’t ultimately actually change her race, no matter how black she feels. A man can undergo hormone therapy, breast augmentation and other surgery seeking to become a woman; but ultimately every cell in his body has the Y chromosome that is the actual definition of “male”.

I have often thought that dogs have pretty good lives; eat, sleep, play with humans, have sex with Fifi the poodle… there are times I might like to actually be a dog. Will there come a time when we will have “trans-species” surgery? Give me a tail, paws, and fur on my body; if I eat from a bowl, live in a dog house, and bark at my echo… would that make me a dog? If I poop in the yard and have sex with Fifi, will I be commended for my courage in changing my species? Hopefully not anytime soon, because doing all these things would not ultimately change my species, I would not actually be a dog, just a human with some issues.

There was a time when people thought the earth was flat. It seems like it should be flat. I would like it if it were flat and I could find the edge. It doesn’t matter, it’s not flat. I could wish the earth was Middle Earth, complete with Hobbits, Elves, and Dwarves; but dressing up like Gandalf won’t make it so. Some times the things we feel, or would like to feel, the things we think we know, the ideas that have become popular, are fictions. Truth is not unknowable, but our fictions and fantasies can blind us. Closing our eyes doesn’t change what is true, it only keeps us from seeing what is plainly before us.

This week the Supreme Court disappointed conservatives twice, showing us again that there is seldom a short-cut to Truth, and that a black robe doesn’t guarantee wisdom, or honesty. It’s not the first time that our leaders have become followers of the rabble outside the court; Dred Scott, Korematsu v. U.S., Roe v. Wade, and several other lesser known but equally oblivious decisions. Relying on political leaders for guidance to the truth is like trying to get therapy from a car salesman, his counsel will always be “buy a car, it will make you feel better!” Ultimately, the Supreme Court decides the law of the land, but make no mistake, they are not the final arbiter of what is true… that remains for a higher Court.

IMHO: As much as both sides would have us believe that these are unprecedented times; conservatives pointing toward Armageddon, progressives toward Utopia; there is in fact nothing new under the sun. History ebbs and flows, as does Man’s perception of Truth. We overcame our national disgrace of slavery, moved beyond our mistreatment of our Japanese citizens in World War II, and are at long last beginning to question our definitions of humanity in the womb. The pendulum swings both ways; it swings slowly at times, but it swings. There may come a day when the pendulum breaks, where we cannot reverse the tide without the end of all things. Let us hope that today is not that day; the hopeless can never find the truth.