Is Truth Absolute?
Or Perspective? Can it be both?
I was about 6 years old, no more than 8, the first time I attempted to ponder “What if I had never been born?” Yeah, kinda bizarre, even weird, for one so young, right? I think it was my way of questioning the infinite, almighty, no-beginning, no-end God I was taught about as a child in the Evangelical Christian home I was raised in. Yes, it presented some challenges to try to imagine not existing. Especially the emptying out of all thought and all… well… imagining. But it naturally led to other questions like “Why was I born at the particular time or in the era I was born?” And “Why into this specific family?” “Is there significance in that?” “Is there really this Almighty God who is calling the shots and, if so, why and for what purpose?” Or “Is it really completely random?”
Turns out, I have grown to be incredibly grateful for this early oddity in me and for the foundation of ‘limitlessness’ that seems to have been instilled. It has ended up being a guiding and corrective force. All throughout my life every time I have moved toward some form of absolutism (yes, always religious in substance and tone), this thing would rise from within reminding me I really don’t know ‘jack’ in the grand scheme of things. There is always another, even bigger perspective that I just haven’t seen or experienced… yet. I can never exhaust or reach the end of infinite or The Infinite if one prefers to think of it as God.
I really should have become a Cosmologist, you know, spending my days pondering the vastness of the Universe. Arguing, discussing, and writing as to whether it is infinite or finite. (No doubt I grossly misunderstand what Cosmologists do, but that is the beauty of “should haves.” They are tailor made for wistful misunderstandings.
There is the ‘observable’ Universe and then the question “Is there an edge to it?” What, if anything, is out there beyond the observable? What is fascinating is that no one knows all there is to know, even about the observable. No human being(s) will ever have seen, understood, and perceived it all to the point of saying “Yep, I got this. I am certain about it.” Heck, we don’t even know all there is to know about our own little blue ball we call Earth, which is seriously itty bitty from the perspective of the Universe! There is still a sizable amount of mystery even about our own human bodies and those of the plants and creatures we observe every day.
If someone could know all, as in have the entire, complete, and comprehensive perspective — even just in terms of the known physical Universe, would that person be God? I mean, there will never be a person from our human species who will have that perspective, right? And this without even including the possibility of the spiritual or unseen elements of life, if there are any.
When you think about it, even with a cursory glance, it’s a bit ridiculous to be absolute or dogmatic about anything we currently know or believe. This does not mean we can’t be confident in what we do know. It simply means perspective SHOULD change as we discover wider and more expansive vistas from which to view life. This is the human thing to do and be. Our perspectives are or should be ever dynamic and expanding. As humans, our perceptions of ‘truth’ or ‘truths’ are or should be provisional, transitional, and evolutionary as our understanding grows.
“Just the facts, ma’am.,” supposedly said by T.V. cop Joe Friday. Apparently, even “the facts” are challenging things these days. In fact (hehe), even eye-witness testimony now is considered iffy due to differing perspectives of the same events.
So, what is Truth?
Is it a requirement that Truth be absolute as a basis for understanding or comprehension? Or is it enough to say “Truth, as we currently understand it”? Mathematics and some Sciences require absolutes to perform calculations, or theorize, or hypothesize.
And then there is religion and/or belief about God or Gods. This appears to be a different beast altogether. Admittedly my experience is with Evangelical Christianity. That’s what I grew up in and tried to ‘negotiate with’ for much of my life. So, my ponderings clearly come from out of that reference.
Can belief in an Almighty God, a Creator of all things, even exist or hold together without God being absolute. No, I don’t think so. But of necessity as a created being, to believe in an Almighty, Immutable, yet Limitless, Ever-present God is to admit one’s own intrinsic lack, limited, partial perceptions and comprehensions. And that limited perspective will always be the case regardless of how much a person grows, learns, and expands their knowledge. Realization of that is a positive, I think.
The individual perspective I was taught as a kid about God was that it is a relationship. From the moment a person is “born again” that relationship begins or can begin. And it is a journey into the depths of this limitless person of God. One can say, “God is Love” and have some grasp of that in the abstract of absolute. But to experience that ‘Truth,’ and grow in comprehension of that aspect of relationship with God is an evolving, ever-dynamic journey that will never reach an “edge” because God is limitless. Personal human capacity will never match or be able to contain the absolute, whether in religious or spiritual context or the physical universe.
Ok, so here again is the point.
With the mind-blowing beautiful and awe-inspiring vastness of both the known and unknown, what sense does it make to create absolutes based on the severely limited views and perspectives we humans have? And then be dogmatic about them? Put another way, once a human or group of humans drives a stake in the ground declaring an absolute ‘Truth’ they believe in, haven’t they also declared an end to their growth, learnability, and expanded knowledge of that same claimed ‘Truth’? In effect, haven’t they closed a door to and limited their comprehension and perception of ‘Truth’? I suppose if one believes they’ve solved and comprehended an absolute there is no need for further exploration. Seems a bit risky to me not to mention a tad arrogant.
My dad used to say something like this, “Knowledge & experience never stagnates for long. You’re either growing and moving forward or you’re regressing, moving backward.” It makes sense to me too. The peril of a human stance on a dogma or belief in an absolute is that everyday life will constantly challenge it. Then, to defend that belief or ‘absolute’ it will inevitably become narrower as the challenges pick away at it. Where do you go from an absolute? It cannot expand. It can only collapse. It’s like walls closing in. It’s like a stagnant pond with no source of fresh, flowing water into and out of it that gets scummy, mosquito infested and slowly dries up. Even if it rains periodically, that rain is falling on an increasingly squalid pond. There is no ‘new life’ flowing in or out.
To declare a book or canonization of writings penned by long-dead humans, with their own intrinsic limitations of human language, understanding and perspective, as ‘Absolute Truth’ or the perfect and finished expression of ‘The Word of God’ is to declare and put an end to the journey. How tragic is that? Isn’t the beauty and value of these writings and stories that they give us glimpses into the perspectives and perceptions of all these other human beings who were digging, searching, questioning, and trying to expand their understanding of life, God, themselves, and their known world? Where would we be without those who came before us who dared to question, probe, and prod both the known and unknown? Why do their beliefs and perspectives need to be literal, divine ‘Truth’ to a point of stopping us in the tracks of our own journey, both individually and collectively? Wouldn’t even an Almighty God who has the imagination, creativity, and power to put in place this increasingly amazing and awesome Universe, known, unknown, physical, and spiritual enjoy seeing and cheering us on in this journey? Human absolutism as a dogmatic, immovable, divine belief simply does not make sense to me.
It seems and feels… well… to use a religious word… blasphemous.
Oh, and by-the-by, how goofy is it to believe some wealthy, racist and elitist white guys could pen a nation-forming Constitution so perfectly and divinely inspired as to insist it be interpreted literally — as in the buck stops in 1791. Talk about limited perspective, stopping in your tracks and regressing! Geesh.
Being 4th of July weekend 2022 in America and given what six SCOTUS justices have done just in these last couple of weeks, they earn a loud, hearty, middle-fingered, and well-deserved “That’s some serious ‘Holy’ Shit right there! You are the poster children for ignorant, regressive humans”
You might find it interesting to re-read substituting ‘Truth’ with ‘Reality’.
Gary Conner (aka Cal Condor)
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