The Search For Truth

 

“Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” – John 18:38.

    Every time I come across the biblical passage in John 18:38, I have some feelings of regret. I would play the scenario in my mind: what if, Pilate lingered a little more to hear what would be Jesus’ answer to his philosophical question? Of course, the Bible is replete with Jesus’ expositions of what truth is. And yet, I am still interested on what Jesus would have said on this occasion. But Pilate, being a typical politician was not really interested in finding the truth. He was more concerned with pleasing the mob to improve his approval rating. 

     So, what is truth? That’s the first question that came to mind once I decided to write a book about truth. The dictionary defines truth as “the state or quality of being true.” Not a very satisfying definition. So I researched some more and unknowingly entered into an unfamiliar territory, an area of knowledge called philosophy and epistemology where I encountered many exotic terminologies so foreign to me. Anyways, my brief incursions and wanderings paid off by giving me a deeper understanding about truth.

     Accordingly, there are quite a number of views or theories of truth. But since I am not writing a treatise on philosophy, but just a simple book for the average man on the street, I would limit our discussion to only two views of truth: (1) Correspondence View, and (2) Coherence View.

     Correspondence View states that a proposition must correspond with a fact or event in order to be acknowledged as truth. If I say, “two plus two equals four!” nobody will disagree with me because I can always produce two bananas and another two bananas to make it four bananas! Mathematical truths are good illustrations of this view. Another area which is a good example of this view is history. When I say that “The World Trade Center in New York was destroyed on September 11, 2001 by smashing commercial jetliners on its towers”  I am stating a historical fact, never mind the conspiracy theorists’ claim that it was perpetrated by the deep state.

     Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. But did it really happen? Quite lately, a certain group of people circulated a story about how we never landed on the Moon. The questioning intensified after the Fox television network aired ''Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?'' Those who doubt the Apollo moon landings maintained the United States lacked the technology to send humans to the Moon and was so desperate to appear to win the space race against the Soviet Union that it faked the moon mission on movie sets. They suggested that the shooting was done at a desert in Nevada.

     The doubters said the fake was done so poorly that there is ample evidence of fraud, including a picture of astronauts planting the American flag that allegedly shows the flag rippling in the wind. The skeptics contended there can be no breeze on the moon, so the picture must have been faked.

     Now, this may sound a trivial issue to some but come to think of it. Did man really land on the moon on July 20, 1969? If you believe so, what is the basis of your belief? Did you ever make a critical, unbiased study on whether this event really happened? Personally, I believe that it happened because I saw it on TV and heard it over the radio. But is it enough evidence? Can you believe everything you see on TV and hear on radio? Fortunately, I can enumerate some more proofs to back up my claim of its truthfulness:

1.     The astronauts who landed on the moon have returned and can testify that they were there and they are still with us.

2.     Both the NASA and the Soviet Space Agency staffed by hundreds of scientists and engineers have monitored the entire process of the moon landing and they have records of that activity in their archives.

3.     The astronauts have brought with them moon rocks and those rocks were studied and scrutinized by hundreds of scientists throughout the world.

4.     The moon landing was not a single event. It was repeated several times. Apollo 11 was followed by Apollo 12, 14, 15 and 16 and all have been successful. Twelve people in all.

     But what amazed me was the fact that, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of the truthfulness about the moon landing, there are still a group of people who sincerely believe it did not take place.

     It happened in LA a few years ago. One of those unbelievers by the name Bart Sibrel confronted astronaut Buzz Aldrin at a Beverly Hills hotel and demanded that Aldrin swear on a Bible that he had in fact walked on the moon. Aldrin, the second man ever to touch the lunar surface, who was already in his 70s by this time, punched the 37-year-old Sibrel in the face. Sibrel asked that assault charges be filed, but Los Angeles County prosecutors declined. A videotape of the incident showed Sibrel following Aldrin on the street with a Bible and calling him a ''thief, liar and coward,'' one prosecutor said.

     The second view, the Coherence View states that a belief or a proposition is true if it “coheres” or is consistent with the other things a person believes to be true. ^[1] Let me illustrate. Last year, there was a picture of a father from the Philippines which made rounds in Facebook. The picture showed him holding a placard which said “My daughters (2 doctors, 2 nurses) are working in America,” followed by the pictures and names of his daughters. At the bottom, he scribbled: “I’m an old man now. Send me food. I worked hard in Saudi [Arabia] to send you to school.”

     That picture generated so much sympathy for the father and ignited hatred and contempt towards the four “ungrateful” daughters among Facebook users. I, too, was incensed when I first saw it. But then, I came to my better senses and said to myself: Wait a minute, something is not right here. There must be a very grave reason why all the four daughters abandoned their father. Such despicable act runs counter against the fabric of the hollowed culture and tradition among Filipinos. It is simply not believable! So I withheld my judgment on the issue.

     The following day, one of the daughters spoke up also in Facebook. This was her version of the story: Their father abandoned them when they were still small and went away with a younger woman. It was their god-fearing mother who raised them alone and worked hard to put all of them to school. When they finished college and already working as medical professionals, their father, who was already old, contacted them asking for financial support so they took turns giving him financial allowance on a regular basis. But the father complained that the amount they were giving is not enough and he wanted his daughters to also provide financial support to his still small children with the other woman because he is no longer capable of working. Moreover, he threatened them that if they will not support his other children, he would embarrass them in Facebook.

     Now, who is telling the truth: the father or the daughter? Weighing the claims of both sides, I can immediately say that the daughter is telling the truth because her explanation is more coherent. Later on, the daughter’s claim was re-enforced by the concurrence and public testimonies from friends and relatives who know the family well.

     Today, pebbles of truth, mixed with clumps of lies, half-truths and falsehood are scattered all around---including the social media. It is our moral obligation to gather the pebbles to build our own structure of reality.