Truth lies in the heart and mind of the beholder

Why do so many of us (myself included) feel it necessary to persuade others that their beliefs are based on lies? Why is it so necessary to point out the truth to them? What makes one person's truth more accurate than another?

It is my feeling, that everyone has their own truth, and that truth may not be the same as someone else's. It doesn't really matter. If you believe it, then the belief you have is your own truth. After all in absolutelness, I suspect that nothing exists that can be proven to be true, beyond debate.

Whether you believe in God, religion, science, the paranormal, aliens, UFO's, satan, materialistic things, or a combination of all or none of these, there should be no need to justify why you believe in them. They are your truths and if that's what you need to enrich your lives, then I say, so be it. Continue on with your beliefs (or lack thereof, whatever the case may be) and be true to yourself.

No-one can tell you what you should or shouldn't believe. This is one thing that only you can decide, and whatever you decide, it is the truth, your truth.

You mean the old saying about truth is nothing more than a carefully selected subset of facts filtered through your own values and prejudices?

Fortunately, most thinking, mature people reject that selfish philosophy.

Whether you believe in God, religion, science, the paranormal, aliens, UFO's, satan, materialistic things, or a combination of all or none of these, there should be no need to justify why you believe in them. They are your truths and if that's what you need to enrich your lives, then I say, so be it. Continue on with your beliefs (or lack thereof, whatever the case may be) and be true to yourself.

Very adroit, but I never cease to be amazed that if you had/ have a life that I cannot COMPREHEND, I karmically have a mark on my record if I slam/flame you.
Love is all there can be to combat all the bashing that goes on on a truth-seeker site such as this.
Not all babies walk at 8 months, nor do humans comprehend at the same level.Seems to raise their "reptile brain" to the forefront.
Only where there is discernment and compassion can the learning begin.
Good posting.

Originally posted by mytym
Why do so many of us (myself included) feel it necessary to persuade others that their beliefs are based on lies?

Because when people act on lies, they endager themselves and others. Truth is simply objective reality - that which corresponds to reality as it really is, not as you want to pretend it is.

It is my feeling, that everyone has their own truth, and that truth may not be the same as someone else's.

Your feeling is false because there does not need to be proof for something to be true. I agree that there is no absolute proof, but some things are still true, others are not. God either exists or he doesn't. Earth is either flat or round. You either have 2 hands or you don't. Anyone is free to believe what they want, but just because you believe something, does not make it objectively true. We may never be certain of anything, but that does not mean we should just accept everything as equally probable, especially if there is evidence to suggest that one thing is more likely to be closer to the truth than another. Ignoring this evidence means you're not interested in the truth at all, you just want to pretend reality is what you say it is, even if your conception of it is entirely incorrect.

I have nothing "against" anyone believing anything, the problem is, beliefs is what keeps humanity in a constant state of war, death, and under constant control. This does bug me, because I'm part of humanity, and so are others who do not hold any convictions, nor do they wish to be bound by the same fate as the rest of humanity that does choose to believe. So what to do? Well one option is to inform others about why their beliefs are causing the human condition to be what it is, and there is a chance that some of those others will realise this and stop believing. But it is not any specific beliefs, it is ALL beliefs that are equally responsible - it is the very concept of believing/assuming that is at the root of the predicament humanity finds itself in.

Continue on with your beliefs (or lack thereof, whatever the case may be) and be true to yourself.

Believing anything at all is NOT being true to yourself, it is in fact lying to yourself. A belief is a conviction that something is true when you truly do not know - in other words, you're lying to yourself, since you're telling yourself that something is true simply because you want to pretend that it is.

For example, lying to someone ELSE is telling him that something is true when you either know that it is false, or simply don't know any better. So apply this to yourself, and when you tell yourself that something is true that you know is actually false, or simply do NOT know either way, then you're lying to yourself, aka, not being true to yourself.

[edit on 4-3-2006 by lilblam]

great topic

truth is percieved from one indiviual to the next, all having differing views as to what is. night to day the science of the situation remains as such. truths are a facet of the humans minds ability to recognize complex streams of information brought about by brain function reaction of awareness to the universe. mortality exhuding bound by our terrestrial realm we have not an ounce of insight beyond our limited brain capacity, and are therefore unable to comphrehend the greater understandings of the universe, the one thing that ties it all together, the ultimate truth, god. what we are unable to percieve is what we are unable to deem as truth or not, with that comes the boundry to truth, all things underneath are what we humans regard as truth.

Actually, saying that while nothing can be absolutely proven to be true we should still refrain from applying equal probabilities to all possibilities is a contradiction in terms.

If everything is equally improbable, then everything must also be equally probable. If nothing can be proven, then nothing - including the notion of a superseding absolute truth - can be disproved either. No amount of evidence to the contrary can add or detract from the probability of anything, as the evidence too would be subject to those rules. It's an endless loop.

A. Nothing can be proved. B. But there is an absolute truth whether we can prove it or not. C. But that cannot be proved because A. Nothing can be proved.

Not even the concept of self-awareness can be unequivocally proven because there is always the possibility that what we call self-awareness is a simulation designed to "feel" or "seem" self-aware. We might not even be making the decisions to type what we're typing, or to think what we're thinking. Our programming might simply tell us to believe we are.

The only thing we can be certain of is that something in some form exists somewhere. Gotta love existentialism.

Whether that's the case or not, and whether I'm right or wrong, I choose (or have been made to think I'm choosing) to believe I'm a sentient being, and I concur with the OP. Greater respect for one another's views is essential. After all, we might all be equally deluded for all we know...

I agree. It seems that possibly the only objective truth is as Socrates(?) said, I think therefore I am. Everything else all seems to adhere to some form of subjective objectivity.

It also seems to me that truth is something that cannot be taught or learned externally, it most instances anyway, but something that must be experienced to be truly understood. Regardless of it's diversity from one to the next, in my opinion this is a universal attribute.

I suppose I should seperate truth into two categories. Subjective truth and objective truth. Objective truth is what I believe most people are referring to when they use the term truth. This is something that does not vary from one individual to the next. It is fact if you like. However seeing as how there is little, if anything that can be said to be objectively true, using the term in this sense may be a little misleading. If this is taken away, all that is left is subjective truth. Subjective truth is what each individual believes to be true. It is a belief, and even subjected to a lie detector test a subjective truth would be unable to be distinguished. To borrow a quote from Seinfeld, "It's not a lie if you believe it."

So If a deliberate lie is told to someone and they believe it; it somehow morphs into a subjective truth. This currently seems to be the case. Especially in a political/religious context.

No, of course not. The person telling the deliberate lie would have to believe it themselves for it to be a subjective truth to them. Obviously if this was the case the lie wouldn't be deliberate, because the person telling it would believe they were telling the truth.