I was raised in an ultra-conservative Christian environment and was taught from my earliest memories the tenets of the Christian faith as truth. At the same time, as I progressed through my school years I was taught the history of America as truth. Security was to be had in both of these belief systems and I repeatedly met people in my early twenties who disbelieved one or both of my fundamental yardsticks of truth, only to leave me shaking my head and wondering why they were so confused.
Time has changed my willingness to accept truth at face value.
While the foundation of my beliefs has progressively been compromised in adult years by the termites of reason, the subjectivity of truth began to consume my thinking during the presidential election of 2004. It was during this time that I was told that to be a Christian meant that you were a Republican, and that to be pro-life you had to be pro-death penalty. Things that seemed to be obvious lies were coming from the current administration, and yet millions of my fellow citizens accepted them at face value. In a study conducted just before the election by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), there was a clear dichotomy between the realities and perceptions of truth by Bush supporters and the supporters of John Kerry. Bush supporters consistently held false beliefs about the state of the world and what was going on it. They took these beliefs into the voting booths with them and—in spite of an ill-planned, unnecessary and costly war, climbing gas prices, a plunging economy and overall national pessimism—ushered Mr. Bush into the White House for a second term.
This has unhinged me. Since the election I have become more and more skeptical, testing everything for evidence to back up its assertion, and have come to the conclusion that true statements are possible, but not in areas that matter. Is there a God? While I'd like to think so, I’m not certain, and neither is anyone else. Will our spouses remain faithful and our children loyal throughout the years? As much as we'd like to believe that, it's impossible to ascertain. Are all people inherently good? Most are, but some aren't. Are they inherently bad? Some are, but most aren't. I have carefully turned every stone of belief in the past six months, and found not one that could stand up to scrutiny and be established as truth without doubt. Oh, sure, the sky is blue, although this has been challenged as well. But, as I said before, in matters that matter, nothing is without doubt.
My skepticism isn't new. Early in Western Philosophy, a Greek Philosopher named Pyrrho of Elis accompanied Alexander the Great as he moved east toward India. A disciple of Hellenistic philosophy, Pyrhho suddenly found himself exposed to other contradicting philosophical belief systems and quickly found that his own could not withstand attack. He became overwhelmed by his inability to determine rationally which school of thought was correct and only found peace when he was able to admit to himself that it was impossible to know the truth.
It could be argued (and has) that truth is to be found in science. D.N.A. tests, to cite one example, are offered as infallible proof of parentage. But, as Thomas Kuhn points out in his 1970 book The Structure of Science, science operates within its own prevailing paradigm that determines how the questions of truth will be asked and answered. While in college, Kuhn asserts, students learn this paradigm and learn to disregard anything that doesn't fit easily into it. This keeps even the absolutes of science subjective within a controlled set of parameters.
In the end, truth is subjective and relative. Almost any statement that seems undeniably true can be quickly dismissed based on the experiences of the persons involved. While the loss of certainty leaves me with yet another door in my life closed, it has also opened another into a room of healthy skepticism, where the things I can be most sure of are things that have been tested, re-tested and found close enough to my idea of truth to become a part of who I am.
Maybe this is all that we should expect of this world. Maybe it’s enough.
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