What Is The Truth

The question of what the truth is cuts across numerous disciplines and aspects of our lives. From science and philosophy, down to religion and individual experience, truth has always been debated.

The debate is good.

The problem is that most people do not understand what truth is. So they end up fighting about the wrong things, while holding tightly onto lies.

This piece will attempt to clarify what the truth is.

“Truth is a living thing, not a dead thing.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti

What Is Truth?

Truth is the accurate description of reality.

However, the truth can only ever be approached, never fully reached—because the nature of reality itself is infinite.

For example, it is true that ice is hard.
It is truer that ice is water with tightly bound molecules.
It is even truer that ice is a structure of hydrogen and oxygen atoms constrained by chemical bonds.

You can go deeper still—into subatomic particles—until you realize that matter is mostly empty space and energy fields whose fundamental nature we do not yet fully understand.

At that point, you begin to see that we don’t really possess the truth—at best, we approximate it.

This same conundrum appears when we try to explain life and consciousness. Yes, we have blood, oxygen, neurons, and brains. But these alone do not fully explain why we are alive or conscious. Dig deeper, and you find more questions than answers.

Still, this does not mean we should stop chasing the truth.

Because the closer we get to reality, the better our lives become.

By understanding that ice is simply water, you can safely place it on leftover rice before reheating it in a microwave—knowing that water molecules are not poisonous or explosive. By understanding that consciousness is tethered to the brain, blood, and oxygen, we can treat illness and improve the quality of life (think Neuralink and similar technologies).

Truth is a light in the vast and complex reality we inhabit.
And the brighter that light burns, the better we can see—and live.

Implication: Truth is not an ornament or a belief to defend. Truth is how reality teaches us to stop hurting ourselves. The closer your understanding is to reality, the fewer unnecessary mistakes you make—and the less suffering you create for yourself and others.

Types Of Truth

Although there are different ways of categorising truth, I prefer breaking it down into;

• Subjective truth 
• Normative truth
• Objective truth, and
• Complex truth.

Subjective Truth:

This is how an individual experiences and interprets the world. E.g., “The sun is too hot and is damaging my skin”. The limitation of this truth is often the individual’s experiences, biases, thinking faculty, and emotions, which keep it limited and incomplete.

“We see the world not as it is, but as we are.” – Anais Nin

Normative Truth: 

This is how a group perceives and interprets the world. E.g., “The sun rises and falls every day, enabling our crops to grow”. The limitation is usually the difficulty in questioning, improving, or abandoning a generally shared belief. Hence, incomplete, limiting, and often counterproductive ideas linger for too long.

“The truth is not always popular, but it is always right.”

Objective Truth: 

This is what the world appears to persistently be, no matter the view of the individual or group. E.g., “The sun is a ball of burning gas that gives off energy in the form of heat and light. And it doesn’t rise or fall, rather the earth spins on its axis”. The limitation of this truth is usually our current level of understanding and the tools available to us.

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

– John Adams

Complex Truth: 

This is the integration of subjective, normative, and objective truths. Example: The sun emits energy that supports life when our side of the Earth faces it. It helps crops grow and allows us to see. But prolonged exposure can cause harm. The limitation here is often poor communication or a lack of understanding between people operating from different lenses.

“The truth is like a lion, you don’t have to defend it, it can defend itself.”

– Saint Augustine

It is tempting to look at the 4 types of truth as different truths, but they are in fact the same truth viewed from different lenses. 

Any truth about the sun must be able to complement and improve the other truths about the sun. Notice how the individual, group, and objective truths about the sun all lead to a coherent complex truth that can be used in making informed decisions.

A belief that feels good but breaks under pressure is not “another perspective”—it is a liability. Truths integrate. Lies fragment. If an idea cannot coexist with other well-tested truths, something about it is wrong.

With the current dataclysm we are experiencing thanks to the internet, it is easy to bump into more and more versions of personal, group, or objective truths. And, it is easy to also find a lot of arguments. But, if you are a seeker of truth, this shouldn’t perturb you. In fact, you should be intentionally seeking, listening, and combining them to create a more accurate description and understanding of the world you find yourself in. 

Someone might have a subjective view of the sun as a god that brings life every morning. Now, even though – thanks to science – we know the sun is not “a conscious or living thing”, it is not necessarily a lie if someone labels it a god and decides to worship it as a powerful entity that makes life possible.

While weaving meaning is allowed, submission to false models is unhelpful. Also, metaphor can inspire, but obedience should only be given to ideas that survive contact with reality.

Hence, finding the truth becomes something to be done with care and respect. But if you are going to seek the truth, you must be able and willing to spot and reject lies. 

So, what are lies?

What Is a Lie

A Lie is simply an inaccurate description of reality (whether intentionally or unintentionally).

If I say the sun does not exist, that is a lie. If I say the sun appears orange, that may or may not be a lie—depending on where I am standing. From Earth, atmospheric distortion makes it appear orange. From space, it appears white.

This is interesting because most times people argue other people’s views of the truth without understanding their standpoint. This is why arguments about money, love, and God are so fierce and never settled (because, depending on where you are standing, it can look quite obvious what you should believe or not).

Also Read: Why I Don’t Believe In Prayer Anymore

So, it becomes important to make the distinction between lies and different points of view. 

This is why I said at the beginning of this content that the debate is good. Debates enable people to bring others to their point of view, and who knows, standing at one point of view may be better than standing at the other. 

A good example is how, rather than observing the universe from the Earth, astronauts undertake the stressful and expensive mission of putting a satellite in space (a few kilometres above the Earth’s atmosphere) to avoid the distortions. 

Truth can appear different depending on where you stand, and improve as you widen your perspective. Lies, however, break down as your shift and widen your perspective.

Types of Lies

To better understand lies, here are some lies reflecting the inversion of the level of necessary truth

Subjective: 

“Perception is reality”

• “I’m a loser” – This is a lie because you’ve successfully made it alive to this point, and have a lot of wins under your belt, but are not acknowledging them.
• “No one loves me” – This is most likely false because you are likely denying being aware of those who have shown you care and affection.
• “If I achieve X I will be finally happy” – This is a lie because you are ignoring the fact that you have said something similar in the past, but only ended up wanting another thing.

Also Read:21 Ways You Betray Yourself Daily

Normative:

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”

• “You have to work hard to be rich” – This is false because there are people who inherit wealth or earn a lot doing very little work.
• “Women are weak, dumb, and incompetent” – This is a lie because many women are actually strong, wise, and competent.
• “Smokers are criminals” – This is a lie because smoking is simply a bad habit, and many smokers are not criminals.

Objective: 

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

• “The world is flat” – This is a lie because even simple scientific experiments prove the Earth is spherical.
• “Vaccines are bad” – This is a lie because even though some people badly react to certain medications (including vaccines), vaccines are rigorously tested and scientifically proven to be effective and safe.
• “The earth is less than 10,000 years old” – This is a lie because several scientific techniques (including radiometric dating) prove the earth is much older.

Complex: 

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

• “Only stupid people believe in God ” – This is a lie because it doesn’t take into account other perspectives and factors that motivate people to believe in a God (who they may also interpret in different ways).
• “You have to choose between family or money” – This is a lie because it doesn’t take into account other perspectives such as flexible work arrangements and shared responsibilities.
• “I can’t be happy if I’m not rich” – This is a lie because it doesn’t take into account other perspectives, such as the role of sense of purpose, relationships, and health in happiness.

Sadly, lies thrive because most people keep them from scrutiny to protect their identity—labels like victim, realist, believer, rebel, introvert, unlucky. Letting go of the lie feels like losing themselves—until they realise the lie was the cage. It is what sustains the unhappiness, stagnation, and bitterness..

How To Find The Truth?

Finding the truth is important because it makes life easier, reduces fear, and ameliorates suffering. However, seeking the truth is not about trying to find a middle ground or tolerating other people’s views, but rather ruthlessly testing out opinions against reality, holding on to them as long as they serve, and abandoning them if they break.

Truth is antifragile. It builds on itself (and ruthlessly, automatically tears down lies). Whilst it is true bits of truth can exist independently, whenever they meet they MUST combine perfectly (it will all have to make sense). 

A clear demonstration of it is in how tech works. We know that the theories of gravity, chemistry, electricity and aerodynamics are true because when they combine, planes fly. If even one of those theories was a lie, planes won’t fly (pretty much how a bulb would remain off until a circuit is completed).

So, it’s not so much TOLERATING as LEARNING, TESTING, and BUILDING BETTER THINGS with the truths. This better thing could be your health, finances, relationships, happiness, and so on.

Recommended Post: How Confirmation Bias Can Impact Your Worldview

What Is The Best Approach In Finding The Truth?

Labelling truths with different names is one thing; we may have Kelvin, Celsius, and Fahrenheit for measuring temperature, but denying the truth (temperature) is a lie, and would only end in someone getting hurt badly. 

For science, it is often the case that an opinion is labelled a hypothesis or theory, and then brutally tested till it breaks or flies. However, not so many people are willing to pulverise their assumptions till it yields the truth. Rather, they label it the truth and guard it, suffer when reality tramples it underfoot, deny that the lie is the source of their misery, and take out their anger on anyone who highlights this to them.

When it comes to seeking the truth, the Poppers View and approach is what I will recommend, because it is antifragile, careful, alert, and humble in its pursuit of truth.

The Popperian view suggests that rather than trying to prove our assumptions correct, we should try to prove them wrong. And that we should only hold on to them for as long as they remain true.

For example, in the past, people thought the sun was a god that moved across the sky. As time went on, by mere observation, people started thinking the sun went around the earth. However, after a couple of scientific experiments and observations, this too was proven to be false. In the 16th century, Copernicus came up with the idea that it was rather the Earth and other planets that went around the Sun. Many people didn’t like the idea at first (because they thought we were the centre of the universe), but as more and more evidence was gathered, they couldn’t keep denying the truth. Today, scientists have accumulated sufficient truths to know that the sun is a big ball of burning gas that the Earth and other planets revolve around. And that is because the Earth spins about its axis, which creates the illusion of the sun moving across the sky. If today you can enjoy solar energy rather than praying to the sun god in the skies, it is thanks to humanity applying the Popperian approach to some extent.

Side Note: “The Beginning of Infinity, Part 2, greatly influenced my view on the search for truth.

Maybe the sun is a god in a subjective/metaphorical sense, but it won’t serve you very much by worshipping it.

So, it is the case that not all truths are equal. And not all perspectives are empowering or even helpful.

You can apply the Popperian view in all other aspects of your life. You can question why you are unhealthy, broke, unhappy, and so on.

The question is, do you want the truth, or do you want what you believe to be true?

If a belief cannot survive new data, new perspectives, and real-world consequences, then it does not deserve your loyalty.

Recommended Post: The Role of Critical Thinking in Seeking The Truth

Conclusion:

“The truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary to know the truth.”

– Agatha Christie

Most people either believe a lie—or have never seriously tested their beliefs against reality.

If this piece has brought you a little closer to the truth, read it again. Question it. Test it.

Truth is not a destination.
It is a process.

And it is alive. It grows. It adapts. It punishes rigidity. It rewards humility. A belief that cannot evolve will eventually collide with reality—and reality always wins.