Truth decay is much like tooth decay!
Tooth decay creates a cavity that can then be filled with an artificial, non-organic substance that is not the original tooth. Similarly, Truth Decay creates a cavity that can end up being filled with an artificial, non-organic substance that is not the genuine truth!
But what is true to one person can be false to another and if you take any subject, from politics to pandemics, sport to science you'll find different opinions on what is true.
This great clip demonstrates how we can easily forget uncomfortable information that goes against what we've already decided we want.
"We have a tendency to only gravitate towards truth that we like."
Anth explores what truth is and how the reality is not that truth evades us, but that we often evade truth.
One of the reasons we fail to find truth is that we're more concerned with being right than finding truth. In this song Danny explains how our desire to have the last word can create dogmas that hold us back in our quest for truth.
This brilliant video explains that truth is more than our perspective and that singular perspectives lead to conflict, not cohesion.
Jesus once said "When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth."
This suggests that at this point, Jesus' disciples hadn't been guided into all truth, even though he was present with them. What a great thought: that there is more truth ahead of us, yet to be discovered!
Jesus is also quoted as saying "I am the way, the truth and the life."
Following our recent conversations on the I AM that lives at the core of each of us, perhaps Jesus was trying to show us that I AM is the way, the truth and the way to find life.
What is true for us: our opinions, experiences and perspective are linear and one dimensional, but in our quest for truth we must remember that, just like our universe, truth is multi-dimensional.
The two major obstacles in our quest for truth are cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias. We engage one to minimise feelings of discomfort when faced with conflicting beliefs and the other, to make the information always confirm our existing belief.
This video explains why that can be a problem.
A leading cause of truth decay is the influence of the majority. Just because the majority believe something is true, doesn't mean that it is, in fact it can often mean the opposite!
Truth does not accommodate belief, belief has to accommodate truth.
Our beliefs mustn't form what we believe is truth, instead we must allow truth to shape our beliefs.
We tend to stop seeking for truth once we've got what we believe we need, but when we're looking for truth, what we don't know, is more important than what we know.
"There's more that we don't know than there is that we do know."
Jesus said "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free." There can be no freedom in the absence of truth. Instead of settling for replacements and fillings for our truth decay, we need old truth to be extracted and replaced with new growth!
"Are we suffering from Truth Decay? If so, may we be delivered from cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias, having eyes that see fully and ears that hear carefully and hearts that burst with understanding and may the outflow cause us to be life for those all around us. I pray you will not fear Truth and in so doing create a barrier to her, while not realising your own fear of truth, and that the naked truth, wherever she comes from, does not have to hide in the well of your being."
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