The Problem with Truth

Jesus: Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.
Pilate: What is truth?

(John 18:37-38)

I love this exchange because it shows two very different understandings of the word truth.

For Jesus, truth is about your essence. This has nothing to do with what you believe. it is about what you are at your core. It is either/or: you are either of the truth or you are not.

For Pilate, truth is a provable proposition. It is about what you believe at this particular moment based on observable facts and agreed upon logical propositions, such as if A is true and if A implies B is true, then B is also true. Is this truth or faith? I think it is faith because it is based on the proposition that truth is provable, and the proposition that truth is provable is itself unprovable. When Pilate asks, What is truth?, he is showing that even he, who understands truth as something provable, recognizes the flaws in his understanding.

So we have two very different understandings of truth. Pilate uses the word truth to mean that which can be proven. Jesus uses the word truth to point to God.

But Jesus is not pointing to a thing called God. Jesus is pointing to an experience called God. When Jesus talks about a person “of the truth” he means a person who has experienced God, and particularly, experienced God as love. Not a person who believes God is love and certainly not a person who has proven that God is love, but a person who has experienced God as love.

Experiences can never be proven. They can only be experienced. You either experience them or you don’t. As soon as we try to prove them, we lose them. We can describe experiences, but only indirectly using poetry, metaphors, analogies, songs, and art. Any attempt to describe them directly will necessarily miss the mark.

Many deride what they call blind faith because it is not subject to verifiability, consensus, or revision. In a word, it is not truth, at least, as Pilate understands it. Blind faith certainly causes many problems in our world. But Pilate’s truth isn’t much better, even though his truth is subject to verifiability, expert consensus opinion, and revision.

Once upon a time, Roundup (tm) was considered a miracle agricultural product. This was then verified and agreed to by many experts. Now many consider it a poison. This is now verified and agreed to by many experts. Was it truth that Roundup was a miracle? Or is it truth that Roundup is a poison? Both were true, at a given point in time, and yet the reliance on this truth has most likely contributed to a poisoning of the earth.

Rather than ask if those advocating for Roundup were telling the truth or not, a more useful question would have been were they people of the truth or people of greed. People of the truth can be trusted, even when their truth is false. People of greed cannot be trusted, even when their falseness is true. Because people of the truth are always questioning themselves, asking Am I really acting of the truth, whereas people of greed are only asking themselves, is what I am doing going to bring me the most profit, or power, or ...

So for me, the important question is not whether somebody is telling the truth. Like Pilate, I don’t know what truth is. The important question is, is that person a person of the truth. Like Jesus, this is something I can recognize.

Andrew Gide said, “Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it."

Good advice. Fortunately, I am seeking the truth but haven’t found it. So you can trust me. That is the truth.

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Spiritual questions:

• What was truth for you that is no longer truth?
• What truths do you believe today that may change?
• Some believe that only paradoxes can be true. Is this true?
• What is truth?

This is one of the Parables for the Spiritual but not Religious Series.

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June 6, 2019 - This was written in Guanajuato, Mexico. Thanks to Keith Fail, who started this discussion on Facebook.

The photograph of the train is by Revise_D and made available through Flickr and Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.

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