Truth -- God's "Twin Identity" and Man's Illusive Belief

 

Truth—is as old as God—
His Twin identity
And will endure as long as He
A Co-Eternity—

And perish on the Day
Himself is borne away
From Mansion of the Universe
A lifeless Deity.

– Emily Dickinson (1830–1886 )

Emily Dickinson was one of the most important figures in American poetry. She believed absolute truth exists, and in the verse above, she calls truth “God's twin identity.”

The Bible teaches that theological truth is consistent with the “mind, will, character, glory, and being of God.” To the point: truth is the self-expression of God.

T.F. Torrance, described as “the most significant theologian of the late-twentieth century,” maintained …

“It is the steadfastness of God which is the ground of all truth. Primarily, truth is God’s being true to Himself, His faithfulness or consistency.”

(T. F. Torrance. “One Aspect of the Biblical Conception of Faith.” 1957.)

Yet truth is also ontological. It is a part of “being” and metaphysics. It deals with the relationship between mind and matter. The correspondence theory of truth is at its core an ontological thesis: a belief is true if there exists an appropriate entity – a fact – to which it corresponds. If there is no such entity, the belief is false.

Reality is what it is because God declared it so and made it so. Therefore God is the author, source, determiner, governor, arbiter, ultimate standard, and final judge of all truth. Truthmaker theory is the branch of metaphysics that explores the relationships between what is true and what exists.

And, how humans struggle with “what makes truth.” A truthmaker gap is a truth that lacks a truthmaker. Truthmaker maximalists hold that there are no truthmaker gaps: every truth has a truthmaker. Truthmaker non-maximalists, on the other hand, allow that some truths lack a truthmaker.

Deep truthmaker gaps are truths that don't depend on being – “what in reality exists” or “the material or immaterial existence of a thing.” They therefore pose a challenge to any type of truthmaker theory. In terms of possible worlds, a deep truthmaker gap is a proposition that is true in one possible world and false in another where there is no difference between these two worlds beside the truth value of this proposition. Critics of truthmaker theory have tried to find deep truthmaker gaps in order to refute truthmaker theory in general.

What Is the Truth In the World Today?

How simple the struggle for truth would be if people accepted the quality as constant and unchangeable – veracity in complete agreement with God. Yet, in reality, truth is ever changing and progressive, never static or absolute. In fact, what we consider to be truth today may be proved a lie tomorrow. Speculation, conjecture, white lies even?

“'Tomorrow is going to be a beautiful day,' you say to your child, who is afraid the planned family picnic will be rained out. But you believe the rain that has been falling all week will continue tomorrow. You are lying in order to put off your child’s disappointment for one more day.

“But the next day turns out to be beautiful after all. So you told the truth. And yet you lied.”

(Joel Marks. “The Truth about Lying.” Philosophy Now. 2000.)

In the spiritual realm, certain absolutes (truths) exist; however, this does not mean they do not need to be expanded and understood more deeply. Even these dependable and permanent hooks on which to hang our faith are subject to change because we have not reached our limits of understanding these timeless truths. The spirit abides in truth yet lives to better understand and apply that living, breathing comprehension.

We must deal with truths in our daily temporal existence. Now, perhaps more than ever, we face those with human understandings of truth – worldly, ontological views – that are very shallow. Our beliefs are constantly under attack from those who view us with hate and think we are enemies who must be silenced or even eliminated.

With neither proof or reason, certain political factions have assaulted reliable truthmakers. This denial of competent sources has spawned deep gaps and has resulted in large numbers of people believing in wild conspiracies and baseless untruths. These deep gap contenders do not seek truth on a spiritual level, rather they find a bit of honesty that fits their assumptions and use it to discredit others, to dismiss truths, and to sow seeds of anarchy.

The truth is under attack by those who delight in its destruction. They are weaponizing their shallow beliefs to attack sacred understandings of honesty and justice as they fight their senseless battles of fragility and privilege. They are willing to kill to advance their illegitimate causes.

These lying insurrectionists attack our Capitol and threaten our democracy. The thugs are alt-right Trumpers, QAnon and conspiracy theorists, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, Boogaloo Boys … and even plain old Republicans who have swallowed the white nationalist agenda and swear allegiance to a lost cause of a rigged election.

Under their flags of defiance and wearing their yellow Fred Perry polo shirts, MAGA hats, military armor, and jingoistic attire, they call for us to accept their truths, their anger, their traitorous actions. They say things like …

“All the heroes of BLM and Antifa are degenerate criminal lowlifes or pedophile rapists.”

“I cannot recommend violence enough. It’s a really effective way to solve problems.”

“Maybe the reason I’m sexist is because women are dumb.”

“Palestinians are stupid. Muslims are stupid. And the only thing they really respect is violence and being tough.”

“This is what we train for boys and girls! Be ready! Okay folks… Lock and Load!!! Upon the declaration of martial law, its fists full of bullets, a chest full of Teflon, straight up, don’t allow isolation!!!%” (Response to Covid-19 policies)

“Why aren’t we rounding up ALL media personal[sic] and oath-breaking politician[sic] and hanging them!!?? This is all legal under our Constitution! Let’s hang the goddamn traitors, let’s end this now. We need to get the word out and start assembling before our comms are cut.”

We should consider that there is no guarantee that what maximizes the well-being of the maximum number of people will also be consistent with truth-seeking. The question is “Do we recognize that pursuit of the truth is a means to honor a God who commands us to seek it and to love him with all our minds?” Trials and tribulations … even redefining our own personal truths are part of our existence. Recognizing God's unfailing love and eternal forgiveness surely leads us to essential obligations.

The pursuit of the truth may not lead to a reality that is personally and politically favorable to all, but the intrinsic value of the truth remains forever faithful to humans as promised by the deity in the “Mansion of the Universe.” That is, as long as a “Co-Eternity” does not perish.

As many leaders have said, “We are in a dark time.” May truth shine upon our troubled nation and reveal to all the ugly nature of those who are practicing evil and dangerous deception.