Quick Poll for Yahoo Answers Religion and Spirituality Category Regulars?

Question

Define in your own words the following,


Truth

Answer 1

Truth is the willingness to be honest and to say what one knows to be true and right. It is often better to not say anything at all if one cannot be honest. But likewise, when one does say something, it is best to be truthful and speak what one sees, not what others would like to hear.

Answer 2

I'm not sure a definition will do much good.

The word truth signifies something that's in a very real sense out of reach. Newton had a theory that the earth revolves around the sun, and how that could be calculated. He was right, to an extent, but improvement on the theory was still possible.

Truth and falsehood are ideals, that are never quite reached. When people defend 'evolution' here - what are they defending? Mostly their own (very imperfect) ideas of what scientists mean when they use the world. In the mean time scientists, while in general agreement that evolution does happen, are still fighting over the fine points.

We can only fight about the images of life we have in our heads. Those images can become more and more refined, as we learn from each other and as theories get tested. Still, there is always a difference between the reality and that which we think about. How does our thought about evolution relate to the bird singing outside my window? The inherent truth of that bird singing is beyond words.

Answer 3

Truth comes in a number of forms:

- There is mathematical truth. 1+1 is always 2, and so forth.

- There is consensus; which is just what a group of people all agree upon. Obviously, this does not verify the existence or morality of anything.

- There is logical truth/fallacy. See the link below.

- And, of course, there is spiritual "truth" as in faith; the evidence of things not seen.

Answer 4

Truth is not a set of facts; truth is faithfulness. Read "Ethics" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: a school boy has a dad who is a drunk and the boy is often late for school because of his father's alcoholism. The boy comes in late to class and the teacher calls him out saying something like "why are you late? Was your father drunk again?" What is the true response? If the boy responds factually he says "yes" and betrays his father, in violation of the commandment to honor thy father and mother. If the boy responds in order to be faithful to his father, he says "no" and makes up an excuse so as to protect his father, in supposed violation of the commandment that says thou shall not lie. We in the West are too bent on facts. Faithfullness and honest representation are what are most important.
Bonhoeffer also offers this scenario in the same book: you are a Christian hiding Jews in your basement in Nazi Germany. Gestapo knock on your door and ask if you have seen any Jews today and you have because you were just downstairs. What do you say? Do you answer factually and "trust God" as I have heard some people say? or do you "lie" for all you're worth to protect their lives and your own? Common sense should be employed here, for the notion to tell the "truth" and trust God is Pollyanna at its worst.

Jesus teaches us to follow the Spirit of the law, not the letter. However, religion is afraid of this because it is uncomfortable with people thinking for themselves. Following the Spirit requires maturity because immaturity will rationalize away our committments in various situations and justify doing things we shouldn't do. This is what many religious people try to avoid in teaching others to follow the letter of the law. Unfortunately, this contradicts the teaching of Christ.

Answer 5

Absolute Truth exist when you find the way to Transcend your Life, so you may arrive to plenitude of being and existing, where there is not matter, not time, not space, but plenitude. The sentence: "The Lord bless the one whom with sincere hearth looks for Truth" is in all religions with different words.

Answer 6

Truth is in the eye of the beholder.
ie, T or F, was his adultry a justified action because his wife was ____?
T or F Is God real?
T or F Was jesus God in the flesh?
Idealy one would assume that truth is something that is proven 100%. But truth is not a hypothesis with experiments. Truth is is in each person's own mind.

Answer 7

The truth is for what Aristotle searched. I can't understand why you would think it would make finding the truth any easier by asking us to define it. It might be worth it to find out what your definition of truth is so that we can know that you aren't biased in crediting answering.

Answer 8

These days... "truthiness" has become quite acceptable. Truth can certainly be both subjective and objective...

For me, truth is something with evidence, perception by others (replicable), and deeply imbedded in fact.

Much of what gets presented as truth, these days, is really just opinion.

Answer 9

I am not sure words can present the entire picture of truth; most of it is easy to define presently.

Answer 10

Truth - 1) that which is not a lie. 2) that which one believes to be right for them. Ex- my truth is that there is that no matter what we believe or don't believe we all go Home.