Truth is a fact or belief which is in accordance with reality. Or at least, that’s the definition of it. When understanding what truth actually is, we have to consider two perspectives; the individual truth (the belief) and the universal truth (the fact).
Let’s start with individual truths. These are the truths that are subjective. They are derived from our past experiences, biases and pre-conditioning. Universal truths however, are truths that are completely objective. There is no bias, opinion, feeling or any room for alteration from human perception.
Does this mean that individual truths are non-existent? Are they just opinionated beliefs that have been conditioned deeply into the brain such that they appear as reality?
Let’s consider perceptions. Are perceptions reality? In our own eyes, it can certainly appear that way. From a third party perspective, it wouldn’t. But from the third party perspective, while that perception would be different to our own eyes, the underlying third party perception would still be corrupted by some form of bias, mainly because to find this third party perspective, you’d have to rely on the perspective of an individual removed from the situation, which in and of itself contains its own set of biases and pre-conditioned thoughts and beliefs. If this is the case, is bias just inescapable and are the two types of truths are mutually exclusive?
I believe it is possible to escape bias, but more likely improbable. To be able to separate from biases requires an extremely high level of awareness of the mind and its beliefs. Some possess this ability, most do not. In terms of mutual exclusivity, I also believe in the separation between bias to universal truths, however it is definitely more likely that that the two are not mutually exclusive, especially considering the excessive self-regard tendency that human beings possess.
For universal truths, are these just shared perceptions that we as society have collectively agreed upon? Is the fabric of reality itself not what we believe it to be? Maybe reality doesn’t exist. Maybe for the majority of society, there are certain biases and perceptions that prevail that overlap with each other, changing the state from individualised truth into a shared societal belief, also regarded as a universal truth within a society.
If this is the case, it’s possible that while there are some truths that exist beyond our perceptions, the majority of our universal truths are just individual truths shared collectively by a society, which has propagated these beliefs over time, which in fact would contain those underlying biases, thus rendering them not to be universal after all. This diversification of the understanding of these truths are the fundamental causes for disagreements in the world at large.
This being said, the existence of universal truths definitely exists. For example, consider the knowledge of Homo Sapiens in the Palaeolithic era. Did the Earth still orbit the sun? Yes. Did the human beings of that era know this? No. Does that mean it didn’t happen. No.
The universal truths that exist, exist beyond societal norms and extend beyond human beings. These are the laws of the universe that far extend our current knowledge. Human beings are not the universal truth makers, we are the discoverers. We journey through our lives trying to expand the knowledge of consciousness and during this journey, when we uncover new evidence, the truth doesn’t begin then, for it has always existed. The journey of the propagation of this knowledge begins at the point of discovery and on this journey of propagation, interpretations change, new knowledge enters and meanings completely differ. The game effectively becomes a state of Chinese whispers with universal truths, a truth that has differed almost completely at the last stage of propagation, compared to the inception. These are the reasons that we have fundamental laws that we agree upon, to give an explanation to these universal truths in a way that makes sense to us. The entire field of mathematics and physics exists for this reason; to provide a reason for understanding the universe around us.
While our perceptions exist and it is virtually impossible to separate from them, these universal truths will exist and stand the test of time. They have existed before our discoveries of them and will exist after we have gone, regardless of our interpretations and while these perceptions are not always a negative, it is important to remember that these beliefs we have about how reality is, is just that…a perception. It is important to remember to respect our differences, to respect the beliefs of others and to remember that we are only right to the extent of our biases, biases which are virtually inescapable.