The following is a response to a blog posted here:
http://conversationswithnoone.blogspot.com/
The article I am addressing is called “The Trinity of Truth”. I really liked this post, but I felt something was missing, so I posted 2 comments on that blog, but it still was not enough. The topic touched a nerve in me. It got me thinking so much that I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote what you see below.
Because this post is a response to the post at Conversations With No One, I suggest you read that post first, and the 2 comments, before reading this. If you make it all the way through, treat yourself to milk and cookies.
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First, we need to separate “Truth” into 2 units:
- Truth: what humans experience as fact; reality through experience and observation.
- Absolute Truth: cosmological fact based on the laws of the universe; cosmological reality as it exists in it’s un-observed state.
Another way to look at it is:
- Observable truth
- Un-observed truth
“The sky is blue” is an observable truth. Therefore we will say that “the sky is blue” is a truth as defined above.
When viewed in a way such that the infra red and ultraviolent spectrums are included into the visible light spectrum, the sky is no longer observed as blue, but something different. This is an absolute truth; a cosmological fact that exists whether it is observed or not.
Like an electron, any truth won’t exist in one particular spot until it is observed.
Example:
When our ancestors asked “why are we here”, they used their perceptions, trusts and expectations to craft an answer: “the gods created us”. The answer was developed from the perception that there is a greater and higher power than man, the trust that the natural cycles in the world (the seasons, the phases of the moon, the stars, the sun rising each morning) will never change and thus are controlled, and the expectation that there is a universal “justice” to counter balance the natural injustice all men face- that our unfair fates and unexplained tragedies have reasons that transcend the tangible and are not meaningless.
Before the question “why are we here” there was no truth about the matter. But when observers formulated an answer using their perceptions, trusts and expectations the “truth” magically appeared for all to see As a mind exercise lets say this truth popped into existence as a giant block of marble; a cube of raw marble within which the absolute truth (as we define it) rests.
In this way, truth can be distinguished from absolute truth in that it requires no evidence. Truth always begins its journey as a fact that “feels right” to the observer.
Now we introduce evidence into the mix. Our ancestors looked to the sky and saw that the sun, moon and stars all revolve around US. They have evidence. This is an observable fact. Now imagine that they go to our “marble block of truth” and take out a hammer (representing human curiosity) and a chisel (representing the use of argument amongst each other as a tool to discover or concoct “proof” that helps solidify the evidence). Through examination of the evidence, the crucible of argument to expose “proofs” that back up assumptions, and the infusion of the first main accepted truth (“the gods created us”), the logical conclusion is that we are at the center of the universe that the gods control. The celestial bodies revolve around us because we are at the core.
“CHIPADINK”
Our ancestors just chipped a little bit away from the ‘marble block of truth’ and got just a tiny bit closer to absolute truth. The chip that flew from the marble block is the evidence they observed then solidified through argument.
The more evidence mankind extols through observation, examination and argument (the last always used to establish proof) the more little chips are taken from the block.
Such that, millennia later, Copernicus (as discussed in a comment posted on Conversations With No One) develops evidence through observation, examination, and argument, that the earth is not at the center, the sun is (a heliocentric universe). Copernicus demonstrates how the motions of the planets can only be explained if they, and the earth itself, revolve around the sun.
“CHIPADINK”
Another chip away at the marble block of truth.
An important note: at this time it took tremendous courage to accept the reality that the empirical evidence Copernicus exposed revealed. Chipping away at the block takes courage because it radically alters beliefs and accepted truths that may be comfortable and “feel right”. To accept that we are not at the center- to accept this evidence and not deny or suppress it, took great courage.
However, even though the “heliocentric universe” is accepted as truth at the time following Copernicus, and indeed brings mankind a little bit closer to the absolute truth (that rests within the marble still), it is still not concurrent with absolute truth. The sun, as later discoveries showed, is not the center of the universe either. However, without that little chip away at the giant blocked “marble of truth”, mankind could have never learned that the sun was not at the center either.
Just like Michaelangelo finds a fingernail within a block of marble that will eventually become the Pieta, so does man slowly uncover absolute truth in the “marble of truth”. Each chip of evidence that flies away reveals a little more of the absolute truth.
So we have our Trinity of Truth (perception, trust, and expectation), without which there is no block of marble called “truth”. The block can only begin its existence if it is observed by us and manifested through our perception, trust and expectation. Evidence does not play a part in that initial truth. We accept it as true because it “feels right”. Once we begin to use evidence to examine our truth, we take a step toward revealing absolute truth. The deeper we get in revealing absolute truth, the more the evidence alters and manipulates the Trinity of Truth (perception, expectation and trust) from which the initial truth was born.
For countless generations it was accepted that time was a constant (it can neither be sped up nor slowed down) and speed is relative (it can be sped up and slowed down). Einstein came along and chipped away at the marble of those truths. Using evidence he uncovered something closer to the absolute truth, the cosmic reality.
Time is relative. Speed is constant.
As an entity approaches the speed of light, time slows down. This is not a perceptual slow down, it is a law of physics. Time actually slows down. Likewise, gravity will slow the passage of time (as evidenced by synchronized atomic clocks; one on earth the other in orbit; that go out of sync due to this phenomenon).
Speed has a barrier that can not be breached by any means. An entity can get to 99.99999….% of the speed of light, but never achieve that last fraction of a percent. At such speed, the entities energy is converted to mass making it heavier. This actually happens and is not perceived.
The theory of general relativity takes us just a little closer to the absolute truth…a truth whose journey began millennia earlier with the question “why are we here”.
Einstein’s discovery radically altered the Trinity or Truth (perception, expectation, and trust) which had been accepted for generations. Our perception of time, our expectations of speed, and our trust in the tangible were all radically changed as a result of what the evidence revealed to us about our world.
In turn, this altering of the Trinity of Truth helped drive a more detailed examination of evidence; revealing deeper layers in our “marble of truth”. The Trinity of Truth drives and manipulates the acquisition of evidence, and evidence manipulates and drives the Trinity of Truth.
Now imaging that the Trinity of Truth is encased in an orb; likewise evidence is also encased in an orb. The two are bound by a force like gravity or the nuclear force, and as such they tumble over one another. As the evidence orb descends it pushed the Trinity of Truth orb forward with a little more force. As the Trinity of Truth orb falls it, in turn, pushes the evidence orb forward with just a little more force.
The two orbs tumble about each other- separate but bound by a powerful force. The more observation is put into the mix, the more energetically they tumble. The less observation, the less energetically they tumble.
This is the relationship between observable truth (what humans experience as fact; reality through experience and observation) and uncovering absolute truth (cosmological fact based on the laws of the universe; cosmological reality as it exists in its un-observed state).
Each has the ability to distort the other, but neither can exist without the other.
Now, let’s factor in “observation”. Quantum science demonstrates that an electron does not exist in any one place in our universe until we look at it. Observation influences outcome. Once we see the electron, it occupies space in our universe, but until we observe it, it exists in a probable state; a probability cloud; many places at once.
Evidence is the result of observation, examination and argument. However, the act of observing influences the outcome.
Now, using this, let’s get back to our “marble of truth”.
Like a sculpture by Michelangelo, mankind slowly chips away evidence to expose the absolute truth that lies within. Like Michelangelo finds his figures within the marble as he carves, so do we find the absolute truth. But here is the rub: Michelangelo has the ability to turn his block of marble into either a Pieta or a statue of David. He has a level of control over what is revealed- his only outside constraint being the block of marble he has selected to start with for a particular sculpture. Because our process relies on observation, perception, expectation, and trust to chip away evidence and uncover absolute truth, mankind to has the ability (to a certain extent) to shape that absolute truth into a Pieta or a David- a cosmos of the tangible or intangible. To a certain extent, we find what we expect to find, because the act of looking makes it real.
The process of uncovering absolute truth must always begin with the “marble of truth” that manifests itself through the Trinity of Truth. After all the evidence is chipped away, however, we find that what we have revealed as absolute truth has been slightly distorted; partly by our Trinity of Truth and its energetic relationship with evidence; and partly through observation itself.
For this reason, absolute truth is like the speed of light. We can get 99.9999….% of the way there, but no matter how hard we try we can never achieve that last fraction of a percent, simply because the act of uncovering it distorts it into what we expect to see, how we perceive it, and what about it we find true.
Therefore, the pursuit of absolute truth never takes us to an ultimate destination. It is a never ending journey.
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