What is Truth?

My first blog entry was over a month ago… in July. Today is September 1st. I had hoped to devote a little more time to this blog, but life got in the way.

I want to define truth. I have thought about it a lot and the definition seems so simple- truth is that which corresponds to reality. Correspondence means agreement with. Truth refers to thoughts, ideas, books, things written or beliefs. These thoughts, ideas, books or beliefs are separate and apart from the things they correspond to. Think of a mirror… there is the person which looks in the mirror and there is their reflection. The person and reflection. A normal flat clean mirror will give an accurate reflection of its subject. Think of this as a true reflection. Now think of a circus mirror. The surface is bent or curved such that the subject reflected appears fat or skinny or distorted- not a true reflection. We have a person and their reflection- or a thing and an idea about the thing. The appearance of the person is what it is, but  depending on the optics of the glass the mirror may result in a reflection which is true or false.

So we have the person and their reflection. I looked up pictures of circus mirrors on the internet. I've included one in this entry. I saw one which was a photo of a fat girl looking at herself in a mirror, but the mirror reflected a perfectly proportioned beauty. The viewer could of course see the person and the reflection- they did not match. The reflection was not true.

Object - Reflection

Reality - Statements describing reality

When statements or ideas correspond or match reality they are true. I did not come up with this on my own. This correspondence theory of truth has been around for a long time. It is well summarized in Josh McDowell’s book Evidence Demands a Verdict. I have been thinking about it for a while and the implications of truth. Future entries may be based on my thoughts of truth and reality.

Veritas

Truth

I am very much interested in putting my thoughts down on paper (or digital paper so to speak)- not just any casual thing that I think of during the day but significant things of a spiritual, philosophical or theological nature. I want to begin with the topics of truth and reality.  These things are fundamental to understanding most everything important in life. It seems just a good place to start.

I’m thinking of calling this blog Veritas.  As per Wikipedia, Veritas was the Roman goddess of truth. She was the daughter of Saturn and the mother of virtue. She was known to be  elusive which seems appropriate as truth sometimes (often times) seem elusive. I have found some pictures of Veritas - that is the goddess Veritas. I may use one somewhere on this site. 

The word “veritas” seems to be used with great frequency especially in terms of logos and phrases associated with universities and colleges- and rightfully so. These institutions should be concerned with pursuing truth. If I come up with a better title for my blog then I’ll change it, but for now I guess Veritas it is.

I first heard the name “Veritas” as the title of a computer software program- “Veritas Backup Exec”. Backup Exec is software for backing up a computer’s hard drive. A backup program is designed to make an exact copy of a computer’s hard drive. It is insurance just in case of a drive failure. Of course for a backup program to be effective it must make an exact copy of the files on the computer. I guess we could say it must be a true copy. Veritas was a good name for a company that made backup software. Veritas sold out to Symantec. Symantec still sells Backup Exec, but I don’t think the title veritas is associated with a software company any longer.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus in a conversation with the Roman, Pilot states that he came to the world to “bear witness to the truth”. Pilot then asks, “what is truth?”. However, Pilot does not wait for an answer. I have read and thought about this a lot. I would like to present an answer to Pilot’s question. However, the answer will have to wait for another day. This is about all the time I have for now.

(UPDATE: It looks like the title is now Tim's Theology. It is really hard to name a blog which I did not realize at the time I started writing. I actually composed most of this entry before I created my blogger account. It is hard to come up with a catchy name that is not already taken. Tim's Theology may not be the coolest name but it was available.)

T.