THE TRU IN THE TRUTH

What is truth? Or better yet… what is true? At first, this seems like one of those questions that should have a simple answer. Something that is true should correspond to reality or facts. Easy enough, right? Just look at reality, check the facts, and—boom—truth achieved. Case closed. Everyone goes home. Except… the more you think about it, the less simple it becomes. People often say, “Face the truth.” But that immediately raises another question: what exactly is the truth? Truth is basically a claim about what is real. But who decides that claim? Is truth something we discover, like finding buried treasure? Or is it something we agree on after a long meeting where everyone eventually says, “Fine, whatever, let’s just call that the truth”?

According to the dictionary, truth reflects reality or facts—what is actually the case. That makes sense. But it raises another question: can there be multiple truths? Or is that what people politely call a “half-truth” when the full truth would make things uncomfortable? Since truth reflects reality, it also reflects data. Reality produces information, and truth is supposed to match that information. Which suddenly explains why courses like data analysis are becoming so popular. Apparently, if you want to understand truth these days, you need charts, statistics, and someone who can open Excel without having an emotional breakdown. But before we go too far into spreadsheets, let’s talk about universal truths and non-universal truths.

Universal truths are things that are true regardless of culture, opinion, or location. They don’t really care what we think about them. For example:

• On Earth, when something is thrown up, it will fall down or gravity pulls objects downward.
• Colours analysis
• Fire is hot.
• Water is wet.
• Humans need oxygen to survive.
• The sun rises and sets every day (even if it’s cloudy and we can’t see it).

These are truths that exist whether we agree with them or not. Gravity, for example, does not check public opinion before working.

Then there are non-universal truths. These are things that depend on culture, society, perspective, or location. What is considered true or right in one place may not be true somewhere else. For example:

• What is considered polite behavior varies across cultures.
• Some cultures greet with a handshake, others with a bow.
• Certain foods are considered delicious in some places and completely unacceptable in others.
• Fashion trends change depending on time and region.
• Ideas about beauty, traditions, or social rules differ around the world.

For example, eating insects might sound strange to some people, but in many parts of the world it is completely normal and even considered tasty. Meanwhile, pineapple on pizza can start a full international debate. So, some truths are universal, while others are shaped by society and culture. Now this brings us back to reality and how we experience it. If truth reflects reality, then how much of that truth depends on our five senses? Humans experience the world through sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Basically, our brains are running a five-sensor monitoring system 24/7. The question is: how reliable are these sensors?

Take sight, for example. A lot of what we call truth depends on what we see. Colors, shapes, objects—all of that relies on vision. But sight isn’t perfect. Optical illusions exist. Two people can look at the same thing and see something different. And many things we know about the world were taught to us. So, if we were never taught what something was, would it still feel real to us? Take for example, if we did not learn that pink is pink and black is black, would we know what it is when we first see it? The object would still exist, but we might just stare at it like a confused raccoon trying to understand advanced mathematics. Accuracy of truth based on sight is average or mid high and also depends on other factors.

Then there’s hearing. A lot of what people believe is based on what they hear—news, conversations, friends, social media, and sometimes random people on the internet who speak with extreme confidence. Thankfully, many people research things before accepting them as truth. Others, however, hear something once and immediately decide it must be true, so I guess the accuracy of truth based on hearing is low or average

Next is smell. Surprisingly, smell might be one of the more reliable senses. If something smells like smoke, most people agree something is probably burning. If something smells terrible, most people agree it’s probably not dinner. For the most part, smell tends to produce less philosophical debate. Accuracy of truth based on smell is mid high or high

Then we have taste. Humans share the same basic taste categories: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. But culture and geography affect how people react to them. One person’s delicious spicy meal is another person’s “I need water immediately or I might pass away.” So, taste exists universally, but our reactions to it vary widely. Accuracy of truth based on taste is average and depends on a lot of factors

Finally, there’s touch. Touch is one of the most consistent senses humans share. If something is extremely hot, cold, or painful, most people react in similar ways. There isn’t much debate about that. If you touch a hot stove, the truth becomes very clear very quickly. Accuracy of truth based on touch is pretty high unless if your touch nerves or stimuli have been damaged or dead which is not good.

All of this makes me wonder: how much of what we call truth is actually reality, and how much of it is just our perception of reality? According to the dictionary, perception is how people create meaning from what they see, hear, feel, touch, and experience in the world. In other words, our brains are constantly interpreting reality. Which means two people can experience the exact same situation and walk away with completely different “truths.” So now the big question remains: are we discovering truth, or are we shaping it based on our senses, experiences, and what we’ve been taught? At this point, I’m not entirely sure I will ever fully understand what truth is. But stay tuned for next week, when I will bravely attempt to verify my understanding and information I have on universal truth, non-universal truth, perception, and reality—and possibly confuse myself even more in the process.

Because if there is one thing that seems universally true…it’s that the search for truth is surprisingly complicated. And apparently involves senses, culture, perception, data, and spreadsheets. Which might be the most shocking truth of all. Anyways please tell me which of this information you agree and the one you do not?