Finding Your Truth

Years ago, I read the advice of Thomas Jefferson, “Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”

I get the feeling that there are a lot of people in the world that ask themselves the questions:

• Who am I?

• Why am I here?

• What is my purpose?

• What is the point of this life?

• Where am I going?

Science, religion, philosophy, and other studies have tried to answer these questions. I have researched these differing studies for many years seeking the answers to these questions. I’ve come to the conclusion that there has not yet been a satisfactory answer provided by any of these studies to pacify the population as a whole.  

Maybe “answer” isn't the right word. Science and religion seem to provide a lot of answers.  “Proof” may be the word to use in this instance. Many people are searching for answers that have not yet and may never be proven.

As far I as I can tell there are hundreds if not thousands of theories that draw conclusions from two polarized concepts.

The first is the extreme idea that we are here because a series of accidental evolutionary conditions over trillions of years occurred. And because of those conditions we experience a short period of consciousness and are self-aware. Once we die whether by accident or by deterioration, that is the end of our conscious self-awareness and the energy that fueled our existence is transformed and utilized by some other process in the universe. This is the end of our consciousness and our existence.

The other polar extreme is that there is a creator or god or higher life form that has set events in motion (thru some kind of magical power) for our consciousness, which is eternal and never ending, to experience a mortal existence as part of some process to further our consciousness’ understanding of the universe and our relation to it.

All the other ideas and theories pull from these two extremes. Intelligent design, the 4 different big bang theories, human-alien hybrid experiments and earth colonization, Christianity and other religious creation theories, all fit somewhere on the on the line between these two polar extremes.

I am not trying to debate or prove any of these ideas, or even offer my own theories, rather I want to discuss how I have come to understand my purpose and my answer to those questions.

But before I do that I would offer this thought. If the “by accident” theories are right and there is nothing more to us than series of genetic events that have led to our existence, then death proves that there is nothing more, unfortunately a dead man tells no tales.

If there is a Creator and/or an afterlife, once again, a dead man tells no tales.

So we are either nothing when we die or we are all sitting around saying to each other “hey there was something to all that creator/religion/supernatural talk we heard about during our lives.”

I would venture to say that no matter what you believe is the truth, you are right in your assessment. Because no matter what you believe, you are exercising faith in a series of personal experiences and events that have brought you to your belief.

A good friend of mine said to me that there is no evidence for religion and all the evidence in the world points to science as the only logical choice.

That may be true for him, it is as they say, “his truth.”

If the culmination of one’s life experiences have given that person hope in those evidences, then I say "congratulations" and I truly hope they are happy and satisfied in that belief.

But no one will never be able to prove to me that there is no god. Just like no one on this planet will ever be able to prove to me that there is a god.

Here's why I say that. I believe I have truly learned to differentiate between truth and belief (a.k.a. faith). Here is truth, when I stumbled down the hall last night in the dark to use the bathroom, I smacked my little toe into the door jamb and it hurt like crazy.

I know that was real and true because I was there and I experienced it.

When I am fixing breakfast for my kids and driving them to school each day I know that they exist and are real. When I go to work and install a satellite dish antenna on someone's roof and point it to the right place in the sky, the receiver I connect to that antenna will create pictures and sound on the adjoining television. I know all of these things are true.

This is where belief and faith come into play. As soon as my kids walk into the door of their school they have disappeared from my view and I can no longer physically experience their presence. Logic and reason dictate to me that they have simply gone into their school.

This logic and reason serves as the evidence that I need, so I am able to believe, strongly, that they are in the school. But I do not know for sure that they are in there. It could be that they have evaporated and don't really exist when I don't see them. I have employed the scientific method enough times, conducted enough experiments in driving them to school and picking them up to have a sufficient belief that they exist even when I can't physically be in their presence, but in the end that is my belief, not necessarily truth.

I have never flown in a space craft to one of the satellites that send down the signals to the antennas that I install to know that they truly exist, for that matter I have never seen the signals that the antennas grab. I have read the manuals and studied the material, and talked with others that say there is a satellite in the sky and that it sends the signal to the dish antenna. I have enough experience in the installation process to believe that there is a satellite in the sky, but unless I physically see that satellite I cannot say I know, without a doubt, that it is there.

There is no way that anyone reading this can know, without a doubt, that I am who I say I am and that the children I am speaking of are real. But you can believe that you are reading my words because of the experience that you have had with me in your past. Those are the evidences that you have that shape your belief about what you are reading right now.

I cannot remember anything before I was 2 years old. My parents tell me that I was there before I was 2. I have seen babies that are less than 2 years old, I know that they exist. But I have no frame of reference that proves to me without a doubt that I existed before I was 2. I have evidence that leads me to believe that I existed, but I don't know for sure, simply because my mind cannot recall the experiences I had at that age.

I do not know for a fact that anything existed before I can remember. I see the world around me as evidence that it must have been here before I was, but if I am truly honest with myself, all the proof is either written down, circumstantial or has been presented to me by someone who says they saw it. I do not have a firsthand witness that there was anything before I can remember.

In a court of law there are 3 main categories of evidence to prove a case, written evidence, circumstantial evidence, and eye-witness accounts. Eye-witness accounts are regarded as the most reliable forms of evidence (as long as the witness is deemed reliable), then circumstantial evidence (or forensic data), then finally written documentation. This evidence is presented to the court and jurors. Then they are asked to make a decision based on the evidence presented. If there is any doubt at all, a conviction should be impossible.

So, if we categorize evidence in this order, we have your eye-witness accounts, that gives us at most 120, maybe 130 years of history where we can talk to someone that has the ability to say “I know this event is true because I experienced it” (unless there is someone out there older than 130 years).

Then we have the circumstantial evidence and forensic data, this includes ice core samples from the Antarctic, fossil records, geological data, archeological finds, etc.

And lastly, we have what is written from those have died before us.

Having initially starting my college career with the intent of getting a degree in history, I discovered that the history community believes most of what has been written, especially anything older than 500 years, has been recorded by people with various religious ideologies and influences.

Basically, by monks or priests of certain religious orders to which that particular culture adhered. Therefore, most all written history is tainted by the belief system of the person that wrote it down. So, it is impossible to know if that written documentation is accurate, or just a skewed interpretation of events.

What’s worse is that the history has been regurgitated and re-written so many times, all in the name of being more accurate, that it is nearly impossible to get an accurate accounting of what actually happened. Everything we know about ancient cultures and even more recent ones is based on theory and educated guesses about the evidence we have, which may be erroneous evidence.

Circumstantial and forensic evidence has more data and more proof. But unfortunately, this data can be tainted and manipulated to come to a conclusion that supports the bias of those presenting it. If this this tampering is suspected, it is up to rest of the scientific community to go thru the cost and laborious process of proving the data wrong.

If the data points to something that is totally opposed to the theories and ideas of the day then those scientists presenting the data can be scorned and ostracized by the rest of the community. For example, in recent years the scientists that disagree with man-made global warming theories or those that support intelligent design theories are looked at by others in the scientific community as loose cannons or dismissed as unreliable and radical in their ideas. This is very similar to the way religious reformers were ostracized by the so-called religious experts of their day.

How do we know tomorrow there will not be a game changer that totally debunks the evidence we have or makes that evidence point to a completely different argument? It's happened before. Remember the world used to be flat and Pluto was a planet.

When I examine my life as honestly as I can and categorize the things I really know are truths and the things that I believe are truths, I discover that virtually everything in my life is based upon a series of beliefs and not necessarily real truths.

My whole life is a series of interpretations and conclusions I have drawn from the evidence of which I have been presented. My understanding of life is based upon the beliefs I have derived from these evidences.

In this frame of understanding I cannot say that science wins. I have studied several books on evolution. I have listened to scientists that have provided very convincing arguments for evolution, so much so that I can say that evolution is a very probable theory. I however, have not personally done the research to prove it to myself, therefore I have categorized it as a belief and not a truth.

As for a creator’s existence? Well I would have to say there isn't much traditional forensic evidence for it.  Unless you believe that creation itself is evidence enough.

What about the written evidence? There are tons of it. All the scriptures and holy writs of the many cultures and societies past, talk about gods and higher beings that have interacted with humankind. Is it reliable? Once again, who knows?

Eye-witnesses? Lots of them. Are they reliable? That is also a matter of argument. There are a lot of people who believe in a creator and are totally nuts. There a lot of people that believe in a creator and seem to be pretty level headed and logical people. People that are willing to say, “I am not willing to completely rule out the existence of a supreme creator.”

There are even those that say that they have their own evidence that God is real. They believe they have had enough personal experiences in their life to prove to themselves that God is really there.

This brings me back to my understanding of truth. Since on a personal level the only thing that I know to be true is my own experience, I cannot say one way or another what is true for you, only what I have chosen to believe. The things that I know are true are the things that I have experienced. You can choose to believe it or not. Your belief does not change my experiences.

As for proof, the universal evidence everyone would accept as truth, evidence everyone would accept as viable answers to those aforementioned questions, well, there really isn’t anything that anyone can present that will answer those questions.

There is compelling evidence for both sides of the argument. I can choose to believe all the evidence or I can choose to believe none of it. Or I can choose to believe some of it. It really makes no difference to anyone else what I believe as long as I don’t impose those beliefs on others in a negative or damaging way. It only makes a difference to me, and I no longer care if someone else believes whether I am right or wrong.

The only thing that can convince me to change, strengthen, or disregard my beliefs, is if I were to have a personal experience that could prove a higher truth to me. Something I would call a game changer.

As for answering the questions above, I can only see two options for me to get this proof. Two ways for me to have a personal experience, two ways that would prove to me whether there is more to life than just the biological lifespan (that includes my self-awareness and consciousness) or not.

The first is a sure fire, fast way, based on the scientific method to prove it. That is suicide. That will instantly give me the knowledge for which I am looking. However, it is not an experiment that I am prepared to conduct. I also would not be able to present my findings to the scientific community at large for reasons already stated.

The second thing that would prove to me without a shadow of a doubt that there is a higher power or not, is if I encountered a source of knowledge that superseded the available evidence surrounding the argument. If I had an alien encounter, met a time traveler from a future scientific age with undeniable evidence for one argument or the other, an angel appearing to me, a demon appearing to me, or some other higher/alternate life form making its presence known to me personally, I would then be able to say, “here is the truth I know about the universe and how I relate to it.”

But even if I have had such an experience there is no way you could know if what I was telling was true or not because you didn't experience it. You could choose to believe me or not. And that choice may or may not make a difference to you.

As a side note, and in case you are curious, I can tell you that I have had enough personal experiences and found sufficient evidence to believe that there is a creator, and I believe that creator has used their advanced understanding of how the universe works to create humankind and this life experience. More importantly I believe that there is a higher purpose to this life for each of us. That this Creator has provided ways for each of us to know him and understand the answers to the questions:

• Who am I?

• Why am I here?

• What is my purpose?

• What is the point of this life?

• Where am I going?

For me, finding these answers has not come without a price. They weren’t given to me without having to search for them. Just like anything of personal value, it takes work, effort and discipline to find them.  

I am not asking you to believe me. In fact, you can choose to think I’m totally crazy, misled, naive or even stupid. As I said, I no longer care if someone else believes whether I am right or wrong. All I would ask is that you respect my right to believe what I believe, as I respect your right to believe that I might be nuts.

In closing I wish to repeat the words of Mr. Jefferson, “Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.”

This is the advice that started my journey down the road of questioning everything that I thought to be true. Now years later, I can boldly say that I believe Mr. Jefferson said this, but I don't know for sure (because I wasn’t there when he said it).

Best of luck in your journeys!