Truth – Can we know it?
February 24, 2006 by Luci Wilder
Filed under Truth
When I started this blog I promised to write about “truth”. I tried to show that truth is something absolute and real in a November 2005 blog entry. At that time, I also promised I’d try to answer the question about whether or not we can “know” truth.
It’s interesting to note that one definition of the word “know” according to Merriam-Webster, I. (1996, c1993). Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary includes:
2 a : to be aware of the truth or factuality of : be convinced or certain of.
It is also the root of the word “knowledge”, which begins several of its definitions with the word “fact”
2 a (1) : the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association.
I think it would be somewhat interesting (at least to myself) to do a study of the words that demonstrate our society’s belief in the existence of truth and our ability to know it… but, I’ll leave that for another time… maybe… sounds a little dull even to me.
Have you ever told a lie or known that someone else has told a lie? A lie is the opposite of a truth. The fact that you knew it was a lie, indicates you also knew the truth.
Our (mankind’s) efforts in the sciences and technologies are all based on our ability to “know” the truth about something. History and Law are both based on our ability to know the facts (truth) about something that specifically did or did not happen. I could go on in this vein ad infinitum, or perhaps ad nauseum 
There is so much evidence in our daily lives predicated upon our ability “to know truth” that to deny it in general would defy credulity.
When you really try to wrap your mind around the concepts of (1) no truth and/or (2) if there is truth we can’t know it, our thoughts become like a pretzel and somewhat nonsensical. Why? Because there are absolute truths and we can know some of them. Note: I do not claim that we (collectively or individually) can know ALL truth.
Jesus said, “… you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32
© 2006 – 2009, Luci Wilder. All rights reserved.
