TRUTH OR UNDERSTANDING

One of the questions which mortals continue to struggle with is whether truth is to be considered an absolute or a relative principle. At this time in my halting progression I have come to think of infinite truth, those truths which are eternally unchanged yesterday, today and forever can only be held by The One whose omniscience contains all knowledge of all things as they were, as they are and as they are to be. The rest of us are left puzzling with our finite understandings based on a sliver of history, the imagined importance of today’s choices and peering through a very dark glass obscuring the future.

When we observe that the finite guesses of reality, which determine our level of understanding, change drastically depending on the generation, geography, genetics and governance we are born into, it becomes obvious that most of what we determine to be truth between the fertilization of the egg and our flesh becoming worm meal is a variable limited only by the numerous hosts of mankind.

Since most of what mortals consider to be absolute is severely limited by the dearth of information we have available during our brief sojourn, it is surprising how many of us with our finite understanding go about as though we were gods, spouting the last word on subjects of which we have but an elementary grasp.

Men were put to death because they taught that the earth was not the center of the universe by those who had an absolute knowledge that it was.

Nations remained in ignorance of each other because of the absolute knowledge that sailing too far out into the ocean would result in a catastrophic falling off of the planet’s edge.

Leaders of religions which teach of turning hearts to love and kindness, have espoused with absolute knowledge the righteous use of sword against “infidels and unbelievers.”

We elevate our self-importance because of the absolute truths we possess and demean our neighbors because of their inability to comprehend.

History is full of those who knew they had a divine right to bring destruction upon the world in an attempt to determine the thinking, the agency and the freedom of others.

Philosopher kings preach with absoluteness that the purpose of education is to give the scholar the tools needed to correctly shuffle the masses through life’s channels.

Long ago I came to the beginnings of an understanding that humility has little to do with the relationships between humans and more to do with the realization of how little truth we really possess when compared to the infinite knowledge of our Heavenly Father.

We should by now have a bit of an understanding that what we hold to be true is but a very small finite portion of Eternal truth.

When I allow myself the privilege of thinking on such matters, I usually come to a temporary conclusion that the world would be a nicer place in which to abide if all truths were considered with the same evaluative process as what I refer to as the Santa Claus syndrome. This syndrome is the ability to hold an idea in limbo and allow our level of credence to be held in abeyance until our finite truth is replaced in some degree with the infinite.

Joseph Smith taught that a man should not be condemned for his beliefs. He also taught that we should be ready to yield our positions when we are given the privilege of greater understanding.

One cannot help but wonder what would happen if we viewed each other’s views with greater tolerance, understanding that we are all neophytes in the Universities of the Universe.

I think a great deal of peace would come upon the earth if the phrase I KNOW were to be replaced with a more accurate, ‘as I see things’ or ‘my opinion is’ or ‘I have recently begin to think of it in this way’ or ‘at this time I believe.’

Recognizing that most of us are in our infancy in the process of truth gathering:

We should be more accepting of how our neighbor views the purposes of life.

There should be less contention during religious discussions.

Nations should be willing to accept their different positions of growth.

We should be more willing to receive that which others have to contribute.

We would no longer have the need that others see the world through the prism we have invented.

When I entered retirement I gave myself the task of writing my History. As the task went forward I came to realize that what I was writing was not a history of my life, but at best Memoirs. As the writing continued I came to realize that the imperfections of memory were turning my writing into Guessoirs. Even though I have been a faithful journal keeper for most of my life and Kathleen has recorded our family journey in photos, I still know the end result of the writing of the events of my life will be but a caricature of what really was.

Daily I think I am coming to the belief that most of what we do in life is guess our way through the days.