What is Truth?

During the course of his questioning Jesus of Nazareth, Pontius Pilate asked one of the most enduring questions in human history. “What is truth?” asked the Roman governor, according to the Gospel of John, just before yielding to mob demands to have Jesus crucified.

Philosophers, theologians, and social commentators have long wrestled with the subject of truth. Over the centuries, different theories have arisen as to how one should approach the subject of truth, including how and whether it’s possible to define it.

The famous philosopher Plato once said: “The philosopher is in love with truth, that is, not with the changing world of sensation, which is the object of opinion, but with the unchanging reality which is the object of knowledge.”

A rational, sane observation of the world around us should demonstrate rather convincingly Plato’s wisdom. There are such things as facts. In the field of science, there are laws. It should come as no surprise then that there are truths concerning human relations, religion, and society.

Unfortunately, in our modern age, people tend to reject the idea of external, objective truth – particularly if they feel obligated to abide by it. According to a 2000 Barna Research Group poll, only 38% of adult Americans believe that absolute truth exists.

Most people prefer to determine their own value system – their own concept of moral truths. But the late John Paul II insightfully warned: “Truth is not the fruit of one’s imagination.” Put another way: A person really, really wanting something to be true does NOT make it true.

Moreover, the fact that we might have company in believing something to be true or morally right does not make it so. Leo Tolstoy observed: “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”

Truth therefore must rest itself on something much more reliable and certain than opinion, feeling, or majority will. By its nature, truth should be a restraining influence on these things.