Ross T Lucas

When Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” he wasn’t the first person to question what truth was, nor would he be the last.  Jesus didn’t respond.  As I read the passage (John 18:38) it appears that Pilate wasn’t really interested in an answer.  He asks the question and then goes out to speak to the crowds.

I’m amazed at how often people proclaim something to be true without any solid evidence.  Because I want something to be true, doesn’t make it so.  We, including me, say we want truth and then ignore evidence to the contrary.  We are very much like Pilate. We ask for the truth and then go on about our business without really searching for an answer.

In my opinion, many people believe truth is whatever other people can be convinced to believe.  Another aspect of this is that people believe truth is a democratic process.  If enough people say something is true, we believe it’s true.  In one sense, that’s a reasonable way to proceed.  It’s less likely that many people, working and searching together will believe a falsehood.  But there is a problem.  Having people work together to get at the truth only works if there are people from many different backgrounds and with many different opinions who work together.  If all we do is listen to the opinion of people who think like us, I doubt we’ll find the truth.  What does happen is that we get our opinions reinforced and those opinions are accepted as the “truth.”  

At one time there was a belief among some groups that a photograph could steal the soul of a person.  Maybe everyone in that group believed that the picture was a captured soul, however, how widespread the belief was didn’t make it true.

John, writing to one of the early churches, warns those Christians (and us) to test the spirits.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)

Unfortunately, many of those “false prophets” appear in the form of dedicated Christians.  These false prophets want people to believe their version of the “truth” and make up stories that fit their viewpoint.  

They don’t aways have to make up stories.  These false prophets will take one or a few instances of something that really happened and claim those instances prove what they are claiming is universally true.  If one dares to disagree with these false prophets, those people are portrayed as not loving God or as actually being anti-God.

Seeking the truth is hard work.  The way I go about it may not work for you and vice versa.  I will share with you what I do.  It’s up to you to decide if it works for you.

The first thing I must do is be aware of my bias.  When I hear something that I agree with strongly, particularly something that supports my opinion on something, I start to ask questions.  I want to know where the information came from.  More than that, I want to know what the track record of the source is.  Has it given information that is false in the past?  Does the source also say things that are different from my opinions?

The more comfortable I feel with something that agrees with my thinking, the more careful I must be to look into other opinions.  I’ll seek out the opposite point of view.  Of course, if I have already made up my mind that the opposite point of view is wrong, I won’t really listen to that point of view.  So, I must suspend judgments while I listen.

I’m extremely cautious when I repeat something I have heard as being true.  If I repeat it just because it supports my position, I’m in danger of spreading falsehood.

In general, anything which demonizes people, I consider as false.  There are people who do things that are bad; I don’t disagree with that at all.  However, the vast majority of people are like me and if I’m trying to make any of them out to be evil, I’m most likely in the wrong.

I believe we are created in the image of God.  When scripture says “God loved the world,” that world includes you and me and those who are like us.  However, the world also includes those who are very different from us.  Be careful of confusing opinions with facts.  Be careful you don’t run someone down who is a person for whom Christ died.