De-Fencing Truth

De-fencing Truth: An Essay

         Our world is full of the insane. From cult followers to religious fanatics to the everyday churchgoer, the mentally unstable flood America’s streets. They seem innocent enough, with their shows of kindness and their air of confidence. For the lost, they seem the perfect people to give answers to the questions that burn in their souls. If you are lost, I have one thing to say to you, run away from the answers.

         Answers are a dangerous thing. Everybody seems to want them, need them. They are the focal points of billboards and tracts and TV ads. They seem attractive and harmless, even helpful. My friends, they are not what they seem. Answers are vicious, rabid wolves waiting to drag you down. They are catalysts for hubris, intolerance, and oppression. Answers are the enemies of equality and liberty.

         Answers are like a fence. When you believe in them, they surround you silently. One day, you are free. The next day, you look around and you are encircled. You might think about escaping, but you won’t leave your precious answers. They are like drugs, they seize you by your neck and won’t let go. Before long, your circle of answers becomes your home. All who have found similar answers can come within your fence, simply because it surrounds them too. You might think you’ve found community, but all you’ve found is a gnashing bear-trap, because everyone outside of your circle becomes an enemy.

         Some people claim to know the truth. They have many different ways of expressing their vices, some say they have “seen the light,” others that “it all became clear.” These are the words of the tragically deceived. In their pride, they make themselves preeminent and superior to all others. They hold to their truth, their answers, like one holds onto a treasure, with one hand on the treasure and the other on your sword, ready to defend off all attackers, all who want to take your treasure, your truth, away. Your truth isolates until it becomes your identity. It controls your mind, rejecting all opposing viewpoints and slaughtering all who hold those viewpoints. Some might call this “agreeing to disagree.” I call it what it is, evil.

         By agreeing to disagree, you place yourself in a position of superiority to the dissident. You say that you’re too good to believe what they do and you never take time to consider what they say. Even if you do consider it, you never accept it as truth. You never even accept it as possible truth. This is a tragedy indeed.

         All of us must learn to put aside our views of what is true or untrue and accept a fraternity of knowledge, a unity of mind. We must live in perfect equality, with none above another, where all ideas are accepted as truth. No one should be rejected because of his or her beliefs; no one should be told that what they believe is wrong because no one can truly know what is right or wrong. To claim such is to claim divinity. Many have tried that over the years, and most of them have died.

What is believed by a few people may not be believed by another few. That is perfectly fine. Neither few should be rejected because of their beliefs, not in the slightest. Instead, both sides should agree that what the other holds to could be, and even is (in its own way), true. Your truth is not someone else’s truth simply because you are not someone else. It is true to you, and so it exists. After all, truth is what you make it.

         Many on this planet believe in god. That is to say, many believe in a god, and many others believe in some gods. Or many gods. We must accept that both groups are right. To them, god means something. God provides a sense of meaning and purpose. God thus exists because people hold to him. In the end, both groups of people will be proved correct. One will go to his heaven; and the other to hers. That will be the culmination of their life, when they know that their life did accomplish something. Because of one’s belief, he ended up in paradise. Because of the other’s belief, she joined him in her own paradise. This brings great meaning to their individual lives and beliefs, because it was their lives and beliefs that led them to paradise, just like it will be another’s life and beliefs that will lead him or her to paradise.

         Too many today have become fenced in by their beliefs and goals. I propose that we all step back from our fences and realize that no fence is necessary. All of us can join as one human race and embrace all beliefs and customs as true and appropriate. For in the end, all of our beliefs will lead us to our individual paradises. That is why our beliefs are so important, and why everyone’s beliefs must be respected and upheld. Today, I offer to join hands with all who will accept this truth, the truth of all truths that shows how everything is perfect. I ask you only to think, the next time you hear a sermon, or watch a sunrise, or even step into your car, that your thoughts and feelings and actions may not be true to your brother man, but they are true because you believe them to be. Remember that, and join with your brother or sister in accepting that truth is not always true, and that that is the very reason that all truth is always true.