What We Believe Is Truth May Not Be So
There are valuable lessons to learn about the truth we each see, and our belief in that truth. This is a simple example to illustrate a concept about truth: Our lecturer’s voice boomed at our group across the room. “Count how many times this letter appears in the sentence I am going to show you and write your answer down. You won’t have much time, so make sure you pay attention.” I hurriedly scanned through the words of the sentence on the screen, and wrote down my answer, which I think was 5. “Right, time is up.” We glanced around the room at each other and grinned. It felt as if we were under pressure! “How many people got an answer of 3?” Some people raised their hand. He did this a few more times. He then called each group to the front of the room according to our totals. The people with a count of 3 stepped forward first. Each delegate was asked how certain he or she was that the answer was correct. “100% sure” came the answer. “Are you sure?” our lecturer asked. “Yep, nothing will change my mind!” Each believed totally in what he had seen, as that was his truth. And so on through the groups. When we reached the people who gave 6 as an answer, the picture changed slightly to 90% or 95% certain. “I now want you to form groups according to your count, and then tell me as a group how sure you are that you are right.” We huddled around each other in our groups and discussed, and our discussion went something along the lines of: “What do you think? And you? If there are people with different answers, we can’t all be right! There must be some room for doubt.” Once again when groups went forward, the same pattern was repeated: Groups who had the lowest number were most convinced of the correctness of their answer. People who had an answer of 6 were a bit unsure that they had counted correctly. We then all had time to look at the sentence again, and the right answer was 6! How curious that people who were most wrong believed they were the most correct, and the ones who were actually correct held doubt in their mind, room to believe they were wrong! However, hearing the different stories, each person might start to hold some doubt as to what he saw, but generally people tend to believe what they see for themselves, and each person will probably hold on to the truth he or she saw. The way this exercise turned out might just have been due to the group that we were in, but I believe this is a key lesson in understanding truth. We believe what we see, but we need to be aware that we might not see the whole truth. We may keep our minds fixed on a certain viewpoint, and may believe completely in that viewpoint, and do not consider that our viewpoint may be incorrect.
There are valuable lessons to learn about the truth we each see, and our belief in that truth. This is a simple example to illustrate a concept about truth: Our lecturer’s voice boomed at our group across the room. “Count how many times this letter appears in the sentence I am going to show you and write your answer down. You won’t have much time, so make sure you pay attention.” I hurriedly scanned through the words of the sentence on the screen, and wrote down my answer, which I think was 5. “Right, time is up.” We glanced around the room at each other and grinned. It felt as if we were under pressure! “How many people got an answer of 3?” Some people raised their hand. He did this a few more times. He then called each group to the front of the room according to our totals. The people with a count of 3 stepped forward first. Each delegate was asked how certain he or she was that the answer was correct. “100% sure” came the answer. “Are you sure?” our lecturer asked. “Yep, nothing will change my mind!” Each believed totally in what he had seen, as that was his truth. And so on through the groups. When we reached the people who gave 6 as an answer, the picture changed slightly to 90% or 95% certain. “I now want you to form groups according to your count, and then tell me as a group how sure you are that you are right.” We huddled around each other in our groups and discussed, and our discussion went something along the lines of: “What do you think? And you? If there are people with different answers, we can’t all be right! There must be some room for doubt.” Once again when groups went forward, the same pattern was repeated: Groups who had the lowest number were most convinced of the correctness of their answer. People who had an answer of 6 were a bit unsure that they had counted correctly. We then all had time to look at the sentence again, and the right answer was 6! How curious that people who were most wrong believed they were the most correct, and the ones who were actually correct held doubt in their mind, room to believe they were wrong! However, hearing the different stories, each person might start to hold some doubt as to what he saw, but generally people tend to believe what they see for themselves, and each person will probably hold on to the truth he or she saw. The way this exercise turned out might just have been due to the group that we were in, but I believe this is a key lesson in understanding truth. We believe what we see, but we need to be aware that we might not see the whole truth. We may keep our minds fixed on a certain viewpoint, and may believe completely in that viewpoint, and do not consider that our viewpoint may be incorrect.
"It ain't what you do not know that gets you into trouble.
It is what you know for sure that just ain't so."
It is what you know for sure that just ain't so."
- Mark Twain
Three Truths
Just as we need to keep some room for doubt about what we believe as truth, we may each see truth differently because of our different viewpoints. A mentor once illustrated this by holding up a diary in front of me and asking me what it was. I could only see the back of the book. I said it looked like a telephone book. He said that to him it looked like a reading book. He then flipped it open and showed me that it was actually a diary. A good example of three different truths:
Just as we need to keep some room for doubt about what we believe as truth, we may each see truth differently because of our different viewpoints. A mentor once illustrated this by holding up a diary in front of me and asking me what it was. I could only see the back of the book. I said it looked like a telephone book. He said that to him it looked like a reading book. He then flipped it open and showed me that it was actually a diary. A good example of three different truths:
- The truth I see: I will believe I am right.
- The truth you see: you will believe you are right.
- The real truth is usually somewhere in the middle, or may be a different answer altogether.
We are not always aware of what we do not know. We base decisions on what we think we know, often blissfully unaware of our own ignorance.
In Conclusion
The more I believe I am right, the more I may be wrong. Always leave some room for doubt. Search for truth, as truth may be misrepresented, or you might only see things that confirm your truth. In the movie "12 Angry Men", Jack Lemmon, as the lone voice on a jury of twelve, declared that sometimes the facts that are right before us may not be correct. (Read the blog article called: The power of one voice (part 2): 12 angry men.) You will often stick steadfastly to belief in a truth, but if you allow some room for changing your mind, and for seeing a new reality, you might experience a different, deeper, more honest truth. Belief is often fixed until you see a different truth with your own eyes. You believe what you see, what you know to be true, which might not be the real truth. Others may tell you what they see, and you still won’t believe until you see and experience this truth for yourself. What else might you be missing, or not be seeing correctly? I suggest leaving some room for doubt.
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