The Truth, Nothing Else But…?

 It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined,

who went to see the elephant (Though all of them were blind),

that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the elephant, and, happening to fall,

against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:

'God bless me! but the elephant, is nothing but a wall!'

The second feeling of the tusk, cried: 'Ho! what have we here,

so very round and smooth and sharp? To me tis mighty clear,

this wonder of an elephant, is very like a spear!'

The third approached the animal, and, happening to take,

the squirming trunk within his hands, 'I see,' quoth he,

the elephant is very like a snake!'

The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:

'What most this wondrous beast is like, is mighty plain,' quoth he;

'Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree.'

The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said; 'E'en the blindest man

can tell what this resembles most; 

Deny the fact who can,This marvel of an elephant, is very like a fan!'

The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,

than, seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,

'I see,' quoth he, 'the elephant is very like a rope!'

And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long,

each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!

So, oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween,

tread on in utter ignorance, of what each other mean,

and prate about the elephant, not one of them has seen! 

John Godfrey Saxe
 

 It is time, at least, to speak about the truth, and the truth is just one… Which one is it? Because it is said, every mind a world unto itself, and so people start to live a reality based on their own belief system: the paradigms, constructs and absolute truths taken to run our lives. This system works as a filter for how to understand and interpret decisions and for how it influence feelings and behavior during the life lived. 

“I believe in you.”, “you have to work hard…”, “it is difficult for you...”, “I deserve…”.

What are your believes? Convictions about the image of oneself, personal traits, self esteem, confidence in what is taken as possible or not, also about deserving, caring and whatever that makes someone build an idea or an opinion about the sense of any  kind of existence. These are very like, the conscious or unconscious values chosen to lead the reality to find the truth, and there is only one way to get to it: through knowledge. 

Greeks talked about the discovery of the essence, they stated that knowledge and truth laid under the sensitive of the concrete experience. It was very to them this understanding, in this way the truth always will be beyond and hidden by appearances. This is where humans tend to lose the truth and its essence among all the things in their existence; tend to make assumptions and trust them. What is the cost of it? Are there any consequences?

Truth is something that is created in the brain, knowing this, is understandable the importance of the different roles that all the cognitive process (intelligence, memory, imagination, language, sensoperception) play during this creation.  Outside of the brain there is reality (although this is an assumption, it is an useful one). Our rains extract certain information from this (outside) reality such as visible light, while it ignores other information such as x-rays and radio waves. So, in our brains we build models of the outside reality. 

Usually, as we get older, we refine these models. Science is the formalized process of building models of the universe and refining these models so they are more concise and more accurate. The problem is that no model is ever 100 percent accurate.  By definition, a model is a smaller version of something else. If it were 100 percent accurate, it would not be a model, it would be a duplicate.  

 So, all models are inaccurate to some degree. Perhaps the most noble goal is to create a model which is both accurate and concise. This is sometime called, relative truth. And at the same time it is taken for granted, it establish an enormous step in the process of reaching the absolute truth. There is not such a strict limit between relative and absolute truth, every group of relative truths and their development offer us an absolute truth. 

The most amazing thing, is that the brain takes the universe, which is billions of light years across and massive, and compresses it into useful models which are stored within its 3 pound neuronal structure.

Careful with what you think, and watch your mind.