On Telling the Truth

What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. (John 18:38)

We all lie, some more than others. Lying is part of the human condition and it's something we all share. However, I want to discuss lying here and the truth, which should be an antecedent to a lie. The truth must exist, it must be established before a lie can be born, spoken or thought in lieu of truth.

I am not attempting to get all metaphysical here, although it sounds that way, I am not going to survey what "truth" is supposed to be mean from an historical, religious, philosophical sense; not about what is true from the perspective of being, our ultimate existence and creation. It is simply the case that we don't always tell the truth.

Here I think I should drop the royal "we" and stop using it as a cop-out. When I say "we" lie I am referring to myself. I lie, all the time and not in a grand sense but in the banal, everyday. I lie when it is convenient, when it easier than telling the truth. Some lies are to avoid harm or hurt to others but most seem to be pointless and serve no purpose.

There is truth and there is "truth", life is full of both insignificant and penultimate questions that can be dealt with. I say "dealt with" because we in many cases these questions and issues are not dealt with, they are ignored or hidden through lies and misconceptions. Truth can be revealed through lies but more often than not, lies hide truth.

That last statement sounds fairly obvious but the key is defining lies, not necessarily truth. What does it mean to lie exactly? If we believe something, is it a lie, even if it is not the truth? Okay, so now I am getting metaphysical but bear with me. Lies happen for a variety of reasons and to serve a variety of purposes. These reasons and purposes can be both nefarious and noble, worthwhile and cowardly.

This post is rather jumbled and I keep making broad generalizations and assertions while jumping back and forth between 'truth' and 'lies'. I want to think on this more and do a bit of reading before I discuss further.