What is the truth and why is it important?
The world we live in has become full of highly charged opinions competing for your attention but what should you believe? What is the truth and what is the difference between fact & opinion? Also, it might seem a silly question but, why is the truth important?
So, truth is quite simply facts that are demonstrably correct, at the time they are used. These are our best possible explanation for what we see around us and we know this because experiment and logic shows us that they are correct – there is evidence to show how we came to this conclusion and they explain the situation better than any other explanation. We can trust these facts because they are readily reproducable by different groups of people.
On the flipside opinions are beliefs held by individuals that do not come with any evidence – they do not need the weight of evidence and do not provide us with truth or facts.
Science’s place in discovery of the truth
The way we arrive at these facts and the truth is usually through study and by using the scientific method. This simply equates to a trusted process by which we can test the world around us and be sure that we understand the results. Richard Feynman famously described the process simply as:
- A person comes up with a hypothesis – they guess something
- They then imagine what the consequences would be if that hypothesis were true. They would use logical reasoning, use their knowledge and experience of the subject and often emply mathematical calculations to come up with an experiment that can be used to test the hypothesis.
- Then they compare the real world with this imagined scenario using carefully designed experiments and observations.
- There are two possible results:
- If the hypothesis agrees with what can be observed through experiment, then it is a good guess and they would go on to further explore this idea and firm up their conclusions ready to be published and shared with other people. If these other experts agree with the results and find they can be reproduced then the theorum becomes an accepted fact. This last part is vitally important and is called peer-review.
- If the experiments do not agree with the hypothesis then it’s plain wrong. Doesn’t matter who you are or how clever your guess was or how pretty the idea is – if it doesn’t agree with experiment then it’s wrong … and you go back to the drawing board.
Do Google Feynman’s 1963 lecture on the subject because it is well worth watching.
But experts never agree and they change their opinions
Well, yes and no. Experts might have competing theories but the facts are still only those that can be proven and which come with evidence to back them up.
Science is a constantly evolving process, and it’s right that it should be as no truth is immutable or impossible to challenge. If you can come up with a new explanation that matches the world around us better than the existing one, and your peers agree, then yours will become the new truth.
So why is the truth important?
Again, it might sound funny but, while the truth is important generally to the advancement of society as a whole, an individual might not be particularly invested in some aspects of science and so to them truth is only relevant up to a point.
To explain, if your life or livelihood depends on knowing the facts then you will be highly invested in the truth and do your utmost to be 100% sure that you can trust what you are about to embark on. It might be that you understand the laws of flight and the expertise of the pilot when you board a flight; or that you are going to mortgage your house to invest in a venture that depends on several factors out of your control. To this person those truths are extremely important.
But if you feel that your life is not touched by a particular fact or truth then you might feel immune to it. For instance, global climate change happens very slowly and most people have not been affected by the results so there are still many who dismiss it and think nothing bad will happen. Others might never want to travel the world or go into space and so they are free to believe that the world is flat, despite all the available evidence to the contrary. If they truly believed that their lives depended on understanding these facts then I’m sure they would become supporters of the facts and ditch the conspiracies!
This denial of evidence though is easy because it doesn’t need any effort, whereas understanding the science behind something might take years of study and very deep thought. Belief in conspiracies also brings with it the feeling of being special and part of a community of people who are standing apart from the authorities / rulers. This last part is a particularly strong driver in countries like the USA where there is a tradition of an anti-establishment subculture.