On Sunday April 1, 2012 AD’s airing of Donald Trump’s television show Celebrity Apprentice worldviews collided and were exposed as a fracas between two contestants, Arsenio Hall and Aubrey O’Day brought about a glimpse into a mistaken view of reality via a consideration of truth.
Details are not only irrelevant, the show being what it is, but also unnecessary. In short, Arsenio Hall and Aubrey O’Day got into a fracas wherein Hall pointed out O’Day self-aggrandizing ego and O’Day appeared to, unconsciously buttress his point by continuing to provide self-referential statements.
At one point, a point of contention betwixt his take on an matter and hers, she offered perhaps the only thing that a post-moderninst pop-culturalists could offer as a final salvo, Aubrey O’Day claims that what Arsenio Hall was stating was “…not my truth…” Of course, this only fueled the fires of Hall point as he pointed out that even on this account she is making it about herself. In other words, now truth itself is individualized to suit her and she possessed ownership of it.
Similar claims are a dime a dozen, one to consider occurred in a discussion between Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle as they urged the audience to make “decision for yourself about what is real or true for you.”
By definition, truth is absolute and thus does not adhere to, is not subject to, does not conform to, our particular and peculiar worldviews.
Truth is absolute and this means that something is that which it is regardless of:
1) Whether we know it or not.
2) Whether we like it or not.
3) Whether we agree with it or not.
4) Whether we prefer it be different or not.
Imagine a scenario wherein everyone believes that there is an amusement park on the dark side of the moon. According to everyone, this is the truth. However, once we launch a space vehicle, travel to the moon’s dark side and confirm that no amusement park is there.
Now, previously everyone believed that such was the case but it was not the case. What does this mean? That it was “their truth”? Is there “my truth” and “your truth” and thus and such is “not my truth”?
No, it was not truth, it was not even their truth, because it was not true. Yes, everyone believed that it was true but it was not. They believe that their view reflected the truth but it did not. Our opinion is simply irrelevant to that which is actually true. It was not their truth, it was their falsehood, their error. And it was not true even before their knew that it was not true. It never was true.
Let us not mistake something that we think or believe to be true with something that is actually and in reality true.
In John 18:37 we learn of a conversation between Pontius Pilate and Jesus:
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say [rightly] that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Then “Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’” but apparently did not wait for an answer and the verse (38) immediately continues:
And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.
Little did he, apparently, know that the one with whom he spoke was truth personified:
Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me (John 14:6).