Is truth more universal or relative?

[VulcanRevenge]

-Yes, I'm sure this has been brought up before in several discussions, but I want to isolate it and perhaps shed some new light on it.-

In that question I mean to ask how far can we assume truth, knowledge or principles to be accurate and to provide what they say they will provide? I'm asking because my full opinion is yet to be formed, I'm not trying to persuade anyone one way or the other.

Are Human beings more similar or dissimilar? Can we say something is true for the whole human race? If not, then can we say something is true for a nation? A community? A family? Can we even say a certain fact is consistently true for an individual over time? Is there a point where your beliefs are ineffective or just simply not true?

I think the question I'm trying to ask is do you believe your beliefs are effective and true for the whole world? If not, then what is the distance, amount of people, culture, or anything else, that causes a falsification of your beliefs, or inability to use your beliefs?

Is one person's truth not true for another? Do we each have our own separate truths? Can we believe something to be true and then it becomes so? Can more than one person depend on the same truths?

If you believe truth to be more universal, is there a point where truth becomes more relative? If you believe truth to be more relative, are there situations and evidences to say it is more universal and singular?

These are just a few questions I've considered, answering just a couple or even one in a single post is welcome.

[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by VulcanRevenge

Are Human beings more similar or dissimilar? Can we say something is true for the whole human race?

Well, like NFD mentioned, something that's true about the human race is that they have internal organs and so does pretty much every other complex organism but for ideas such as assumptions on people due to race or religion it isn't always true.

Basically, science is true about the physical part of the world.

It's like saying that if one person in a family does something discouraging like rob a bank, the rest of the family should be watched because they'll most likely rob a bank. If one relative person commits a crime, does that always mean that the people that are relatives of that person will commit the same crime or whatnot? It depends.

A common phrase that's been spread around today is "don't trust anyone." Honesty plays a large role in society. Some people are close minded, and some are open minded. If you try to explain something to a close-minded person, they might think you're lying and just go with their explanation of what happened (in other words, their opinion doesn't change and they lock one idea). And open minded person usually listens to several variations of what happened; a courtroom is an example of this. People of the case give their testimony, and then the jury determines the verdict.

Is there a point where your beliefs are ineffective or just simply not true?

Well, if you get to the point where you try expressing an idea or belief that you start sounding desperate, then other people might just ignore you and deny your opinions and therefore make something you said ineffective in their analytical minds.

Is one person's truth not true for another? Do we each have our own separate truths? Can we believe something to be true and then it becomes so? Can more than one person depend on the same truths?

Yes, everyone has their own separate truths. People usually keep their secrets to themselves, but sometimes reveal them to others they trust. An Atheist believes that there is no god, but other religions believe there is some type of god. Someone can think of a situation in a different perspective than what it was intended to be.

[dsliscoo]

There is only one version of the truth.... everything else is perception.

The world is. You are. I am. This is my perception of the truths.

The world is round. You are lovey. I am disco supafly. These are what I would consider perceptions.

This certainly does not disquaify all perceptions as truths. Sometimes perceptions are right on the dot. but in searching for truth I would say it is best to stick with I am.(Not intending to reference God here.)

If you look for truth globally, inter-communally, or even with those around you, it is very unllikely that being 'open-minded' to other peoples perceptions is going to help bring yourself closer to the truth. I mean trying to understand the world in a undeniable and infallible sense. In court cases we can only hope that this is done every time.

Now i think this philosophy kind of breaks up when you start thinking about truths of the past and truths of the future. I cant word what I mean, but it just seems off when looking at it like that.

[Laharl]

I've recently come out of a higher level communications class in college. One of the main themes of the course was how exactly are we connected to other people, and it ties directly in to this topic.

Basically, while their might be a unifying truth that runs all things, it doesn't matter because the human perception of what truth is cannot be anything other than relative. Your perception is your reality.

The best examples are often drawn from recent events in life, so I'll share something interesting that's happened to me. I recently started talking to one of my only female friends in high school. I valued her opinion very much because we are very opposite people (or were back then, at any rate) and had an awfully big crush on her I didn't know what to do with at the time. Turns out she liked me back as well, and neither of us knew it at the time because we were too busy butting heads over everything.

Back then, my reality was that absolutely no one could ever love me, no one could ever care about me at all, and I was the most unlikable person ever, because that's what my perceptions were. The actual truth is that I had quite a few friends then and my ignorance over that situation hurt an awful lot of opportunities I had to date someone, but as I've said, that entirely doesn't matter because my reality at that time was really iron-clad.

Now, to respond to the topic of universal truth, that is how I view God. I still self-identify as Christian, but I believe God is more abstract than the typical view we're given through sunday schools. I think there are some universal truths out there, things that are iron-clad and cannot be changed, but what they are and how to define them is beyond language to explain.

[Haimerej]

I believe that there are universal truths and then there are beliefs of the truth. What we believe to be true may or may not be true, and there are some things we may never know are true or not. We, as a human race, may even have many ideas about the world and universe that we live in wrong, but because we believe that we have discovered the truth, we fail to look further and deeper. A great example of that last bit is during the middle ages we believed that the world was perfectly flat. Boy, were we surprised about Columbus, eh?

Religion is another example. Some believe there's a God, others believe that there's many Gods, and then others who believe there is no God. Will we find out which religion is right? Probably not until we hit the Christian tribulation, the Norse Ragnarok, or whatever apocalypse happens. It might even be something no human has thought of yet, or might not ever think of.

Point is, what is universal truth always is universal truth, but what we believe to be true changes over time, and may not conform to the universal truth. As long as we constantly question our beliefs, we might actually find the truth.

[drakethelegend]

Originally Posted by Haimerej

I believe that there are universal truths and then there are beliefs of the truth. What we believe to be true may or may not be true, and there are some things we may never know are true or not. We, as a human race, may even have many ideas about the world and universe that we live in wrong, but because we believe that we have discovered the truth, we fail to look further and deeper. A great example of that last bit is during the middle ages we believed that the world was perfectly flat. Boy, were we surprised about Columbus, eh?

Religion is another example. Some believe there's a God, others believe that there's many Gods, and then others who believe there is no God. Will we find out which religion is right? Probably not until we hit the Christian tribulation, the Norse Ragnarok, or whatever apocalypse happens. It might even be something no human has thought of yet, or might not ever think of.

Point is, what is universal truth always is universal truth, but what we believe to be true changes over time, and may not conform to the universal truth. As long as we constantly question our beliefs, we might actually find the truth.

Regardless of whether some people believe in God and some don't, only one truth exists. Either God does, or doesn't. Either Christianity is right, or it is wrong. If your friend comes up to you and says "Hey your girlfriend cheated on you", she either DID or DIDN'T, and that's as far as truth can go. Of course, we may believe a nontruth, and then it's basically relative to us as a truth, but it is still a nontruth. This is how it works for everything in the world, from diets that work to whether or not we have souls.

[Haimerej]

Originally Posted by drakethelegend

Regardless of whether some people believe in God and some don't, only one truth exists. Either God does, or doesn't. Either Christianity is right, or it is wrong. If your friend comes up to you and says "Hey your girlfriend cheated on you", she either DID or DIDN'T, and that's as far as truth can go. Of course, we may believe a nontruth, and then it's basically relative to us as a truth, but it is still a nontruth. This is how it works for everything in the world, from diets that work to whether or not we have souls.

Only one truth exists, you do have that one right. But God does or doesn't exist? What about the possibilities of more than one God? Or even a being that we've never thought of that's not quite a God?

And alright what if a friend came up to me and went "Hey your girlfriend cheated on you," there would still be the question of HOW she cheated on me. The most basic and easily implied way of seeing that is that she cheated on me by being with another guy, but it certainly might not be the case. She might have cheated on me with member of her own gender, or possibly she was cheating on a diet that I was trying to help her go through.