Retired Editorials

Editorial #1 - October 4, 2003

Is Fear of Truth a Consequence of Love
or a Shame of Pride?

Dear Readers
Sadly many people act as if in fear of truth. Well we should fear truth but not because it is truth! We should fear it because of the consequences of losing, or not finding it. It is a principal of order that truth will ultimately destroy all untruth and civilizations that blindly follow false beliefs.

Our fear should be with the negative not the positive. If we ignore truth we depart from our creation base and our rational behavior. Is it not logically obvious that the problems mentioned in this series of editorials are problems caused by our fear to face 'that truth' which is a challenge to that which is false in ourselves or our culture?

Whether we want to make a political protest, raise a family or adopt a healthy lifestyle, we cannot make good decisions unless we accept the truth of our situation. It is like being lost in a desert; we know a waterhole is within reach but there are 360 degrees in a circle and 359 wrong directions to go. A native will have improved chances through knowing the habits of wildlife or celestial positions and the truthful observation learned by generations of experience. In the end it will be the truth of our accumulated knowledge that will save or destroy us.

Love of truth is instinctive because in departure from truth we destroy
ourselves. We need fear truth only when
we abort our intellectual capacity, or our desire, to know it.

You know my position in regard to religions; some have done their job but let us down because, over time, they have infused human desires into belief. The following quote of a leading churchman of the past is revealing. It explains, in a clear way, a common attitude to truth. It may still help many today. See what you think?

A Thought for the day in 354-430 A. D. Quote:
"Why does truth [sometimes] call forth hatred? Why is Your servant treated as an enemy by those to whom he preaches the truth which, if happiness is loved, is simply joy in truth?

Simply because truth is loved in such a way that those who love some other thing want it to be the truth, and, precisely because they do not wish to be deceived, are unwilling to be convinced that they are deceived. Thus they hate the truth for the sake of that other thing which they love because they take it for truth. They love truth when it enlightens them; they hate truth when it accuses them. Because they do not wish to be deceived and do [not] wish to deceive, they love truth when it reveals itself, and hate it when it reveals them [as being in error].

Thus it shall reward them as they deserve; those who do not wish to be revealed by truth, truth will unmask against their will, but it will not reveal itself to them. Thus, thus, even thus, does the human mind, blind and inert, vile and ill-behaved, desire to keep itself concealed, yet desire that nothing should be concealed from itself. But the contrary happens to it - it cannot lie hidden from truth, but only truth from it.

Even so, for all its worthlessness, the human mind would rather find its joy in truth than falsehood. So it shall be happy if, with no other thing to distract, it shall one day come to rejoice in that sole Truth by which all things are true." End Quote.
St.Augustine (354-430) Bishop of Hippo

The understandings we discuss are in accord with the teachings of Jesus but not always in accord with the teachings of Christian churches. Because of their fear to admit mistakes Christians learn and like to support, a worldly interpretation. We are in love with a god we created in our own image!

By creating a god in our own image we comfort ourselves because this god does not, as truth does, force us to intellectual effort or challenge our image of ourselves. We are happy to leave our lives in the care of comforting humanistic interpretations and refuse to make a logical appraisal of what we are or where we are going. But we fool ourselves when we avoid to discipline ourselves and so then avoid to read with care and with thought the statements accredited to Jesus.

If you were to save a friend's life your friend would be grateful and might ask how this debt could be in some part repaid. But a Christian might reply: "You owe me nothing, I was pleased to help! It was truth, not I, which saved you. I only expressed truth in acting for your sake. You owe your life to our God who is truth, if you seek to repay you should repay in service to truth."

Many people claim to be Christians with very little or a very deformed idea of what Christian means. Christian means dedication to truth: to being honest; to follow the sensible and logical directions given by Jesus to help us improve our lives. Christian means making use of our intelligence; that is why it was given to us.

Two thousand years ago we may have had to believe by faith alone but today we only need enough faith to use our intelligence: our intelligence can now confirm our faith as our faith confirms our intelligence.

Yes his early followers may or may not have given good advice but their reported comments must be tested by the same intelligence with which we can test the reported translations of the words of Jesus. Truth is an easy master to follow and the spiritual reward liberally compensates for all physical pain.

We should always remember that truth is something humanity has the privilege to be allowed to access and benefit from, but we have to earn this benefit by learning over generations and building up understanding. So we should not judge past generations by our own. Past generations had to solve their problems at different level of understanding, we must allow for this.

We could not have evolved from apes
nor could apes have been Our Surrogate Parents.

Foregoing attitude forming influences may make learning that Dolphins were our surrogate parents distressing because of challenge to present beliefs: we have to re-arrange our thoughts and ideas, we have to look deeper and challenge our beliefs. Many will also be loath to accept the scientific time spans but time has little meaning for a God who created time for our development.

We should not be distressed to hear that the Creator is intelligent and that the creation is an intelligent and logical construction. We should be grateful that our creation is to do with logic and reason, not a power of magic and self-gratification. Our Creation was designed in one piece. All life genes, including those that form the human body, were delivered to our earth when animal life was delivered to our earth.

The reason for that may be because of a needed vastness of space and complication of transporting physical matter over this space. Or it may simply be that the process of developing and acquiring intellect needs this for eventual success. Spaceship earth was provisioned with its life-force and had its development programmed because the earth was not, in its early ages, ready for advanced forms of life. Relevant species had to be triggered to appear and to advance our environment over time.

As land animals we have a great affinity to oceans and Biblical references to fish may be a respectful salute to our surrogate parents and a clue for us now that we have the science and intellectual development to appreciate our prehistoric relationships.

Logically we have to be with the Dolphin line because the outstanding technical achievement of the creation of biological life was the human brain. This could not be left in the care of a land animal! As earth was developed the "brain" had to be left in the care of an animal that could not put it to wrong use at the wrong time. More important was need of the freedom, stability and security of an oceanic environment during what seems, to us, a very long waiting period.

Without hands and legs and a dry environment the dolphin had no way to create a record of continual achievement and therefore must rely on the limitations of memory. No doubt the Dolphin has made exceptional use of this memory but humans needed to develop portable hard copy memory aids and technical skills along with the means of their production. We had, in out turn, to be as we are.

Truth and Bias
As Revealed in the St.Augustine quote the reason we appear to fight truth is because we, by nature and intelligence, love it. But pride causes us to hate being corrected even more. The cause of irrational behavior in relation to truth is pride and prejudice - the fear of losing face. These are magnified by humanist education. I have used words to the following effect but have now found a quote credited to the well known philosopher Bertrand Russell; Quote: "Many people would rather die than think - in fact most do! Bertrand Russell. We now also know why!

Had Bertie overcome pride and changed that 'think' to "face truth" then he may have become as great a person as his followers think he was. But, like so many of us, he loved his self-image above truth.

Bertrand Russell, well known British philosopher and mathematician (1872-1970) has been quoted several times on this site in relation to revelations in his book "The Impact of Science on Society"; the essence of these is: Quote:
"Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rightly confined to the governing class and the populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated ... education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they will be incapable ... of acting or thinking otherwise than their schoolmasters would have wished." End Q.

You may view these quotes by entering "Bertrand" on the "Google" "site search" facility at the end of this "Home page". The larger quote and comment is in the book "Globalism Brainwash" which can be downloaded at "Fast Downloads". Readers, it seems, find this Russell quote hard to believe, or as not applying to their education. But it does so apply and it is, at least so far as European culture is concerned, world-wide. Some may think that their upbringing has encouraged a broader viewpoint; this we are led to believe but actually it does no such thing. Our education is designed to encourage belief in our own importance at the expense of all balance of logic.

Our other book most directly related to this series of editorials is the New "Of Truth" also available at Fast Downloads.

Perhaps, now that our world social problems are multiplying, readers will begin to see that deceit, bias and prejudice is being created in the wider community to destroy the rational behavior and the health and wealth of communities. Can we see how this is generating our world problems and also our stubborn unwillingness to think and act in our own defense? This (Can it be coincidence?) also increases the power and security of the international governing establishment!

The evidence warning of the above situation has been growing progressively over the last hundred years of scientific progress. Forewarning is also there in examples from earliest history and in the Christian testament. Throughout history there have been leaders wanting to own their entire known world. The truth of our nature is now available and we are at our testing time.

Fortunately, as with all social change (engineered or not) everyone is not equally afflicted and effective change takes a few generations to take secure hold. Many people now see that we face serious problems but believe they have no time to look for truth so they try ever harder to prove their convictions. Those prepared to stop and think honestly can defend themselves and their families but time is running out.

NOTE:
Expect October 18th to be the last editorial of this series as it seems to me that my work may be finished; it is now for readers to take advantage of their situation. There is no restriction on reprinting, unchanged, our complete articles or books. After a settling time our last six editorials (which really review and update main features of earlier writing) will be made into a booklet for reader convenience. Future editorials may be opportunistic or in response to reader comment.

Regards to all,
Editor.

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