By Opa
In George Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess, Sportin’ Life slyly sings, “It ain’t
necessarily so. The things that you’re liable to read in the Bible, it ain’t
necessarily so.” Well, I’m not about to descend into the murkiness of theological
arguments, but examining other Eternal Truths may be helpful.
For most of us, absolute truth begins in childhood. We think our parents know
everything. Santa Claus is real, so is the tooth fairy. We believe when we grow
up, eons in the future, we too will know everything. All the adults do. But in time
we acquire new, more accurate beliefs. Scientific, religious, social, political beliefs
start to come and go. What do all these beliefs have in common? They change.
Some changes are gradual, some are instant road-to-Damascus changes (oops, am
I slipping into Bible stuff like I said I wouldn’t?). Some changes are sought from
study and growth, and some are intrusive, forced from outside sources.
Scientists love change; or at least the good scientists do. How exciting it was to
find out that the earth isn’t really flat, and the sun doesn’t revolve around it. It
was revolutionary to discover that diseases can be eradicated by killing microbes
that carry them. Some medical authorities believed, not too long ago, that the
human heart could not survive traveling faster than sixty miles per hour; hooray
for trains, cars, and planes. We don’t know if Newton would be thrilled to know
that his laws of motion don’t tell the whole story, but he probably would be
interested in what Einstein had to say.
For us non-scientific souls, changes can be awkward, if not downright painful.
Santa Claus and the tooth fairy are not real. Our parents don’t know everything.
Slavery is bad. Women are smart enough to vote. Tobacco is harmful. Many
laws are unjust. Arriving at these now obvious conclusions was once difficult and
traumatic.
Sometimes truth depends on perspective. If you are listening to the whistle of a
speeding train, does the sound rise or fall in pitch? The Doppler effect says it
depends on where you are standing. If the train is coming toward you, the pitch
seems to rise; if it is going away from you the pitch falls. Which is true? Answer:
both; or neither. The engineer on the train doesn’t hear any change at all.
Perspective makes the difference. Political and social perspectives affect our
perceptions too. Our evaluation of truth may depend on our education, race,
party loyalty, family or work. People in other countries love their homeland as
much as we love ours. Perspective counts. There is an old joke about three
scientists who went deer hunting. When they spotted a deer, the physicist fired
and missed him by six inches to the left. The biologist fired and missed him by six
inches to the right. The statistician yelled, “We got him!” Perspective can distort.
There is a famous poem about six blind men who visited an elephant to find out
what he resembled. Each in turn felt of a different elephant feature: the side, the
trunk, the knee, the tail, the ear and the tusk. Each man reported to the others
that an elephant was just like a wall, snake, tree, rope, fan, or spear. They all
argued vigorously. Each man had direct evidence that he was right. None had the
whole picture. Insufficient evidence causes inferior conclusions.
Reaction to change in long-held beliefs varies greatly. To find that a friendship
thought to be irreparably damaged is now restored is a source of relief and joy. A
diagnosis of cancer returning after being convinced of a cure is heart-breaking.
Some of our core truths, particularly religious ones, are especially hard to
relinquish. Other belief changes are trivial: you thought you hated asparagus but
now you find it’s quite delicious.
We want the facts. Opinions are unreliable (particularly other people’s). Facts
are supposed to be true. Unfortunately, facts can also be quite slippery.
Unsupported by strong evidence, they are often temporary and personal. My
facts are not necessarily yours; many of our personal facts are simply not true.
We hold on to them because they reinforce what we want to believe, or what we
want to convince others to believe.
So what should we use to judge our truths? In a word, evidence. Evidence comes
in various forms and strengths. Scientific evidence is usually trustworthy and
authoritative. We depend on authorities. Since most of us are not proficient in
astrophysics and calculus, we accept the findings of those who are. If Einstein
said it, it’s probably accurate. And the math and experiments attest to its truth.
Logic is useful. In ancient times some believed that the earth is flat and rests on
the back of a large turtle. It’s logic to the rescue; no further experimentation is
necessary. “Many people believe…” and “Everybody knows…” are popular
defenses of dubious beliefs. Perhaps true, maybe not. These explanations are
logically weak and often used when more definitive evidence is not available.
Belief in certain truths, real or false, does not just materialize out of thin air.
Persuasion is a major part of a belief system. Be on guard. If an entrepreneur
guarantees that thousands of dollars invested in his company will make you a
millionaire in six months, wariness is called for. Political persuasion is just as self-
serving. The believability of political promises rests not just on what is said, but
who says it, and why. Be prepared to change your mind if the evidence calls for it.
What is truth? We are still trying to figure it out.