The Unalterable Reality of Truth - Essay Sample

Truth is a word that has been in use ever since the creation of the earth. The word closely relates to the word's "existence" and "reality." The term "truth" has a wide range of definitions. The most common explanations of the word include the reality of matters or the actual state of events. When used according to this definition, the word truth takes the meaning of a situation or the fact that it is impossible to alter. Thus, when viewing the word "truth," as per this definition, the ultimate meaning is that the situation or events at hand conform with datum, circumstance, statistics or reality. The words, in this case, means that it is possible to verify the facts beyond a reasonable doubt. The paper examines the definition of the word "truth" in context to philosophy, science, theology and religion.

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Medieval historians record the earliest use of the term "truth" to denote a sense of a situation, event, or something real or believed to be accurate (Cellucci 95). The use of the word was initially recorded in the middle of the 14th century. At that time, the truth was a term used to mean accuracy, precision, or correctness of ideas. It was around the beginning of the 1560s. Therefore, the word "truth" is believed to have originated from the Old and Middle English as a result of the nominalization of the term "troth." The concept borrows a lot for the Old German word "triuwida" which means faithfulness or consistency.

In the realm of theology and religion, the word "truth" is frequently used to mean a verified, corroborated, confirmed, or indisputable body of knowledge. The term is highly used in theological arguments about the existence of the universe, human beings, and animals. The word is used to make people believe that the record of the account of events in religious books such as Quran and Bible are indisputable. Christians believe that the Bible carries the whole "truth" about human life and existence, while the Muslims believe in the Quran to be the "truth" message from God (Sankey 87). A critical examination of the word "truth" in the theological sense leads to the definition of the term as an individual or communal proposition. The different people define truth based on their religious principle. Thus, they take "truth" to mean what their religion stands for.

Science is essential in the definition of the word "truth." According to scientific principles, the term is used to mean the actuality of different states. As a result, truth is a word that means the actual existence of a state of matter that is possible to prove based on scientific principles. For example, science believes that the presence of matter in three countries, either solid, liquid or gas is the "truth" behind the existence of everything found on the earth. Anything that confirms scientific principles is the truth of reality. Thus, according to scientific definition, the word "truth" is an undeniable, valid and acceptable fact.

The philosophical definitions of the word "truth" tend to have the most debatable facts. First, metaphysics and the philosophy of language defines the term "truth" to be an assertion or proclamation of the facts and ideas put forth. In this case, the word is used as a way of showing agreement with points. Philosophers, like Plato, uses various analogies to create awareness of the existence of the world and everything in it (Phillips 17). They believe that truth is the ultimate tool for creating a sense of belief in people. Fact is seen as a way of human growth and development. Philosophers hold on to the opinion that humanity needs the truth surrounding the existence of the world for them to thrive. However, there is a thin line between the real definition of truth and what appears to be the truth. Thus, the only way to discern the difference between appearance and reality is to explore the inner reflection of a situation, gauge the issues on scientific and religious scales and compare the present with the past to come up with the truth.

Just like the theological definition of the truth, philosophers believe that truth is subjective and depends on various life situations. Nevertheless, both religious and philosophical interpretations believe that fact is essential in all aspects of life. There are multiple reasons why people opt to hide the truth and make others believe in lies. People use such situations when they want to protect their reputation or hide facts that can endanger their relationship with others.

In many life situations, people find themselves at a crossroads and end up telling what is not valid. Although this may result in legal action and penalties, people ignore the truth for lack of a better option. My encounter with such experience was way back in my childhood when I had to lie about my nationality. It was just a childhood experience that taught me a lot about the importance and definition of the truth. Lying about my nationality and getting a cover-up story was not sufficient to hide the reality of my origin as a Korean. Human beings are detectives by nature. My fellow students who were Native Americans were able to discern the truth and confirm that indeed I was not a Native American, but a Korean.

The life experience taught me a lot about the truth. First, I realized that the truth is something that a human being will never override. No matter how long the truth can lie covered, with time, people find a way to uncover the real truth. Whatever people believe in to be the truth comes from deep inside the subconscious mind. The world and everything in it is designed in such a way that the truth lies within the human judgment. An idea or position that people take or accept to be true will always remain true regardless of time and space.

Works Cited

Cellucci, Carlo. "Knowledge and Truth." Rethinking Knowledge. Springer, Cham, 2017. 93-106.

Phillips, Paul T. Truth, Reality, and Meaning in History. University of Toronto Press, 2019.

Sankey, Howard. "Realism, method, and truth." The problem of realism. Routledge, 2018. 72-89.