It would seem self-evident to any thinking person that not everything everyone believes is true. How could they be when people believe contradictory and incompatible things? Whether it is a story about what happened in some event, or cherished, personal, spiritual beliefs at the core of one’s being, the fact that someone believes something does not make it true. People can be wrong.
So it was with great disbelief today when I read what a grown man I know (at least physically grown) wrote: “All beliefs are true.” Such nonsense is the wishful thinking of those probably afraid to believe in absolutes – maybe because of what such absolutes would demand of them. It is easier to try to be politically correct, to avoid offending anyone, to create a false god in your own mind of some mishmash of whatever you want to believe that makes you feel good, than to confront the hard reality that there is truth and there is falsehood, and you’d jolly well better figure out which is which in this life and in preparation for the next.
Some simple scenarios… If there is a pair of brown shoes in front of me and one person says “those shoes are brown” while another person says “those shoes are black,” then the person who says they are black is wrong. If one says they are black and one says they are red, then they are both wrong. By the way, it’s OK to say the words “you’re wrong” when someone is wrong. In fact, it’s the kind and helpful thing to do. If someone is about to drive off a cliff because they think it’s the right way to their destination when it is not, would we let them go on their merry way because “hey, it’s what they believe – it must be right for them”? I hope not. They’re wrong and they need to know that.
At the other end of the significance scale, the same truth vs. falsehood reality applies to matters of eternal, spiritual significance. Not all beliefs are equally valid or true. They cannot be. Don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise.
Leap year lesson #338 is All beliefs are not true.
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