Author: Eric Helland

Ancient Fables

A few thousand years ago a man went traveling through a rough country with no roads, or paths, or any evidence that any people had been there before him; suddenly he encountered Veritas. Startled the man asked “Venerable lady why do you live in this wilderness far from the company of people?” Veritas replied “Among the people of old, lies were found among only a few, but now they have spread throughout all of human society!”

How Truth came to be naked … Truth and Falsehood went for a swim and a bath in cool waters one hot Summer day thousands of years ago. Falsehood emerged from the water first and dressed in Truth’s clothing. When Truth came out of the waters she found her clothing gone; refusing to wear clothing that did not belong to her she went naked from that day on …

In the time of Rome’s Empire Veritas was thought to hide in a Holy Well

 … Truth seemed rare, not commonly found, yet sacred …

The Problems of Philosophy

TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD

“Our knowledge of truths, unlike our knowledge of things, has an opposite, namely error. So far as things are concerned, we may know them or not know them, but there is no positive state of mind which can be described as erroneous knowledge of things, so long, at any rate, as we confine ourselves to knowledge by acquaintance. Whatever we are acquainted with must be something; we may draw wrong inferences from our acquaintance, but the acquaintance itself cannot be deceptive. Thus there is no dualism as regards acquaintance. But as regards knowledge of truths, there is a dualism. We may believe what is false as well as what is true. We know that on very many subjects different people hold different and incompatible opinions: hence some beliefs must be erroneous. Since erroneous beliefs are often held just as strongly as true beliefs, it becomes a difficult question how they are to be distinguished from true beliefs. How are we to know, in a given case, that our belief is not erroneous? This is a question of the very greatest difficulty, to which no completely satisfactory answer is possible. There is, however, a preliminary question which is rather less difficult, and that is: What do we mean by truth and falsehood? It is this preliminary question which is to be considered in this chapter. In this chapter we are not asking how we can know whether a belief is true or false: we are asking what is meant by the question whether a belief is true or false. It is to be hoped that a clear answer to this question may help us to obtain an answer to the question what beliefs are true, but for the present we ask only ‘What is truth?’ and ‘What is falsehood?’ not ‘What beliefs are true?’ and ‘What beliefs are false?’ It is very important to keep these different questions entirely separate, since any confusion between them is sure to produce an answer which is not really applicable to either.”
— Bertrand Russell

Now about fear …

Fear is an instinctual mechanism whose purpose is to preserve the life of the individual organism by alerting it to danger. Brain chemistry is altered by a gland in the brain to force behavioral action.

 

Fear is going to drive behavior in one of three ways: Attack behavior, Defend behavior, or Retreat behavior.

Human beings are very sophisticated. We can evaluate the relative threat with the prefrontal cortex of our brain and decide upon action. This happens very quickly. If we don’t make any decisions then the chemistry of fear will entirely direct our behavioral response.

Being so smart we can also build complex abstractions to justify having fear even when there is no genuine imminent danger to our actual physical lives.

 

People frequently exhibit fear based behavior without being consciously aware of doing so.

For example:
A snarky remark, or a piece of malicious gossip, is attack behavior. A snub, or a person pretending not to notice another person whom they ought to know, is defend behavior. Crossing the street, or ducking out of sight to avoid an acquaintance, is retreat behavior.

Fear can influence our behavior in very subtle ways. Fear can influence behavior in dramatic ways. Fear seems to be with most people most of the time. Fear can be infectious. Fear can spread from person to person. A crowd of people, like a herd of cattle, can stampede away from a perceived threat. An entire nation of people can get patriotic fever all at once …

Because fear is so powerful it is often used as a tool to manipulate entire populations or target specific demographic groups.

Fear is a sales tool. Fear is a call to political action. Fear is sufficient reason to trade freedom for a promise of security …

Fear can motivate people like nothing else … except, perhaps, faith.

“A man of courage is also full of faith.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

A person consumed by fear cannot be courageous.

What is faith? Faith can be said to be a strongly held conviction, a belief that a principle, or set of principle’s, is true—like: belief in oneself, one’s ability to succeed; belief in institutions, political, scientific, judicial; belief in traditions, sociocultural, philosophical, religious—many people find faith in religion.

Religion can be a foundation upon which people may build a faith sufficient to withstand fear.

Curiously the religious message—so comforting to believers—can sometimes ignite fear in those who are unconvinced by it’s theological arguments, suspicious of it’s perceived social agenda, or political ambition—yet the same can be true for any article of faith held by some and not by others. The bold confidence of a person with faith in themselves can be perceived as a threat to the ambitions of their peers. One person’s political agenda is another person’s tyranny. One person’s just economic system is another person’s financial oppressor—odd that one person’s faith may be cause for another person’s fear … yet faith alone can conquer fear.

Therefore, if one can find a faith sufficient to overcome fear, then one’s actions will be directed by faith and one will have courage.

 

Faith would seem to be an ally of truth.