Truth and Knowledge

What is truth?

Think about it - what makes something true? Is it because we are told by some authorative source that some is so, or is it because we choose to believe it is true, or do we have to experience something ourselves to hold it as truth?

Let's say you find a word in a book and don't know the meaning, but you just can't pass it up because it's a crucial word in a sentence and nothing else makes sense unless you know what that word means. So you look it up in a dictionary. Ok, so now you know the meaning of the word (assuming the definition in the dictionary made any sense) and keep reading. But how do you truly know that the definition was true? Is it because when you use it in a sentence in an essay a year later, after much use in conversation, and your professor doesn't mark it as wrong? Now the exact meaning of a word is pretty trivial in most respects. You're probably wondering why I even bothered to write about it, especially since I just admitted that.

The thing is, if we can't even figure out if something as a word definition is actually true, then how are we going to determine whether or not we want to believe in something as important as God? We, as intellectual sentiant beings, must find our own ways to determine truth. Whether through one of the ways I listed or a combination of all of them, we must be able to find truth and decide whether or not to believe in it. For, after all, if you don't firmly believe in something, how can it be true?

I have something, an idea, I like to call a "quest for Truth and Knowledge." It is very difficult to explain this, because it is very complex and non-concrete. My quest for Truth and Knowledge is more of a way of living or thinking than anything else. I believe that we are all involved in our own type of quest for those very important things - Truth and Knowledge. I capatilize the those words purposefully, mostly to indicate their importance, but also to set them aside from the everyday kind of truth and knowledge. Now, most things are obviously either true or false, but there are many things beyond common sense that require great philosophical reasoning and deep thought. It is for these things (i.e. an existence or lack thereof of a higher being, meaning/purpose of life, sin, salvation, etc.) that Truth and Knowledge, as such, apply.
It is our quest for Truth and Knowledge, which is unique to each of us, which makes us who we are, to a great extent. How we live our lives consists of much of this quest. How we view the world; interpret what we sense (see, hear, feel, etc.), what we contemplate, understand, love, hate, and hold to be true (believe), etc., is as close to a definition of our own quest as can be found. The quest begins when we draw our first breath, if not before, and doesn't end until we exhale our last breath and pass into the "great beyond."

So, while a person who is capable of seeing the blue sky can say with certainty that the sky is indeed blue, a person who isn't so capable would be very likely to disagree. If you think about it, a blind person has no way of actually knowing the "sky" exists except that everyone around him/her tells them it is so. That blind person must either simply accept the sky's existence as fact, and thereby trust those around them; reason it out for themselves somehow, or not believe in the sky at all.

By that reasoning, much the same could be said of the relationship between God's existence and our choice of whether or not to believe in Him. We cannot, after all, see Him - we can only choose whether or not to believe in Him based on our own spiritual experiences, or lack thereof.
We must gather our own evidence, formulate our own theories, and find our own truths. If we are identified by our actions, personalities, etc., then are we not also identified by what we hold to be true, which is developed through our own quest for Truth and Knowledge? Memorizing the verse John 3:16 (For God so loved the world...) does not save your soul. Memorizing the entire Bible wouldn't do you a bit of good in that respect. It comes down to what you choose to believe, hold as truth, and use as such in your life. Perhaps that is what faith is.

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house we will serve the LORD." - Joshua 24:15 (KJV)