What is the Truth?
The question that has been troubling philosophers and thinkers since centuries is still unanswered and as much troubling as it was in the time of Socrates. But why are we looking for the truth in the first place, asks Nietzsche. Nietzsche was the genius who put the classical philosophy upside down, questioning the very basis of philosophy. He asks us a soul shattering question. Why are we looking for the truth and not untruth or even ignorance?
But we love to believe in an ultimate truth. Because denying or doubting one ultimate truth will make our lives nihilistic and we don't like nihilism. We try to fill this nihilist void with our own truths. Some people with God, some with nature, others with mathematics as being the ultimate truth. We don't want to feel like useless creatures, simply a piece of flesh having no more importance than flies and ants. Now, how do we overcome this nihilism? So, we invent the idea of an immortal soul. We are so obsessed with the idea of our existence that we do not want to let go of it. We want to exist, even after death. The idea of an immortal soul must have been invented by a very dishonest philosopher and the later philosophers put all their efforts to satisfy this obsession of philosophers and theologians. We dislike randomness and love harmony. So we invent ideas to bring all the beings in harmony with the universe although thermodynamics suggests that the universe moves towards randomness with increasing entropy.
So what do we do? How do we overcome this skepticism and this depressing nihilism? Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher suggested an answer- "leap of faith". Leap of faith is what has brought our lives in harmony with the nature, even if the harmony is just our mental construct. Or may be truth can not be attained through philosophical discourses and rational arguments but through mystical experiences like the mystics and sages have claimed. And I sincerely hope the claims of those saints and mystics are true and truth is as beautiful as they say. May be someday we become like the Budha and see everything as they are but until that day what choice do we have but to take the "leap of faith"?
The question that has been troubling philosophers and thinkers since centuries is still unanswered and as much troubling as it was in the time of Socrates. But why are we looking for the truth in the first place, asks Nietzsche. Nietzsche was the genius who put the classical philosophy upside down, questioning the very basis of philosophy. He asks us a soul shattering question. Why are we looking for the truth and not untruth or even ignorance?
But we love to believe in an ultimate truth. Because denying or doubting one ultimate truth will make our lives nihilistic and we don't like nihilism. We try to fill this nihilist void with our own truths. Some people with God, some with nature, others with mathematics as being the ultimate truth. We don't want to feel like useless creatures, simply a piece of flesh having no more importance than flies and ants. Now, how do we overcome this nihilism? So, we invent the idea of an immortal soul. We are so obsessed with the idea of our existence that we do not want to let go of it. We want to exist, even after death. The idea of an immortal soul must have been invented by a very dishonest philosopher and the later philosophers put all their efforts to satisfy this obsession of philosophers and theologians. We dislike randomness and love harmony. So we invent ideas to bring all the beings in harmony with the universe although thermodynamics suggests that the universe moves towards randomness with increasing entropy.
So what do we do? How do we overcome this skepticism and this depressing nihilism? Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher suggested an answer- "leap of faith". Leap of faith is what has brought our lives in harmony with the nature, even if the harmony is just our mental construct. Or may be truth can not be attained through philosophical discourses and rational arguments but through mystical experiences like the mystics and sages have claimed. And I sincerely hope the claims of those saints and mystics are true and truth is as beautiful as they say. May be someday we become like the Budha and see everything as they are but until that day what choice do we have but to take the "leap of faith"?
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