Letter 1: The Journey

Hi. I am Joshua, and these are my letters. They are a summary of findings from my journey to discover and comprehend the truth about the nature of our existence and life’s great questions. In them I will present a theory that, to my knowledge, has never been published before and that I hope you will find can unify what science and religion have to offer. With that in mind, I hope you will follow me on this journey through my letters as I explain.

 

Before diving in, I want to spend some time covering a few important concepts regarding the truth, because my experience is that many people don’t really know what the truth is, so I’d like to start by defining it.

 

The dictionary defines truth as “Reality. Things that are fact.” This is direct, but what does it mean? What is reality? What is fact? The dictionary defines these as “Reality: The world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them”; “Fact: A thing that is indisputably the case.” Combining these definitions yields: “Truth: The world or the state of things as they actually, indisputably exist, not the way that they are perceived to be.” This is straightforward, but I find it is missing something.

 

Many years back, I stumbled across a book that is from Mormon culture that contains a very interesting definition of truth. The book is called Doctrine and Covenants, and in it, God is portrayed to be the one speaking. In the 93rd chapter, he gives his definition of truth as follows: “Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come.”

 

Notice that this definition makes a critical distinction, that truth is the knowledge of things…” rather than the state of things. Truth on any topic exists whether anyone knows it or not, but is there value in an unknown truth or only in its potential to be known? According to this definition purported to be given by God himself, truth must be known in order to be truth and thus, unknown truth exists in the realm of existence but needs to be discovered and known. Those are interesting thoughts and they lead us to the next topic - discovery.

 

Discovery is defined in the dictionary as “The action or process of discovering or being discovered.” In other words, discovery is the process of learning something new and it happens to every person continually in one way or the other. The problem is that there is an overload of things to be discovered, more than anyone can possibly cover in a lifetime. Thus, if one hopes to discover the truth about our existence and life’s great questions, they have to be a seeker of such and a determined one at that. This is because truth by its very nature is a needle in a haystack, for it is singular while falsehood has infinite possibilities. To find truth, a process of identifying it is needed so that the seeker knows when they have found it and when they have not. This process I call the Circle of Truth.

 

One of the beautiful things about truth is that it is like a close-knit family where members stand with arms interwoven, forming an unbreakable circle of support for each other. Although each individual truth is singular, it is connected to other truths that are in turn connected to more. If the process of discovery is used to find a single truth and then continued to discover the surrounding truths, eventually the full circle is complete and the whole truth is revealed. This is why something that is true can stand against all tests and challenges because no matter how deep you dig; all of the surrounding truths will support it. An example of this is gravity. So far, mankind’s discoveries have all supported that it exists.

 

This leads to an obvious question however: How does one complete the Circle of Truth? Well, unfortunately, you don’t. Doing so requires the knowledge of all things, for anything less leaves the possibility that something undiscovered will arise and disprove what was thought to be true. This is why we have only theories in this life and why what I will reveal in these letters will be just that… a theory. 

 

The final facet of truth I want to cover is that truth cannot change. A truth that changes was never a truth in the first place, but rather truth as experienced and/or understood. If these two things were the same, then there would be no way to ever arrive at the truth as it would be a moving target, and no truth could ever be relied upon to remain true. Thus, it is our knowledge and understanding of the truth that changes, not the truth itself.

 

Hopefully you will find that what I will present in these letters - though not the entire truth about our existence - is unique and I will show it to be well supported in the Circle of Truth.

 

Much more to come.

 

Until next time,

 

Joshua

Reviews

[i.am.cathartic]

you really know how to not give a straight answer and to make readers wanting for more. hehe i wish i have that kind of patience.

if i haven't written that first line in my review, i would have really commented some arguements and some agreeing adeas as much as contradictind ideas.

i really like these letters, though in my arguments i think they're a waste of time but since you're the one who's wasting that time for me. it couldn't get any better. :)

keep going Joshua. :D

[rae52]

very intriguing, keep going

[Coffee Vampier]

I love you letters. I must admit i almost did not read this due to the fact i am one more for poetry on this site and even then if it is rather long i tend to skip over it.... i am sure it is a loss for me. At any rate you have defiantly done your research and your part of the thinking to put this together. How I know this is because I was born and raised mormon and i continue to be apart of that church. you have very valid point and I look forward to reading more and when I find the right thing i will express my opinion on it as well :)

[Shep]

For person that says he is bo educated I find a falsehood in the truth. In fact the truth be told you are in fact very educated. But for finding truth in the word truth you might find mor tha you bargand for, yet I look forward to reading your work and hope you do the same.

[Meghan]

This was very interesting... have you ever considered becoming a philosopher? :D At times your writing was very wordy. I had to take a moment to let it sink in so I could understand and continue. But I realize this is probably your goal - to challenge the way people think, especially concerning truth. The voice of your narrator is very compelling. Through Joshua you build a sort of "relationship" with the reader... the reader feels special for being called to discover "truth" and is thus interested in reading furthur. Nice work and good luck!

[A. L. Allen]

I'm very interested to see where you find your truths. I always find things like this very intriguing. :) Keep me posted when new chapters come up. :D

[RainQueen]

Ah - This is an eloquently-presented argumentative tease! The idea that there is such a thing as absolute truth, regardless of circumstance or perspective - That's an intriguing proposition. I very much look forward to watching this unfold. Excellent write!

[Kaine]

I feel an urge to say something about this, but as I don't know where you're going with this yet, I will save my possible disagreements for later. I will, however, encourage you to keep writing, as I too hope to see people put greater thought into subjects such as this, and I am looking forward to reading further.

[Tai Ryens]

Interesting. A truth seeker. It's always intriguing to read about another person's personal views on why he is here. Trust me though, many, MANY, people may disagree with you, depending on where this story is going. Despite that, I encourage you to keep making these letters and keep sharing those views.

[Cherrie]

The great quandary of all time, the 5W’s of thought; Who am I, Why am I here, What purpose do I hold, Where am I going ,When shall I return from whence I came.