And the Truth will set you free
Dear All,
First of all, I’d like to thank Rami for this idea. It is nice to have such blog to post our thoughts and ideas. I’ll post the first question: Do you beleive in an absolute truth? For some of you, this question means a lot. For others, may be, it didn’t ring a bell. Anyways, now you have the question and if you have an answer for it, please post it!.
Miena
Thanks Miena for opening the first discussion here, however I’m interested to hear your personal opinions. Anyway, if “the truth will set us free” then we’ll never be free coz there’s no absolute truth. I doubt in my existance already
Comment by ikhnaton2 — January 12, 2006 @ January 12, 2006 8:07 pm
Yes, I beleive.
Comment by fadi — January 13, 2006 @ January 13, 2006 5:18 pm
هاشرح شوية أكتر
أنا مؤمن بالحقيقة
ومؤمن انه في حقيقة مطلقة بحياتي
والحقيقة عمرها ما خذلتني
بس احنا اللي ساعات بنخذلها
لأن الحقيقة زي الحرية متطلبة
واحنا ساعات مش عايزين نآمن بحاجات تتطلب منا حاجات صعبة
راح اعطي مثل ..الحب
الحب من الحقايق اللي عمرها ما خذلتني
بس الحب متطلب جداً
لدرجة انه احيانا بيطلب منك انك تقدم حياتك
لكن لما بتقدم حياتك..فعلاً بتتحرر
فالحب عندي حقيقة مطلقة و حقيقة بتحررني إذا سمعت صوته
المهم في نظري، هو إنه مافيش حقيقة مطلقة علشان هي مطلقة وخلاص
يعني اللي ممكن يكون حقيقة مطلقة ليّ ، ممكن يكون ولا حاجة لشخص آخر
علشان كده انا لازم اسأل نفسي..إيه هي الحقيقة المطلقة اللي بآمن بيها في حياتي أنا ..أنا فادي أو ميناأو
يمكن تكون مش مناسبة للآخرين أو مش عجباهم .. لكن هي دي حقيقتي وهي دي صخرتي اللي هاقف عليها في الأوقات الصعبة
خلونا نسأل نفسنا إيه الحقيقة اللي في حياتنا اللي بتدفعنا انه نكمل حياتنا لقدام
Comment by fadi — January 13, 2006 @ January 13, 2006 6:06 pm
Thanks Miena for proposing such a question. I’ve been always busy thinking of something similar. I’ll try here to discuss the topic more logically and based on Biblical reference. Starting from your title “And the truth will set you free”. To understand the truth we got first to understand the term Freedom. Based on Jesus’ words to the Jewish “Whoever commits sin is a servant of the sin.” So does give us a clue to the meaning of freedom, for me it does. Freedom means to be internally to take everything decision in your life, so what does it mean internally free and free from what. Free from the desire to make sin, free from the desire to prove my personal righteous situation, free from arrogance…but if we are free from all of these, what should the ruler of our decisions. For me, I rely on three main basis Jesus’ words, my sense of humanity, and most of all the sound of god inside me. Although that the sound of god inside us is sometimes faulty and we can hardly recognize, it is the most important of all. For me I take the situation in the opposite direction, I know the sound of god, by the sound that sets me free. And whatever the sound that seems righteous to the whole world but it doesn’t set me free then it is not his sound.
Until now I didn’t answer the question, which Miena proposed. But herein, I’ll. For me there is an absolute truth. Absolute truth coincides with absolute freedom. And both of them do hardly and scarcely occur on earth. That reminds us with Paul’s word “When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we know through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I’m known.” These words assures something I used to believe in that everyone on this earth who is asking and seeking the real and absolute truth, and not just disguised in the costume of truth to fulfill his personal interest, will discover a piece of the incomplete truth on earth. And if he was brave enough to fulfill the demands of truth, he will discover another piece, he may reach the absolute truth on this earth and may not…but he had gone through the path of truth that will lead him to reach the whole truth in the fulfillment of days. How far we travel in the path of truth is dependent on a lot of factors, is dependent on how much we can obey the demands of truth, it depends from where we did start our search for the truth…Hope I was stepping one more step in the direction the absolute by these thoughts. Thanks Fadi for the word “The truth is demanding”, I liked it a lot and used it a lot too.
Comment by Antonius Armanious — January 14, 2006 @ January 14, 2006 12:28 am
Sorry i want to know the diffrent between absolute truth and trust to my knowledge trust and lie i think absolute trust and trust like lie and a white lie
Comment by Helahoba — January 14, 2006 @ January 14, 2006 12:59 am
Helahoba, Here you are the difference, absolute truth is in arabic “el7akika elmotaka”, el7akika elmotlaka 7aseb fehmi laha hia el7akika alti taslo7 lel2nsan mahma 27′talefet zerofoh 2o 2wda3oh, fahia la tat2ser be3awmel w zrof sha7’sia 7′asa bel 2nsan. ama Trust fahia elseka, we alseka 7aseb fehmi ana, hia daman w 2man to3teh lel27′ren don el2stenad 3ala ka3eda madia. 2tmana 2ni 2kon kad estat3et twde7 el2mor akser.
Comment by Antonius Armanious — January 14, 2006 @ January 14, 2006 4:01 pm
Fadi and Tony, your input need to be discussed. I’ll take it one-by-one but not now coz i’m tired. c u
Comment by ikhnaton2 — January 16, 2006 @ January 16, 2006 1:12 am
THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH,…. sometimes we seek to convince ourselves that some things are true, just becuz we used to hear that form others ,or, sometimes we believe that things are true,just becuz we used to them,for example , we used to consider that the sun will shine everyday is an absolute truth, but think with me ,don’t we all know that one day it won’t.!!!!? so, it became not a truth anymore, -at least for me-…So for me the truth,& the only absolute truth, is the one I personally examine in my life. THERE IS ABSOLUTE TRUTH, it is there everywhere ,but it is waiting for us to assure its existence…this is us who make truth & this is why we have to work hardly to discover the truth around & ENJOY IT…becuz truth will set u free as u said Miena,& only then happiness will exist .
Comment by Lorine Magdy — January 16, 2006 @ January 16, 2006 7:58 pm
Firstly, I would like to apologize for my late response; I was out of town for a couple of days. Also, I want to ask you a favour: As much as you can, no Arabic in the English section. The reason I am asking for this is that I am planing to invite a couple of friends, non-arabic natives, to this forum. I know sometimes it is difficult to express yourselves in a foreign language, but lets stick to rules( No arabic).
Back to the subject, both Antonius and Fadi gave very deep and clear examples. They also menstioned literally that they do beleive in an absolute truth. What I Would like to ask them is the following:
1] What is the absolute truth for you? is it obvious for you? Is it some philosophical thoughts that you have developed by time?
2] Why do you believe in such an absolute truth?
3] The last and the most important is how do you believe in an absolute truth? Be aware that many times we think that we beleive in something and our acts shows different attitude.
Tony: you made a very strong corelation between the absolute truth and freedom. you are right , BUT you mentioned something very contradicting: “the sound that seems righteous to the whole world but it doesn’t set me free then it is not his sound.” Righteous can never contradict with freedom. Again, I think that you are setting some concepts that makes you feel better or whatever… And you are so stick to it, it doesn’t look like you examine it. what I am trying to say, you follow your feeling of freedom as if it is almost always from GOD. I am not attacking you here because all of us do the same thing. When we don’t know how to approach something, we stick it to something that we can feel so that it can be easier for us to digest it. But the question is still there you didn’t answer it? This can be even more misleading because the you way you feel something, say freedom, is subject to tons of factors.
One more thing away from the subject: the verse “And the Truth will set you free” implies that the truth will lead you to freedom. It is NOT the freedom that will define the absolute truth.
Comment by miena — January 17, 2006 @ January 17, 2006 9:18 am
What a beautiful subject!
Probably no one will read this, it’s an old thread, but I would like to mention this thought.
“Truth is not a set of ideas, but a person. Truth is Christ Himself”.
I was surprised by this first, then over the years have started comprehending it little by little. The full Truth is Christ, and I suppose this means that the closer we are to God through our life and the holy Sacraments of our Church, we approach Truth and gain Wisdom.
I still struggle though with the concept of “truth”=a set of ideas/dogmas etc
Comment by Dia — February 15, 2007 @ February 15, 2007 10:13 pm