Here is the second part of THE SIN OF TAKING OURSELVES TOO SERIOUSLY. In THE SIN OF TAKING OURSELVES TOO SERIOUSLY — PART 1, we considered the center of the universe, the heart of a human being. Here we ask a question.
Are We Better?
Are we better than the Jews of Jeremiah’s day? Love requires us to take the focus off our self and put it on someone else, but we don’t readily do that.
What does mean to be the center of the universe? We tend to think everything is about me. Only My Needs, My Desires, and My Truth matters.
What is truth? Here is one way of looking at truth.
from => http://saintfactory.com/truth/
- OBJECTIVE TRUTH: To say that a statement is “objectively true” means that it is true for people of all cultures, times, etc., even if they do not know it or recognize it to be true.
- SUBJECTIVE TRUTH: To say that something is “subjectively true” means that it is true for the person(s) making the judgement, even though it may not be true for others.
The fact that earth revolves around the sun is the objective truth. This truth may be difficult for us to perceive, but this truth is discoverable with the proper instrumentation, logical analysis, and prayer.
When we say we are hot or cold, that is a subjective truth. When we perceive our self as hot, someone else may perceive their self as cold. Are we supposed to fight over the thermostat or work out a compromise based upon the actual temperature? Well, some people will fight for their Truth.
Whereas the actual temperature may be an objective truth, our perception of the temperature is subjective. Which truth matters? The subjective truth is about “me,” “my” perception. The objective truth is about God, our best effort to perceive Creation as God perceives it.
Do our perceptions matter? Yes, of course they do. However, our focus must be using our perceptions to know the actual truth, not to seeking the truth that pleases “me.”
There is only one kind of actual truth, that which God has ordained to be, but due to our limited ability to perceive objective reality, we can foolishly declare for our self what is truth. We can insist that our subjective truth is “my truth.” We can even insist that “my truth” is the objective truth.
Is it commonplace for us to declare that “my truth” is the objective truth? Yes. That becomes obvious when we consider the news. We have:
- An election system full of security holes. If people don’t have confidence in the results, elections serve no purpose. Nevertheless, all some people seem to care about is forcing their “truth” upon others. So, the so-called mainstream news media promotes the absurd claim that election fraud is rare except when Democrats claim Republicans have stolen an election.
- Policies designed to destroy the fossil fuels industry, even natural gas. In order to save the environment from a problem that doesn’t seem to exist, are we are going to starve people? Well, if those people are just climate deniers, why not?
- The world’s most pricey education system, an education system that produces awful results. Instead of educating children the way their parents want them educated, politicians use our education system to reward their donors, mostly teachers’ unions. Of course, teachers want their truth about what they think their pay and benefits should be to be the “Truth.” In addition, teachers want their beliefs reflected in the curriculum. That includes ridiculous nonsense like biological boys whose gender choice is female playing on girls’ sports teams.
- Congress just passed a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. Instead of using regular order, assembling and passing a series of smaller bills that allow everyone to see what Congress is doing to the Federal Budget, at the last minute Congress assembled a bill over 4,000 pages long, refused to allow people time to read it, and passed that monster when everyone was trying to enjoy the Christmas holidays. In fact, using their COVID rule, many in Congress voted by proxy. These spendthrifts spent $1.7 trillion, and they couldn’t even be bothered to be in Washington D.C. In other words, Congress is so ashamed of that $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill they did their best to hide it from us.
- An identity politics agenda designed to stoke strife between people based upon race, sex, creed, gender, wealth, disabilities, obesity, political alignment and so forth. Our Constitution is founded upon the objective reality that a person’s character matters more than our subjective desire to be a glorified victim. Unfortunately, those who desire to be victims call that objective reality racist, sexist, bigoted, transphobic, and so forth.
- An open border for human trafficking, narcotics, terrorists, criminals, cheap labor to exploit, a multitude of other sins, plus all the ignorant people Democrats want to vote for them. We know of over five million people who have illegally crossed the border into our country in just the last two years, but nobody actually knows how many have sneaked across in the chaos. It is an objective truth that a country that does not control its borders cannot retain its cultural integrity. Should that objective truth be outweighed by the subjective perception of some people that our cultural integrity is not worth retaining?
- Government policies designed to use the mass media and Big Tech to suppress opposition. Do people who are trying to force “my truth” upon other people want to debate? Nope! And Elon Musk has released documentation showing that some of these people have used government agencies to suppress the First Amendment rights of their opponents.
- And so forth.
Does this analysis seem unfair? Then consider how we resolve our political differences. Do our politicians — the people we vote for — have serious debates? No. They call each other names, lie about each other, fabricate “evidence,” and engage in verbal one-upmanship. Trying to “own” each other does not lead to a serious dialogue. Violence erupts when people start caring more about getting their own way than they do about other people. When people start seeing other people by their race, gender, disability, sex, creed, ethnicity — anything that has nothing to do with the heart, soul, and mind — then those people don’t see other people. They see objects to be manipulated.
Consider the debate Republicans are having over who should be the next Speaker of the House. Messy? Yes, and the “smart”people think it is totally foolish and undignified, but what about the rest of us? Do we want the choice made in a public debate or in a hidden room by party bosses in the pay wealthy factions?
Why do we take political one-upmanship seriously? Instead of being educated, we have been indoctrinated. Our country, our government, the USA spends more on education than any other country, but the results don’t lead to scholastic competence. Too many of our best students have just been raised to be the most docile to authority. Instead of being taught what their parents want them to learn, government-run schools teach children what special interests want them to learn. That includes learning to accept the lies coming out of the so-called mainstream news media, including government funded news media. Government funded news media is by definition government funded propaganda.
As the result of government-run schools designed to conduct government approved political and religious indoctrination and a mass media dominated by political cronies, the average American does not know to be a good citizen. We are supposed to run our government, not be run by our government, but we are being run by our government.
To Be Continued
References
- https://articles.lifeworkmag.com/there-is-no-such-thing-as-my-truth-7cd01504199c
- https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/christian-leader-enough-my-truth-society-return-truth
- https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-life/what-is-the-difference-between-your-truth-and-the-truth.html
- https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/the-power-and-perils-of-speaking-your-truth/549968/
- https://www.quora.com/Does-the-phrase-its-my-truth-make-sense
- https://ochiaibunshiro.medium.com/what-is-subjective-truth-a0947e5af27
- https://www.gotquestions.org/subjective-truth.html and https://www.gotquestions.org/objective-truth.html
- http://saintfactory.com/truth/
- https://www.hsdinstitute.org/resources/four-truths.html
- https://www.learnreligions.com/objective-truth-250549 and https://www.learnreligions.com/pragmatic-theory-of-truth-250550
Citizen Tom 
Thank you!