Note: This is part 5 of a five part series on how we can discover truth. Here are the other parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4. The entire series makes up the third chapter of my book, The Triple Path, which can be downloaded for free here in PDF and eReader formats or purchased at all major book retailers (in print and eReader formats).

 

Conclusion

Recent history has led to radical changes in how we discover and pass on truth. The Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution have transformed how we understand the material world. The invention of the printing press, and the increased literacy it brought, has encouraged increased reliance on authority and has transformed how tradition and religion and knowledge spread to new people and get passed down to future generations.

Jesus said “you will know them by their fruits”.1 On the question of is, the scientific method and the rest of the great intellectual heritage of our modern Western tradition and culture have done more than anything in history to guide humanity to greater factual knowledge about the material world and also to previously unfathomable increases in standards of living.

Scientific discoveries about the material world are often proven wrong, but virtually always by someone else applying the scientific method. While the scientific method is not always right, it has proven far more accurate at discovering truth about the material world than anything else we have been able to come up with.2 But rationalism and the scientific method have been inadequate tools at helping us find truth about the world as a forum for action.

When it comes to ought—figuring out what is right and wrong, how to live a good life, and how to live with meaning, then tradition and religion have shown themselves to be our best guides. Their proven track record to help us be healthier, happier, and behave better suggest that we should adopt as much of their practices and moral teachings as possible, rejecting only the factual and historical claims that are clearly mistaken.

No one has all the answers. We are all fallible and imperfect. Each of us believes things that are wrong. We cannot change and improve our thoughts and ideas and actions to more closely match reality if we cannot recognize when we are wrong. May we all seek for more of the right kind of humility. But may we also have the right kind of courage also, to boldly seek truth and then act confidently based on the best knowledge and wisdom we have found.

Most of the time, we seek truth only haphazardly. How much more could each one of us find by being more thoughtful and wise in our quest for truth? How much more could humanity find if we all collectively were more wise and thoughtful?

 

 

Footnotes

1. Matthew 7:20 (NRSV).

2. A philosopher might point to the problem of induction to argue against science’s utility in discovering truth. The counterargument, though, is that science has produced the best results so far. We should, of course, never stop looking for better ways of coming to the truth, but for coming to factual conclusions about the material world, the scientific method is the best thing we have.