We all have opinions. They are formed over a lifetime, and they change and adjust as we go along. New evidence comes into our awareness and the opinions we once held so tightly to don’t make sense anymore. Then we get new ones and cling to those.
People fight to prove that their opinion is the right one. Wars are started over opinions, and marriages end because the need to be right seems far more important than the need to get along.
One person believes strongly in something, knowing that it is the truth. Another person believes in the opposite, knowing that it is the truth.
So what is the truth?
And who gets to decide what the truth is?
We draw conclusions based on the best evidence we have available to us. That is why there are juries who decide the fate of an accused in the hope that their opinions will all come together to get as close to the truth as possible.
Hung juries occur when opinions don’t come together. Presented with the same evidence at the same time in the same manner, the group is unable to reach a unanimous decision. The jury is hung and the defence and prosecution have to start over or give up.
The truth wasn’t clear enough. Conspiracy theorists live for this kind of thing.
But if we all agree that the truth is the truth, then how can we reach different conclusions about the same thing?
If you had jumped on a boat hundreds of years ago and set sail, you would have been told that for sure you were going to sail right off the edge of the earth. The world was flat and every intelligent person knew this. That was the truth.
It was until it wasn’t.
The sun circled around the earth, because the earth was the centre of the universe. People died defending the belief that it was actually the other way around.
Defence of perceived truths tends to get people hurt or killed for no good reason. Is it any wonder that in our own lives our truths can cause so much conflict with those around us?
We like to spend time with people who share our truths. Life is easier that way. It gets tiresome to always have to teach the ignorant that they are wrong and we are right.
Until you find out that you were wrong. Then you have to defend a whole new truth. And on it goes.
At best we have opinions that are based on assumptions. Deciding that there is truth in assumptions is erroneous at best, and destructive at worst.
Needing to be right and knowing that you possess the truth and someone else is wrong is never a peaceful way to live. To defend what you believe in at the cost of peace seems like a waste of precious energy.
Making someone else wrong so you can be right is also hurtful. None of us likes to be made to feel stupid, or incorrect, or clueless. It’s best not to do it to someone else when you know you don’t like having it done to you.
Recognize what supposed truths you have that you spend a great deal of energy defending. If you need to be right about things, you are closing off your mind to the possibility that there may be a different interpretation than yours. You might even find out that you were totally wrong.
Sometimes choosing peace instead of needing to be proven right is much more enjoyable. No one likes to be around a know-it-all anyways.
It’s prudent to remember that none of us really knows many things with any certainty.
In reality, we are all just sailing around, hoping not to fall off the edge of the world into the abyss. At least do it peacefully.