Dearly beloved,
We are gathered here today to draw the final conclusion. The title of this post is “The Truth” for a very important reason: there seem to be more and more people nowadays who don’t know the truth. Not only do they not know the truth, but they are also convinced in their hearts that the lie they believe instead is actually the truth.
I am going to explain it in detail in this final part, and I want to tell you that nothing you’ve ever read in your life is more important than this. I don’t want to “sell” my writing by sensationalizing it. I make zero dollars per month (and that’s going to be my profit for a very long time) as a result of writing on this blog.
Why am I doing it then? For a simple reason: the Truth does not depend on its acceptance by the listener. I know the Truth, and the fact that I know it doesn’t change it. If I didn’t know it, it would still be the same. Even if nobody else knew it, it would still be the same, because the Truth is the Truth.
I am a language teacher, but I used to study science. Physics was my favorite subject in school and high school, and I also attended the courses of the University of Physics in Bucharest for a short while until I realized I didn’t want to become a physics teacher, and rethought my vocation.
So, everything I’ll be saying in this part will be backed up by science. The Truth, from a scientific point of view, should be more easily accepted. Again, the Truth is the same whether we have ever heard about it or not, whether we accept it or not, whether we understand the “science” behind it or the philosophy that tries to explain it.
I am going to have a simple experiment today. For it I will need a bar of lead (one of the heaviest metals), a bathtub with water and another one with mercury (the only liquid metal). Don’t ask me where I got so much mercury, cause I’m not going to tell you. In my imagination I can get anything no matter how expensive it is.
All I need now to do the experiment is a third grader. Any volunteers? Okay, thank you for offering to participate in the experiment. “Don’t mention it.” Here’s what we’re gonna do. I’ll take the bar of lead and put it in the bathtub with water. What do you think will happen to it? “It will sink.” Wow, you’re smart! Are you sure you’re in the third grade? Now, do I have to actually do it? “What do you mean?” I mean, you said the bar of lead will sink in the bathtub with water. Do I have to actually do it to prove that it will sink? “Oh, no, of course not. Even a monkey that didn’t go to school knows that.”
Perfect. What about the bathtub with mercury? What do you think will happen if I put the bar of lead in there? “I don’t know. I think it will sink also.” No, it will not. The bar of lead will float. “Really?” Yes. It’s simple physics. The density of lead is 11.3g/cm3 while that of mercury is 13.5g/cm3 so, according to Archimedes’s Law of hydrostatics, lead will float in mercury. “I didn’t understand anything of what you’ve just said, but, wow!, that’s amazing.” Now you know why this experiment had to be conducted with a third grader as opposed to a tenth grader or a university student or a college professor. “Yes, I do. You picked me because I have no idea about that Archimedes guy or hydro-whatever you said back there.”
Okay. So I said all that mumble-jumble but I still haven’t proved to you that the bar of lead will float. Just because I say fancy words, and I claim to be an “expert” in physics, does it mean you have to believe me? “Well, I kinda have no choice. I don’t want to make a fool out of myself. I mean, if I say, no I don’t believe you, and you put the bar of lead in mercury and it floats, that will make me the dunce of the class.” You’re a smart kid, and I like the way you think. But remember, just because I say something is true doesn’t mean you have to believe it. Only because I’m older and the performer of the experiment, okay? “Okey-dokey.”
Now comes the most important question of the evening: do you think the truth about the bar of lead sinking or floating in mercury depends on what I say about it or what you believe of what I say? “Come again?” I’m sorry, let me rephrase it: the bar of lead will float in mercury, and that’s the truth. Do you think that can be changed if I say it will sink or if you don’t believe it will float? “Oh, I see what you mean.” So? Can the truth be different based on what I say about it or what you believe? “No, obviously not.”
Good. So we’ve just proven what I started to prove by this experiment: The truth cannot be altered by the surrounding factors such as talking about it, lying about it, believing it, or not believing it. Lead floats in mercury whether I say it does or it doesn’t and whether you believe it does or it doesn’t. Because it’s the truth. Thanks for your help.
Now for the next experiment I need an atheist who is convinced one hundred percent there is no God. If he or she is a professor at Stanford University, so much better. Or, better still, let’s bring ten of them, or one hundred. What the hell, let’s bring them all. There’s plenty of room in my imaginary experiment.
The experiment I am going to perform is very similar to the previous one. Actually, it’s just a question: Does God’s existence depend on what I say about it or what you believe from what I say? You don’t have to answer that; the answer is obvious. As in our previous example, the truth cannot be altered by the surrounding factors such as talking about it, lying about it, believing it, or not believing it.
Now comes the tricky part. You’re gonna say that in this case we can’t prove it by actually putting the bar of lead in the bathtub with mercury and seeing that it floats. Okay. You have a very good point there. But did the truth in the previous example depend on whether I completed the experiment or not? Like, if I put the bar of lead in the tub and I see it floats I’ll believe the truth, but if I don’t put it and keep holding it in my hand I’ll go, well, I’m not so sure about it!
“It’s still not the same thing.” Please answer the question, professor! Does the truth depend on whether or not you perform the experiment to find it? “Yes, of course. Your experiment will actually determine whether the answer is yes or no for whatever question you are asking.” Interesting. I’m glad we have an atheist here who wouldn’t go down without a fight. But, professor, you misunderstood my question. Try to pay more attention please. Maybe we need another illustration.
Let’s say we discover a new metal. We’ll call it newmetalium. It appears to be very heavy, heavier that lead, but we don’t know exactly its density. We still have the bathtub with mercury from the previous experiment (fictional experiments are so convenient because you can do them again right after you’ve cleaned up the test tubes, sold the spectrometer for parts, or extinguished the fire caused by the explosion) and we’re going to sink the bar of newmetalium in it. Now, we don’t know whether it’s going to sink of float, because nobody has ever put that metal in mercury. I’m going to play a little game here to make our experiment even crazier.
The finding of newmetalium was such a huge media event that they even had CNN broadcast the actual experiment. At nine o’clock sharp, when the audience is at its peak, they show live as I ease the bar of newmetalium into the bathtub of mercury. Nobody on earth breathes for a few seconds as they watch the bar of newmetalium disappear below the surface of the liquid mercury. So it sinks! It’s heavier than mercury! Everybody is amazed by the new discovery, and some scientists, in various corners of the globe, hug each other in a friendly, yet excited way. They know the truth now: newmetalium is heavier than mercury.
Whoa, whoa, wait a minute! Guys! Aren’t you missing something here? What time was it when we performed the experiment? “Nine o’clock.” Okay. Now, remember what you said five minutes before the experiment? You said, and I quote, “We don’t know if newmetalium is heavier than mercury.” That was at eight fifty-five. Now, at nine oh-five, you know it’s heavier.
If you don’t mind my asking–and I apologize for making you answer such a kindergarten question–was newmetalium heavier than mercury at eight fifty-five? “Well, duh!” But at eight fifty-five you said you didn’t know! “That’s because the experiment was performed at nine. Of course we didn’t know the result five minutes before.” Fair enough. But the truth that newmetalium is heavier than mercury was actually in effect even before you did the experiment, wasn’t it? You just didn’t know it, that’s the difference. The truth was the same, though. And the fact that you went on with the experiment didn’t change the truth, did it?
As a matter of fact, newmetalium would have been heavier than mercury even if we had decided to cancel the whole experiment along with the live CNN broadcast, and never perform it again. Keep it like an enigma sort of thing. A myth. The greatest mystery of the twenty-first century! Is newmetalium heavier than mercury or not?
We could have destroyed that bar of newmetalium (the only one ever found) and future generations of scientists would have dedicated their entire lives and careers to solving the mystery, because we–let’s face it!–love mysteries.
Guess what! It is eight fifty-five! And I have a question for you: is there a God or not? Some will say, “Yes there is,” others, “No there isn’t,” and yet others, “I don’t know yet,” or even, “I don’t really care.” But no matter which answer you pick, the truth about God’s existence is only one and it’s not going to change. It will be the same at nine oh-five, as it has always been, and again, remember: it does not depend on my saying there is a God or not, or on your believing what I say or not.
There is only one thing I want to add before I finish. Remember the man and the island in Parts 1 and 2? I am that man. And the old man in the hut on the mountain is God. I accidentally found him on that island. I have to admit I was looking for something, basically the truth–that’s why I was sailing the endless ocean farther and farther away every time–but I had no idea what I would find or whether I would find something or not.
Now, I can’t say I am very happy with the turn of events. I was in that hut for a little while (even though it seemed like an eternity) and I felt incredible in there. But the old man sent me back to my homeland. I could have stayed there and felt that wonderful sensation forever, but I didn’t. Now, that I think about it, I can’t remember exactly whether I left because I wanted to or because the old man wanted me to. The thing is that he simply said, “It’s time for you to go home now,” and I replied, “Okay.” I didn’t feel the need to ask any questions like, “Why?” or “Can’t I stay for a little while longer?” or “What’s going to happen to me now?”
I suppose he wanted me to go back home and start telling the other people about the island. I didn’t do that. I only told one friend, and when I saw his reaction, I decided never to tell again. I was afraid people would think I was crazy.
Now, you may wonder, “Why didn’t you try to go back to the island since it was such a wonderful place to be in?” Well, the answer to that question is simple: remember the fruit the old man gave me? The one without any seeds. That fruit is called The Truth. Once you eat from it you become part of God, and it doesn’t matter how far away you are from the magical island, you always feel like you are actually there. You feel like you belong.
I know some of you, the atheists who believe in evolution, will laugh at my post. I even met people who said, “I don’t doubt my conviction at all! I believe there is no God one hundred percent, and my doubt that I might be mistaken is zero!” Those are excellent percentages. I have them too, but backwards. Now the fact that you are convinced one hundred percent there is no God (no island) is not going to affect my conviction at all. I just know you haven’t found the island (maybe you looked for it but didn’t find it or you never looked for it) and I understand where you are. Remember, I was once like you.
But if you tell me that my one hundred percent (and the strong claim that I have found the island you think doesn’t exist) doesn’t bother you a little bit, not even like one percent of doubt that you may be mistaken and I might actually have found the island (which–by the way–is not easy to find), then you are the most stubborn atheist I’ve ever met or a person who doesn’t really care about anything.
The End
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