So while my wife and I were browsing the New Release wall in Blockbuster deciding on a movie to rent, we come across this film to your left. "Ondine," starring Colin Farrell. The movie itself didn't really catch my eye, and it was my wife who pointed it out to me, specifically she pointed out the caption under the title.
"The truth is not what you know. It's what you believe."
And here you have yet another open and unapologetic shaping of American culture.
There are two main elements present here,
a) Objective Truths (Factual Knowledge)
and
b) Individual Perception of Given Objective Truths
The caption asserts that the truth is not found in the Facts (objective truths), rather it is found in how you perceive the Objective Truths.
This is ridiculous, and is at the heart of postmodernism in our culture.
When presented in a setting like the movie above, or set within certain parameters, it appears romantic, philosophical and deep. It is hardly romantic, barely philosophical, and as deep as the surface area of a penny. It's hogwash. It teaches us to say,
"I don't care if the doctor, my mom, the scale on the wall and that picture of me say I'm 5' 1", I sincearly believe with all my heart that I'm 6' 7", so the truth must be that I'm 6' 7"."
"The truth is not what you know. It's what you believe."
There is no longer in secular culture an objective standard for truth. Truth is whatever you want it to be. You believe I'm 5' 1", and thats true for you. I believe I'm 6' 7", and thats true for me. Were both right. You believe Yahweh is God and the Christian Scriptures are His Word, I believe Allah is God and the Muslim Scriptures are His Word. Were both right, both things are true. I don't care that Yahweh declares Allah to be a false god, and I don't care that Allah declares Yahweh to be a false god.
Lets all just,
And so by seeking to "find truth" we loose it. We have no objective standard for morality or truth, and we have no logic, Truth can be "Truth" and "Not Truth" at the same time and in the same way.
There you have it, another, albeit small instance of the shaping of our culture through the romanticizing of ridiculous notions, Foolishness.
