h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It is highly improbable that absolute truth exists. If we define absolute truth as a revelation to the soul/mind of the higher order that created and controls all things, then it is unlikely that such a truth exists. The reason for this is that we are all subjective entities. If someone where to find an absolute truth, everyone’s perception of that truth would be coloured by their own mind/soul and would therefore be a slightly different truth from everyone else’s.
The (absolute) truth may be out there, but we will never experience it. Having said that, I still believe that we can experience our own personal truth.

There is one Absolute Truth...Everything is a Matter of Perception...at least I think its True...Maybe it was Faith is a Matter of Perception...o well

i think your probably right. everyone is different, so there cant be one truth that applies to everyone. however, everyone has a truth that applies to them. life seems mostly about finding that truth, and trying to live according to it.

i think it all depends on your definition of "absolute truth" no?

if your definition of absolute truth is "someone's belief of what absolute truth is" then yes, there can be absolute truth.

if however, your take on absolute truth is that it is "an ideal" that is human's cannot disprove (making it an untruth) then i can't see how one could rationally state that absolute truths exist.

take this situation- man states "situation A is an absolute truth. i've thought about it long and hard and you can't unprove it."

how can one state something cannot be "unproven" if one only uses human intellect to try and disprove it. then someone stating this- "i'm using this screwdriver to sip my drink and its not working, ergo, this drink is unsippable"- would have stated an absolute truth, because there is no way, anyone using the screwdriver would be able to sip the drink.
however anyone who used a straw would be able to disprove the "absolute truth" the individual not knowing that straws exist wouldn't make his absolute truth true would it?
so just because we don't know any other way to disprove our absolute truths doesn't mean that other ways don't exist. maybe we just don't know about them. and if there's a possibility that our absolute truth could be disproven then its not really an absolute truth is it?

yea or nay?

jibbly

'There is no such thing as absolute truth.'

To which the traditional answer is: 'Is that statement true?'

i don't know if any of u know of the true origin of this site if u do then the further wisdom that i dispense will make perfect sense.
the search for the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything has ended the journey to understand this answer has begun. of sourse as u know the answer is 42.
However, is it possible that 42 is not a question or answer but rather a representation of life. As in the infinite possible meanings of 42 is parallel to the infinite meanings of life itself (uuuh-ooh smoke) also that the reason that the earth experiment did not in a sense "fail" (if u have read the slightly recent books the question was found in a rudimentary ouija board built by Arthur Dent) but the actual premise of it in the first place was misplaced. seeing as how 42 was assumed to be the answer to life, the universe, and everything and the attempted to find the question, they used a "computer into which they fed the fact "the answer is 42" when the aformentioned 'computer' found that 42 was not in fact an answer but a model it gave the next best thing a question in which 42 was the answer. Now i don't know if i'm going to far with such an abstract thought but drawing from the above one might say that the question given was a representation of one individual and that each other person tested in the same fashion as arthur dent might result in a different question to the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

i love ric-a-chard's reading of the events in douglas adams' book, and think it can even be improved by remembering that arthur dent's question to the answer "42" was wrong, as well as being possibly unique to him (he thought the question might be 'what do you get if you multiply 6 by 9?'). - so, "the question given was a representation of one individual and that each other person tested in the same fashion as arthur dent might result in a different question to the answer to life, the universe, and everything" and they will all be equally wrong! - that's comforting, somehow.

the problem with arthur dent's question is that the earth was demolished 7 min. before the true question was finished computing. therefore, the question imprinted in his wave brains was either a wrong question or a distortion of the true question. and about the whole "is their an ultimate truth?" question... there are no stupid questions, but there are a LOT of inquisitive idiots. it is also important to note that if both the question and the answer(42) are both known, all will be known about the life, the universe, and everything, and the universe will be replaced by something even more bizzare. thus there is no point to seeking ultimate truth.

first of all i must say that even if that is so, that every thing will disapear once we find out, it is still the quest and only the quest for such truth that drives us, so much so in fact that were we to stop our search then there would procede to be no point to living.

Second of all, it is true that the earth was destroyed 7 minutes before the question was found, however u are mistaken on who that final computation was supposed to be produced from. it was not arthur dent that was on the dawn of recognition of the question it was Fenchurch who on the eve of telling the world of this discovery was interupted by the destruction and then recreation of earth. for afterwards she felt as if she had 'lost' something in that momentary blur in her perception.

Hi!
Frankly I am coming to believe it does! Like someone mentioned we are subjective and hence our perceptions will never be truly free of the self and situations. But we are also subject to principles which do not change! For instance, water boils for all men at a certain altitude irrespective of who is boiling it! It is universal! Free of human subjectivity! That is an absolute Truth! There is a certain principle concerning all human activity and we are subject to situations which are unchanging. Might vary in intensity/duration individually but plus or minus, we all are bound. e.g. breathing, sleeping, nutrition, activity, motion....the list is pretty endless.
Now if physically we accept these absolute truths, maybe it's in the dynamics of the human brain to believe it's scope is infinite.
My source is the Bible! Ever since I was made aware of the name of the Biblical God, YHWH/Yahweh/Jehovah, my perceptions have remarkably altered. It's in the meaning of the name - I Am That I Am/ I Shall Prove To Be/The One Causing All Things To Become.......The Hebrew Tetragrammaton (4 letters).
It's pure scientific. Infact, I have come to believe that science is no longer trying to disprove the existence of God but attempting to study and reveal HOW He did what He did!
Next time try and make a conscious effort to keep preconceptions out and read the Bible with as much as an openmind as you can. Slowly but surely Principles will start emerging, a lil' hazy at the beginning but over a period of time, with due observation that much to your surprise, you will find have been standing the test of time and SHOULD continue to do so, unless PROVEN otherwise. I'm talking about Principles, not Personalities......personalities are also subject to Principles.
So Pray I did manage to share my perception. Funny how it's really very clear to me, yet when one tries to write it down, tend to feel it's inadequate!
Regards

Answers are a perilous grip on the universe. They can appear sensible yet explain nothing. Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know. We tend to fix our minds on what we believe we know.
Abandon certainty! That's life's deepest command. That's what life's all about. We're a probe into the unknown, into the uncertain. If certainty is knowing an absolute future, then that's only death disguised. Such a future becomes now! Absolute prediction is completion, is death! To exist is to stand out, away from the background. We depend upon absolutes and seek finite limits because we can't handle the rigors of terrible decisions. We cling to one-eyed visions of the universe because the alternatives terrify us. You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence.