Truth. It is the eternal truth we search for? Or is it an endless quest that serves no use to the world, other than to destroy humankind. First off, before further delving into the question, we must first define what an absolute truth is. An absolute truth is something that would be considered to be true at all times. However, such a thing simply does not exist in the world today. Why is this? Simply put, it is due to the imperfections that humans are innately born with that create imperfection cognitions. According to Thomas Kuhn, every year, new scientific, paradigm shifting ideas come out that continually replace the old ones. So if there is no such thing called truth, why do we continue to be separated by age-old differences in religion? Religious wars have been fought throughout centuries, starting off with the Crusades in the medieval times. Humankind is fighting a similar war amongst itself, through the war on Iraq. At the basis of religion, people believe that the absolute truth, that there is a god, and that their method is absolutely right. Interestingly enough, on an interview with Bill O’Reilly, Richard Dawkins, the famous author behind the novel The God Delusion stated that the onus was on people who believe in god in order to prove its existence. Bill O’Reilly tells him that he believes in god and that is true to him, however Dawkins counters with the fact that if God is only true to him, and not true to everyone, can God truly exist? This is a famous question that has had philosophers, religious thinkers and most of humanity pondering for centuries. Does God truly exist? It is a very difficult question to answer, especially considering that there is no empirical, objective evidence that would indeed prove that God exists, other than scriptures written thousands of years ago by alleged saints, rabbis and other religious figures. However, what this fails to take into account is the fact that it is impossible to know absolute truth. Thus, it is irrational to state that the other side is wrong and thus using the philosophy of ethical relativism, which states that all morals are relative to the individual, wars are useless. People need to adopt the philosophy of stoicism in order to prevent any emotional turmoil that may result from thinking that his/her train of thought is “right” and the irrational expectation for everyone to conform to their norms. Irrational anger, arguably is the cause for most of the wars including the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is currently going on right now. Due to the fact that they have a difference of opinions on who should “own” the land, even though the question is simply impossible to be answered. There is no possible, objective way in determining whose land it is. Heck, for some radical environmentalist views, the Earth belongs to everyone, and we should destroy all our houses, in order for the Earth to support more biodiversity. The search for absolute truth is what is killing mankind. Absolute truth in my mind simply does not exist. Humans should not waste any more time, money and most importantly lives, in what can simply be described as differences of opinions that is primarily based on the fact that all humans are different. Only then, will the ever-so-elusive idea of world peace might possibly come into fruition.
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