Sure is! Check out this brief Forbes report on the nature of truthiness!

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2006/12/08/ap3240767.html

Truthiness is defined as truth that comes from the gut, not books. Indeed!

I've been giving this matter considerable thought. It really does define a whole lotta differences between people.

We've got scientific truth, backed by mathmatics.

After considerable thought, logic and math are one and the same as they can both be expressed in terms of the other. (Boolean mathmatics essentially can prove a fallacy, for example!)

This all serves to define truth as being something that exhibits consistancy across all manners of consideration. Of course the problem being are all manners of consideration actually known?

ugh!

Of the forms of truth being presented as true, this one at least has the greatest concensus among our leading thinkers.

Which brings me to truth in numbers!

Biblical truth appears to follow this. The more consensus we appear to have on a given interpetation of biblical truth, the more truthy it appears to be.

IMHO, this drives the conflict on religion. It's all about mindshare, not one's personal relationship with god. Not everybody buys into this, but a whole lotta people do.

Double ugh!

Then comes emperical truth! It's an interesting mixture of the scientific truth and biblical truth detailed above!

The truth of common sense essentially. What is obvious in terms of our social convention is easily accepted as being true, despite clear conflicts with both biblical truth and scientific truth.

Personally, I characterize these as norms, but that's just me. Plenty of people will accept these as truths, citing time and a sort of social evolution as the support for their acceptance of truth.

It occurs to me, the whole damn thing is arbitrary right now!

(BTW, this is exactly why I freaking love Colbert! Say what you want about his politics, his ability to put these matters into a single phrase is nothing short of amazing! Brilliant television.)

A fairly high number of people consider the matter entirely arbitrary, thus to them truthiness rules the day! Essentially, truth is what one says it is, and becomes more true if one can get others to agree!

I personally reject this, but am open to some serious discussion on these matters. What is your definition of known truth?

I'm gonna characterize this as absolute truth. Things you can establish as being known true --undisputed!

Let's take a few of those and just hammer on them! We may well discover some common elements of truth that none of us expect! I'm not interested in characterizing anyones beliefs on this thread.

The classic rules of debate apply. No fallacies allowed. That means self supporting stuff, generalizations, etc... If you bother to post on this thread, you may well find elements of your core being will come into question. If this is an issue, keep it to yourself and either continue to contribute or not.

It's not an attack, but a collective effort to crack truth and gain something in return. I want it real. No bounds, but with candor and respect for one another as beings looking for an answer.

The lack of threading on this forum will be a hinderance. Let's keep the focus relevant. Claims of poor focus need solid support. Consider yourself in a court room, having to behave for guidence in this regard.

I want to take something I consider to be known true --absolutely true and see if it can be cracked and how it's cracked.

In this, some elements of truth will be revealed on a greater scale, one piece at a time through known truths that pass all of our truthiness tests.

I'll start with:

We all live here for a time, then die.

IMHO, this is undisputed. Known true.

What say you all? Is this is known truth, absolute and undisputed? Why, why not?

EDIT: There will be no anger on this thread. Anger is false, and as such cannot contribute to a thread on truth. Get pissed, you lose. Frustrated is cool. Pushing really hard is cool --encouraged. Anger is a loss no matter what.

(I know that's another thread, but let's just take that as a given on this one in the interest of maybe learning something new ok?)

Colbert was on Charlie Rose last night. It was great to see him out of character. The guy knows stuff.

As for the actual topic - I know ceratin things. I believe certain things. And I hope that certain things I believe are true.

I hope that I will know the difference when it's shown to me.

Do you have one you want to put on the floor? Let's try and crack it!

The one I have out there is really easy. I suspect it would be confirmed true for all of our truthiness tests, but that's not yet known.

By all means, put one up and let's see what the disposition is. I don't personally care what gets cracked, nor the implications, only that the cracking process occurs.

C'mon guys! Let's hammer on truthiness a little.

Almost everybody here has asked others what truth is. Let's put all the truths together and see where it leads. Maybe we can establish a fact or two! At the very least we will sharpen our reasoning skills somewhat!

There is a bonus! You get to call: "Objection!", then state your grounds! You know you wanna...

EDIT: A good friend of mine, who is not the kind to post in these places, has essentially stated that it is our perception that we live here for a time then die! How's that for a crack! One known truth in question right outta the gate. And I thought it would be an easy one...