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Truth...

             “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. (John 18:38)

          I’ve been discussing the problem of evil with someone online, and today’s verse came to mind. So, I apologize to those who aren’t in the mood for a philosophical rant because that’s where things are going this morning. Let’s start with the definition of truth without the circular reasoning involved in using the word “true.” Truth is “that which is in accordance with fact or reality.” One comment made was that religion is a myth or fairytale for adults. I suspect there are cases where that is true, but it is a hasty generalization that “all religions are the same.” The first problem is that there is the modern and temporally snobbish view of fairytales: they’re just stupid little stories meant to entertain kids. But C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joseph Campbell, and other scholars who study them disagree. Bruno Bettelheim describes fairy tales as   “confronting the child squarely with the basic human predicaments. They state an existential dilemma briefly and to the point. It is simplified to let the child come to grips with the problem in its most essential form.[1]

          The second problem is tied to Pilate’s question.  What is truth? If the events in the story never happened, but it describes existential dilemmas, does it not at least contain truth? If the events happened and are presented to us in a way that describes basic human dilemma and not the full account in its myriad details, does it not contain a fairy tale? The evidence at least suggests (strongly) that what is recorded in the Bible is historical truth that presents truth. That makes it the best kind of “fairytale” and the best kind of “history.”


[1] Bettelheim, Bruno, The Uses of Enchantment, (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1989) p. 8.

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