What is truth?
If we're going to be embarking on a hunt for it, we would be wise to define what it is we're actually hunting for.
Put simply, truth is "the actual state of affairs". Not the desired state, nor even the apparent state, but the actual state. This is an important distinction to make and one with significant ramifications that we will unwrap in future posts.
What is a skeptic?
A skeptic is "someone who questions the validity of a purported fact" or "someone who maintains a doubting attitude". In my own words, I'll describe a skeptic as "someone who questions or doubts the truth of a matter". If you're coming to this blog questioning or doubting what the truth is and whether you can actually know it, then congratulations, you're a skeptic!
I consider myself a skeptical person. That isn't to say that I am skeptical to the point of not believing in anything. In fact, I do have a worldview and system of beliefs (everyone, religious or not, has a system of beliefs) that I like to feel are based on a reasonable evaluation of evidence. However, I am someone who continually questions the truth of matters. I won't take something as true from someone just because they say so--I need to see good evidence and reasoning to arrive at a conclusion.
I want to share with you how I came to the worldview that I now have. At the end of the day we all have to come to some sort of idea about the world, and ideas have consequences--we'll dig into that later. Skepticism to the point of believing in nothing is no way to live your life. If it was, you'd never sit in a chair (what if it breaks underneath me?), drive a car (what if I get in a wreck?), or love someone (what if they hurt me?). Complete skepticism is complete ineffectualness, so let's move away from complete skepticism and toward a more directed skepticism that asks the right questions and keeps them in the proper context.
To build a complete and coherent worldview is quite a journey, and I hope you have the patience to follow me the whole way. Most worthwhile things in life are not easy, and often they aren't simple either...though I think once I've constructed the whole worldview it will be simpler and more logical than you might expect.
The first leg of our journey concerns the issue of truth, and the myriad questions that tend to revolve around such a broad and crucial concept. Let's get started...
