Can You Handle the Truth?

Jack Nicholson apparently doesn't think so!

Remember that scene from "A Few Good Men"?  Tom Cruise plays the young lawyer investigating the murder of a US serviceman in Guantanamo Bay, and Jack Nicholoson plays the base commander, a colonel.

Nicholson is put on the stand as a witness and Cruise begins to question him rather pointedly, implying Nicholson might have been complicit in the events leading to the serviceman's death.  Nicholson clearly becomes agitated and the exchange goes as follows:

Nicholson: You want answers?
Cruise: I feel I'm entitled to.
Nicholson: You want answers?
Cruise: I want the truth!
Nicholson: You can't handle the truth!

As it turns out, Nicholson was involved in the death of the serviceman.  He furiously defends his actions even while being arrested for his confession on the witness stand.

I think this exchange bears special significance for our journey.  What do you think Nicholson meant when he said "you can't handle the truth"?  Have you ever stopped to think about it?  I think, in essence, what he was saying is "The truth is not what you would expect.  It's something you wouldn't understand and if I tried to explain it to you, you would reject it or misinterpret it.  Your preconceived notions of the way the world works would give you such a bias that you wouldn't be able to see my point of view."

If you're familiar with the remainder of Nicholson's confession and how he justifies himself, I think this explanation makes sense.

So what about you?  Can you handle the truth?  What if it's not what you would expect?  Are you approaching the question with such a bias that you're not even willing to consider opposing viewpoints?  Do you take for granted that what you've always been told is true, for no other reason than that's what you've always been told?  Have you personally investigated the evidence for your own worldview and that of others, to be sure you're actually on the right track?

I must admit this was a stumbling block for me in my own personal journey.  My biggest fear was that I was biased and taking for granted what I had always been told.  I know there are literally BILLIONS of other people out there who have a different worldview than mine.  Are they all simply taking for granted what they've always been told or do they have good reasons for what they believe?  The evidence seemed to be pointing me full circle to what I had always been told since a child, but I was worried my own bias was tainting the evidence so much that I wasn't being objective.

This is an important point.  I've heard it said many ways but I'll word it like this: "the mind will find the evidence that the heart wants to follow."  If you approach a search like this with too much subjectivity, you're going to find exactly what you want to find.  If you're only reading the arguments made by others who share your worldview, you aren't getting the full story.  You need to consider the best case that each worldview has to offer, then, examining the totality of the evidence, select the one that offers the most consistency and coherence.

Or I suppose you could reject everything that evidence and reason are pointing to, and believe what you want anyway.  You have the freedom to do so.

Now is the time to leave ego and bias at the door.  If you're not willing to do that, you might as well not read any further because you've already made up your mind. 

Can you handle the truth?