Mankind has progressed through many stages in our development including the hunter-gather age, the agrarian age, the industrial age and now the information age. I think its safe to say that we’re now deep into the digital information age and our lives are overwhelmed with information that we sort into our true and false in boxes. At no time in our existence does this become more apparent than during an election year—the year 2020 that we would all probably like to request a do-over!
Solomon was one of the wisest human beings to ever live and
he assembled a book of wise sayings called Proverbs, including Proverbs 12:17
“He who speaks truth tells what is right, but a false witness, deceit.”
The sculpture of Truth depicts Truth holding a mirror in one hand up to a snake in the other. Snakes have historically been associated with some of mankind’s oldest rituals representing the dual expressions of good and evil. Which will be rightly reflected? Its important to note that believing a statement doesn’t make it true. Thomas Aquinas succinctly stated that “Truth is the conformity of the intellect and things.”
David Eagleman writes in his book Incognito that mankind had believed the earth was the center of all creation around which all things revolved until Galileo Galilei peered into a telescope that he had designed in 1610. Galileo observed that Jupiter had three moons that revolved around the planet, giving rise to multiple centers. Instead of receiving his just accolades this genius was brought before an Inquisition and placed in shackles on a dungeon floor. Not everyone appreciated the new found truth.
Eagleman follows this remarkable story by introducing us to the newly found truth that “we’ve been knocked from our perceived position at the center of ourselves, quoting Carl Jung, ‘In each of us there is another whom we do not know.’ Or as Pink Floyd put it ‘There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me.’”
The latest revelation in brain science is that our subconscious efficiently controls the majority of our response to our existence while our consciousness is “far out on a distant edge, hearing but whispers of the activity.”
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