TRUTH A One Minute Essay
[From The Rosicrucian Digest February 1934]
What is truth? Truth and
knowledge are not synonymous, for what is perceived today and realized as
knowledge may subsequently be rejected as false opinion. On the other hand, all
knowledge is not opinion, although opinion may be the equivalent of knowledge.
An opinion is merely a supposition founded upon antecedent experiences, not
directly related to that which is considered, from which inferences are drawn.
Knowledge is a conclusion, the result of syllogistical reasoning upon
experiences had, which experiences directly pertain to the object of knowledge.
Both knowledge and opinion depend on human reason and perception. They cannot
exist apart from it. Their accuracy is relative. With the change of reason and
perception knowledge and opinion either endure longer or are rejected. As the
illusions of the senses and imperfection of reason persist with time, so does
that which is now considered knowledge and which eventually will be found
false.
That upon which knowledge and
opinion are founded is truth, for it has existence apart from either of the
former. That which exists in its own right does not intentionally deceive and
therefore it is always of its own nature, either to be known rightly or not.
All that which is the cause of man's perception and that which causes
him to form conceptions, is truth, but the perception and conception are not
truth unless they be the exact portrayal of their cause. Truth is absolute
reality, but the human consciousness is not capable of embracing in its
entirety an absolute reality. Truth to man is therefore a relative and arbitrary
conception of an absolute reality.
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