O Say, What Is Truth? Part 2

Last time, I finished with the example of the false belief that mice spontaneously generated from hay. We discussed how although that belief was false, the effect of that belief would lead people to be careful about where they left hay lying around so as not to have their house infested by rodents. To continue with this idea, I would like to share another example. My minor in college was in Information Technology. In one of my introductory programming classes, we used something called truth tables to show the outcome of a logical statement. There is often more than one way to solve a problem. As a computer programmer, the simplest is usually the best.

If you're like me, math makes your head hurt, so I'm going to explain this with something a little more fun. Like food! For our example let’s say for a balanced breakfast, you must have a serving of grain and a serving of fruit, or you must have a serving of grain and a serving of vegetables.

The math in this case would be:

(Grain AND Fruit) OR (Grain AND Vegetable)

Our truth table will look something like this:

Grain	Fruit	Vegetable	Balanced Breakfast?
No	No	No	No
No	No	Yes	No
No	Yes	No	No
No	Yes	Yes	No
Yes	No	No	No
Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Another way you could say it would be: you must have a serving of grain and a serving of fruit OR a vegetable. Our math might would be:

Grain AND (Fruit OR Vegetable)

On the surface, these look quite different, but let’s see what it looks like in a truth table:

Grain	Fruit	Vegetable	Balanced Breakfast?
No	No	No	No
No	No	Yes	No
No	Yes	No	No
No	Yes	Yes	No
Yes	No	No	No
Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Although the equations are different, the output is identical. So as far as a mathematician is concerned, they are the same. As a programmer, you can make substitutions like this to simplify your code making it not only easier to read, but faster as well. Sometimes the effect of a belief is more important than the belief itself.

For example, let’s say Susan believes in life after death, but Jill does not. Because Susan believes in life after death, she also believes that she will have to account for all of her actions and be judged for them in the next life. Because of this belief, she strives to be kind to her family members, honest in her work, and contribute to her community in whatever way she can.

Jill, on the other hand, because she does not believe in life after death believes it is important to do the right thing here and now because she will not get another chance. The result of this belief is that she strives to build strong relationships with her friends and family members now because after they are gone, she will never see them again. She strives to make the world a better place today because there will not be another life where the injustices of life are made right. Because she feels the only way she lives on after death is in through the effect she has on others, she strives to be the kind of person who will be remembered for her kindness and goodness.

These are very simple, two-dimensional examples. But it can easily be flipped the other way. Someone who does not believe in life after death may approach this belief with the attitude that they can do whatever they want because there will be no judge to answer to when it is all over. Likewise, someone who does believe in life after death can approach it with the attitude that they can do whatever they want because Jesus has already saved them. Both people will be equally rotten and their belief doesn't make them any better or worse. It is the result of believing something and not the belief itself that matters.

One of the most profound teachings in Mormonism for me comes from the Book of Moses when the Lord tells Moses, “This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”. This is usually interpreted as meaning that God’s whole mission is to help mankind become godlike creatures like Himself. Yet if you were to walk into the missionary training center in Utah, you might think that we believed God’s whole purpose was to bring people into the Mormon Church. Personally I would like to see that emphasis changed. The church is a means to an end. It is a tool for helping people to become something. When we start to see baptizing people into the church and coming every Sunday as being the end goal, we are missing the point.

At the risk of sounding redundant, for me the purpose of religion is not to believe something or do something. It is to become something. If someone is able to become a godlike person through Buddhism, and Christianity turns out to be the true religion, do you really think he is destined for hell? Would God really condemn someone for coming to the right destination simply because he took a different path to get there? I’m of the opinion that there are “many roads to Mount Fuji”. That is not to say that the absolute truth about God does not exist. But in the end I do not think it will not matter much whether we called him God or Allah. It will only matter that we were trying to become what He wants us to become. If some of our beliefs were incorrect, those will be easily corrected in the next life. Changing who we are may be a little harder.