The Only Human Truth

Have you ever felt passionately about gravity?

Have you ever become emotional about the sun rising in the east and setting in the west?

Have you ever felt deeply about the water boiling at 100 degrees?

But… have you ever wondered whether someone still loved you?

Have you ever questioned whether God exists?

Have you ever been uncertain if someone truly forgave you?

If yes, then congrats – you are a human.

This happens because when a possibility becomes a certainty, it loses its emotional intensity.

In this world, there are two types of truths – Objective truth and Existential truth.

Objective truth –

As humans, we spend much of our lives searching for certainty. Be it a stable job, a secure relationship, or financial stability – we constantly seek things we can rely on.

Probably because certainty gives us a sense of control and stability.

Objective truths are facts that have moved beyond doubt. These are proven realities such as

• Sun rises in the east
• 4+4 is 8
• Earth revolves around the sun.

These truths are critical to human existence – medicine, engineering, science and even our survival depend on them.

While objective truths are critical, it is the certainty of those facts that kills emotional intensity. You don’t feel passionately about gravity today because it is a proven fact… but you know what, someone once did.

Newton! When he was busy discovering it.  

He felt passionately about gravity because uncertainty still existed. He spent hours researching it and had his ‘Aha’ moment when he finally had his breakthrough.

But today no one feels emotional about gravity.

Objective truths can explain what stars are made of or why the sum of a triangle’s angles add up to 180 degrees. But they cannot tell us whether loneliness is survivable, whether forgiveness is real, or whether love is worth the risk.

Because these questions are abstract uncertainties and shaped by our interpretation, emotional state, and personal experience.

The moment a possibility becomes a certainty, it becomes fixed and unquestionable. It becomes knowledge rather than wonder.

Perhaps this is why people today are fascinated by aliens and extra-terrestrial life. The moment we prove their presence beyond doubt and put all theories to bed, it will stop being interesting and become just another fact.

Existential truth –

The second kind is existential truths; truths that are subjective and cannot be proven with complete certainty.

• Does the other person like me?
• Does God exist?
• Will I ever be forgiven?

These are the kind of questions that cannot be proven through experiments and equations. They are subject to interpretation, belief, hope and other such human emotions. Yet they deeply shape our emotional and psychological life.

It is the uncertainties that give rise to meaning, faith, hope, and human emotion.

-> Faith exists because doubt exists.

-> Courage exists because failure is possible.

-> Fear exists because loss is possible.

Where there is possibility, there is uncertainty. Where there is uncertainty, there is emotion. And where there is emotion, there is life.

Certainty removes the need for faith. And without faith, there is no emotional involvement. Uncertainty is what makes humans human.

A person who still doubts is capable of empathy and compassion. A person who believes they know everything with certainty often stops listening.

This is probably one of the biggest paradoxes of human life – the truths that are proven do not matter and the truths that matter the most cannot be proven.

Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher in the 18^th century said that if God’s existence were ever proven with absolute certainty it would be reduced down to a mere fact. And once it turns into a fact, faith will no longer be needed.

So perhaps the real question isn’t if God exists or not. Rather if this belief in his existence gives meaning to our life. Whether this belief teaches me love, compassion, and sacrifice in life?

Objective truths are essential to navigate the external world, but we need existential truths to survive our internal world.

Some of the most important decisions are made without certainty. You choose to love without proof. You forgive without guarantee, and you commit without knowing the future.

A meaningful life requires the courage to act without certainty.