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Very few will admit it, but when it comes to existential pursuits, from String Theory to New Age rituals to religious piety, we are all hoping to discover an assuring comfort in certainty. As though living in the reality of the Bigger, is not enough, we want to know the fullness of our “rightness.” From the most emotionally detached scientific theorists to the most open minded and progressive Emergents, we do not want to be told that we are wrong.

To believe that there is no truth is a self defeating philosophy. To negate an ability to experience truth counters the reality of our present existence… Whatever that existence really is.

Yet to claim that we know the truth inhibits the truth from being the existential reality that we claim, and truly desire, it to be.

Still, knowledge can be a broader concept than just facts. To know something is to be able to categorize and synthesis the something.

We are all capable of categorizing and synthesizing our experiences within our perceptions of reality. But does that then give us authority over the experience or entity? Certainly not, for anyone in any relationship can confirm that though they may “know” and even “understand” someone, said person will always be more complex than can be deduced.

Thus, the limitations of knowledge at a humanistic level is only magnified at a broader existential level. And we are all in pursuit of knowledge at an existential level.

From theorists to indifferent agnostics to committed Christians, we are all claiming to know truth. We live our lives in response to our categorization and understanding of those experiences that have informed our perceptions of truth.

But at the end of the day, for what purpose do we seek truth? To seek truth for the purpose of truth alone seems fulfilling to some, but knowledge for knowledge’s sake is fundamentally and psychologically unfulfilling. On a basic chemical and physiological level, people are complex enough to require more than only mental or physical interaction and provision….. we also have emotional and relational needs that affect us on fundamental levels. In this manor, the seeking and attainment of knowledge with out emotional or relational implications has limited value.

So, that begs the question, what Truth are you seeking? Further more, for what purpose do you seek truth?

To many, the enticing potential of knowing truth so as to attain certainty is what drives them….. yet I would suggest that this type of seeking of truth is less of an existential or spiritual pursue, and more of a drug purposed to cope with a life which one cannot controle. If we are not careful, we all use drugs to keep us from emotionally experiencing reality. For some, these drugs are productive and glamorous, as is the case for some successful work-a-holic, good-doers. For others, these drugs may be illicit or even reflective of extreme depravity. And then most of us fall somewhere in between…. using the drug of Netflix, or co-dependint friendships, or sex…. or you can fill in the blank. Drugs are choices to exit reality, they aren’t just substances.

So how and why we pursue truth really matters. When our motive is to understand existence enough so as not to feel insecure in the realities of the daily uncertainties, then we are not pursuing truth at all, but rather we are hiding ourselves from the larger truths of a life that exists in a real time and space continuum. That is, to know truth is to also engage emotions and relationships, things too complex to fully understand or controle.

To know truth is to also inhabit a space where more is unknown than is known, and where the unknown cannot be ignored or explained, but respected.

Thus, it seems to me that the seeking of truth so as to attain any particular goal or purpose is to completely miss the point. For the more one really knows, the more they realize that they know little. Concluding that truth for the purpose of truth is not only pointless, but also self defeating. Yet seeking truth is still valuable. Which implies that there is a different purpose for seeking Truth that is fulfilling. In this purpose, one must not only be aware of the vastness of existence, but also of the fact that to know something is to consider ourself in relationship to such entity. That is, we understand life through our own perspectives. We learn about astrophysics by comparing our own interactions with basic laws of nature in order to make observations of things distantly outside of ourselves. We learn about math from comparing numbers (as representatives of literal entities) to their interactions with patterns. And in innumerable ways we explore truth and knowledge and reality in terms of relationship and perspective. Thus, truth, even the most dry facts, are relational in nature. And for this reason, real Truth and the seeking of real Truth must also be relational in nature.

So, again, I begs the question: what Truth are you seeking? Further more, for what purpose do you seek truth?

My own experience has taught me of a Truth larger than myself. Call it what you may, this Truth seems to all at once encompass all truth and no truth at all. That is, if this Truth is ultimate, then it is also finite. So it could even be said that for this Truth to be supreme, it must also be not supreme. If this Truth is everything then our perspectives, categorization, and vocabulary would never be sufficient to describe this Truth. Yet this Truth has allowed itself to be revealed within limitations to a demographic that only understands truth through relationship and comparison. So for one to seek Truth while denying personal relationships to this Truth, is to not seek Truth at all. In fact, extreme as it may sound, the only clear response to this concept may be for one to seek not knowledge of Truth, but relationship to Truth. And in doing so, to know that in this relationship, Truth will reveal itself through facts and concepts that have all at once physical, emotional, and relational implications. Thus, suggesting that for one to seek truth outside of emotional connection is to actually inhibit ones self from gaining real Truth. But for one to pursue Truth as though pursuing a friend is to find knowledge in its fullest form.

With this said, there is certainly no way to fully attain understanding, or full knowledge of the Holy, or enlightenment. But in the surrender of the need for certainty, we may choose to acknowledge our humanity amidst the vast depths and heights of the cosmos. That our reality is a part of something Greater. Something that invites us to learn about It through relationship. Something that, I believe, desires and created us to seek It by relating; then welcoming us into relationship with Itself. This Truth seeks encounter more than knowledge, and relationship more than certainty.