That afternoon my architecture professor, Julio Bermudez, gave lengthy instructions about a drawing assignment in his thick Brazilian accent. I don’t remember a word of that lecture. None of us cared about drawing, or school, or work. The very mention seemed trivial and sacrilegious. At the end of the lecture, he told us to go outside and draw. For the first time that day, my utter numbness turned to indignation and then anger at his triviality.

Then, sensing our irritation, he paused; and began speaking to us as Architects. “Today we have witnessed the most anti-architectural act conceivable… We are Architects. We do not believe in death and destruction. We believe in life. We create. I know many of you are angry right now. I am angry. You want to retaliate. Right now it seems trivial to go out there and draw. But if you really want to retaliate against what happened today, if you really want to take a stand and make a difference, then go out and do Architecture. Go and create, and you will retaliate in the best way you can. Now, go out and draw!”

No more appropriate words were ever said than at that time. As members of our religions and communities, we do not believe in death and destruction. We believe in life. We believe in peace. We create. Ten years later, that terrible moment inspires me to serve with a purpose, and create in bold defiance of everything that is murderous, destructive and evil.

Entire April 2010 General Conference

Themes of the April 2010 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Young Women Session

Themes of the Young Women Session of the April 2010 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Saturday Morning Session

Themes of the Saturday Morning Session of the April 2010 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Saturday Afternoon Session

Themes of the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 2010 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Priesthood Session

Themes of the Priesthood Session of the April 2010 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Sunday Morning Session

Themes of the Sunday Morning Session of the April 2010 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Sunday Afternoon Session

Themes of the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 2010 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Entire General Conference

October 2010 General Conference

General Relief Society Meeting

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October 2010 Relief Society General Meeting

Saturday Morning Session

Saturday Morning Session Themes

Saturday Afternoon Session

Saturday Afternoon Session

Priesthood Session

Priesthood Session

Sunday Morning Session

Sunday Morning Session

Sunday Afternoon Session

Sunday Afternoon Session

“Daughters in My Kingdom”: The History and Work of Relief Society by Julie B. Beck

Wordle

Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society by Julie B. Beck

Steadfast and Immovable by Silvia H. Allred

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Steadfast and Immovable, by Silvia H. Allred

And of Some Have Compassion, Making a Difference, by Barbara Thompson

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And of Some Have Compassion, Making a Difference, Barbara Thompson

Charity Never Faileth, by Thomas S. Monson

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Charity Never Faileth, Thomas S. Monson

In that sense, I am not looking for what’s “best.” I am looking for what is true.

Our eclectic, world-wide, culture is full of apparent contradictions. In the face of conflicted and conflicting views of the world and human condition, our culture rejects the notion that the pursuit of an answer may come to any assured or absolute conclusion, and therefore, though conflicting truths may exist, Truth does not. This is often expressed as “your truth,” and “my truth.” To assert that Truth does not exist is a neat and tidy way of making sense of a senseless world.

In past era, every major civilization has had a dominant religion. Religion answered key philosophical questions about the meaning of existence, and the nature of the world. High Priests held the keys to the secret, higher knowledge. Temples were objects of the interaction between man and deity, the eventual source of higher knowledge.
We are no different today, even in our diverse, international society. Our religion is Science. Our High Priests are Scientists. Our temples are Libraries and Wikis. Our High Priests have taught us that truth is transitory, and subject to constant revision with further understanding.

By way of example, a physics professor started the semester by asking our large class, “What is truth?” Several students raised their hands. The first said, “Truth is universal.” “Wrong!” the professor retorted, “In Physics, truth is specialized.” Stunned, another student answered, “Truth is something you know, but can’t prove.” “Wrong!” he shot back, “Nothing is true without proof.” The next student ventured, “Truth never changes.” Clearly in a rhythm he bellowed, “Wrong! Truth constantly changes as we learn new things.”

A half-dozen students offered answers to his rhetorical question before I could muster the courage to raise my hand. “Truth is the way things really are,” I said. His rhythm broke, and he gave no rebuttal.

Truth is the way things really are. The way things really were. The way things really are going to be.

All real things have a nature, or a set of calculable characteristics. All things (and I mean ‘things’ in the most inclusive sense possible) possess some degree of reality, and have a set of calculable characteristics that are independent of human perception or cognition. Even emotions and perceptions themselves are real, as they possess characteristics of their own. Whether the number of characteristics associated with a real thing is finite or infinite is of little concern. Neither is it of great concern whether or not human beings (or animals, or plant life) have the ability to acquire and comprehend any portion of these characteristics. These characteristics are fundamentally independent of perception, cognition, or interpretation. They describe the way things really are.

For centuries humans perceived the world as flat. The world’s nature did not change when the first person understood the earth is a spheroid. The earth’s spherical nature is independent of human cognition. Also, if I may be so bold, a tree falling in the woods makes a sound regardless of whether human ears are present. A tree’s nature is not dependent on a human’s ability to cognize vibration.

So the point is to try to understand the way things really are, and then adjust to the truth. Since arguably nobody completely understands everything about the way things are, were, and will be, Truth really isn’t the most comfortable, familiar, agreeable, ore easiest thing for anyone. Living according to Truth always involves adjustment.

From a religious perspective, if God really exists, then it is important to understand God’s nature as far as possible. If God really is the literal Father of the human family, or if any particular religious doctrine is true, then it is important to adjust one’s habits accordingly. Conversely, if any of the foregoing are not “the way things really are,” then it is equally important to understand that fact.

An individual comes to understand truth as he acquires characteristics that describe truth, whether by spiritual, transcendental, empirical, or other means. However, it is important not to accidentally substitute the concepts of “perception” or “interpretation” for the Truth itself. Perception and interpretation varies from individual to individual, but no amount of misperception will change the nature of a real thing.

Understanding is the personal acquisition of some degree of truth, subject to personal interpretation and distortion. Filtered, fragmented, or interpreted truth, as acquired by the human mind, is rarely complete. As Understanding is necessarily biased, it is unwise and unproductive to substitute Understanding for Truth.

Our finite minds have developed tools to acquire and process information about Truth, such as social constructs, biases, media, and language. One example is the Transparent Plane (such as windows, TV screens, camera lenses, sunglasses, or the imaginary plane on the edge of a stage) which filters the truth, leaving information for only one or two of the senses. Information passed through the Transparent Plane is therefore fundamentally incomplete.
Other tools for acquiring and filtering truth are experience, testimony from authority, observation, pre-conceived notions, the physical senses, linguistic biases, religious experience, etc.

As each of these tools filters characteristics, they present an incomplete or distorted view of the way things really are. Therefore, truth filtered through social constructs may yield conflicting interpretation. Finding internal conflict disconcerting, we seek ways to alleviate ourselves of the discomfort. We may encounter several apparently conflicting manifestations of one larger truth; but with our limited cognition, we may not be able to correlate them. Though it is natural and easy, it is incorrect and unenlightened to assume that conflicting manifestations of truth must necessarily represent “conflicting truths.”

Consider a cat playing with a laser light. He pounces on the red dot and feels nothing under his paws, but instead perceives that the dot has quickly jumped on top of his paws. He smells, hears and tastes nothing. Drawing on experience, he might identify the dot as a very small insect. The light is turned off, and he scurries to see where the “insect” has gone. Then the laser is laid on the ground to project a long red line across the floor. The cat is baffled. The entirely different shape and movement of this entity prove that this is completely unrelated to the red dot he first encountered.

The nature of the laser light remained fundamentally consistent. But the manifestation of the light, and the cat’s ability to apprehend and interpret the truth had been filtered, distorted, and fractionalized through his senses and interpretation. It is not unreasonable to suggest that humans have similar challenges acquiring and interpreting Truth. Truth is therefore essentially greater than human cognitive ability: Cognitive ability, illusion, point of view, interpretation, and biases are relative, not Truth.

Like my cognitively impaired cat investigating the laser beam, our society has not yet formulated a complete model in which to fit truth. Apparently conflicting manifestations of truth, and the inability to apprehend and interpret truth leads many to believe that many conflicting “truths” exist, or arrogantly assert that truth does not exist.

All real things have characteristics, which describe the way things really are. Despite social constructs and media that filter and fractionalize truth, Truth is the way things really are, and is unconstrained by human reason or cognition. As one comes to fully utilize spiritual, empirical and transcendental means of acquiring truth, one’s Understanding and actions come closer to the truth, or the way things really are.