Diversity and Integration: A Note on Truth-Seeking

Photo by Linus Sandvide on Unsplash

The subject of truth is not as simple as it ought to be. As we grow and learn more about the world, it seems that our path, or at least our conception of what reality is, tends to get more hazy. We tend to experience confusion; we become doubtful in distinguishing right from wrong; hesitant on what to put our trust; and we can lose our touch with what once we consider as a "solid" foundation that we use to make sense of our reality. 

It is of my realization that this inner dilemma arises because the world presents us with diverse and often contradictory ideas and beliefs. We get confused because we experience that the world-the real world-is filled with other beliefs, challenging the ones that we hold dear during our younger years. We realize that it is not only our belief that matters, but that every perspective by every other people contains within them a sliver of truth-even if it may seem opposite to what we believe. It becomes then tedious on our part to realize that to develop a more accurate worldview, we need to incorporate dozens if not hundred ways of looking at the world. Many people, however, are not willing to do such a such a tedious task.

It does really take herculean effort to think beyond the confines of our own beliefs and acknowledge that other beliefs whether it'd be in the form of religion, nationality, or race holds equal part in forming a more inclusive, nuanced-and therefore, complete-perspective of reality. But if we endeavor to do so, we must not discount a worldview just because we don't like it or if our very upbringing or education molded us to think in a certain way and not another. We must strive to think for ourselves, incorporate perspectives, and go beyond the confusion caused by the shattering of our old incomplete paradigms. Then, we can go back into our daily lives, now informed with a complete, unbiased, and integrated way of looking at the world. A new perspective that is closer to finally scratching the veil covering the often elusive thing we call, the truth.