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Organizations With "Truth" In The Name

Yahweh

Philosopher
Y
Joined
Apr 7, 2003
Messages
9,006
Nothing makes me more skeptical when I come across an organization or a group who use the word "Truth" in their name. Its almost used in an Orwellian "Ministry of Truth" way.

Here are just a few examples:

TrueOrigins: "Much of the material published by evolutionists embodies precisely such a pseudo-scientific bias, often articulated under the pretense that it is the product only of purely objective and unprejudiced study."

TheTruth.com: An website dedicated to exposing "Big Tobacco", the website might have good intentions but I get the feeling that everything they feature on their website is garbage from a skeptical point of view.

Swiftboat Veterans for Truth: a partisan group who tried to demolish the credibility of '04 Democratic candidate John Kerry.

Operation Truth: it is intended to give you the "the real news" behind the Iraqi war.

TheTruthSeeker.co.uk: "Behind the headlines - conspiracies, cover-ups, ancient mysteries and more. Real news and perspectives that you won't find in the mainstream media." Among other things, one of the outrageous stories I came across was one claiming the US is murdering its own journalists in Iraq.

Bowling for Truth: A catalogue of "Michael Moore's Lies".

9/11 Truth: "911Truth.Org is a campaign to educate the public about the Sept. 11th coverup and inspire popular pressure to overturn the "incompetence theory" and expose the truth surrounding the events of 9/11; namely, that elements within the U.S. government must have been complicit, or worse, for the attacks to happen the way they did."

The Truth about George Bush: "The Truth About George has diligently documented the misdeeds of Bush and his cronies since 2002, revealing the cold hard facts about an administration bent on rewarding big corporations and the rich, turning back the clock on women's rights and civil rights, and promoting a U.S. empire abroad."

Almost all of these websites with a "truth" perspective have a political spin, I cant afford to keep buying new irony meters :(
 
Not getting into philosophy here, but there's a reason why "Truth" is used instead of "Facts". Truth is subjective.
 
I think it comes with the territory. Political and religious groups exist because they create stability and order in a community. To maintain that order, it is necessary to sustain the illusion that the organization itself provides absolute truth, or was born of absolute truth.

Those within the group exist to sustain and propagate this "truth." To question it at all endangers the social structure and the pleasant delusion of knowing "right" and "wrong" as absolutely and simply as "black" and "white." Those outside the group are somehow "less." Those within are assumed to be good and what they say is always within the context of the absolute truth. Outsiders might try to trick you. Insiders can be trusted.

I've always called it "chosen person syndrome." It's an old meme that was sucessful a long time ago, but it's out-lived its time. We've outgrown it. We see now that humanity is one large group that we all belong to, and science and reason provide universal facts for all independent of circumstance. No matter how many times they put "truth" in the title of their organizations, we can prove when they're lying.
 
 
delphi_ote said:
I think it comes with the territory. Political and religious groups exist because they create stability and order in a community. To maintain that order, it is necessary to sustain the illusion that the organization itself provides absolute truth, or was born of absolute truth. *snip*
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Hm, why am I thinking of 1984 now...
 
To know something as it really is has an exceptional value like diamonds.

Perhaps it is no wonder that when people only have glass to offer, they try promote it as the real thing.

Real diamonds however, do not need to make any claims at all. They can be seen what they are by the evidence.
 
Kopji said:

Real diamonds however, do not need to make any claims at all. They can be seen what they are by the evidence.
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Except for the Debeers marketing campaign. :D
 
Kopji said:
Real diamonds however, do not need to make any claims at all. They can be seen what they are by the evidence.
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Well put. That's why when I see a politician or preacher dodging evidence with a reply of "it's unpatriotic to question" or "don't question God's will," I always wish someone would ask, "If you're right, the evidence will bear that out no matter how much we question. If what you claim is true, every bit of investigation will prove that over and over. Why are you so angry about our asking questions? Are you afraid you might be wrong?"
 
 
Kopji said:
To know something as it really is has an exceptional value like diamonds.

Perhaps it is no wonder that when people only have glass to offer, they try promote it as the real thing.

Real diamonds however, do not need to make any claims at all. They can be seen what they are by the evidence.
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The problem is that gem quality diamonds are worthless except as decoration :)
 
El_Spectre said:
The problem is that gem quality diamonds are worthless except as decoration :)
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I know of at least a couple gem quality diamonds that were made into lens for spacecraft. Here's a funny story about one of them:
...There is a large diamond on Venus. This diamond helped to prove that Murphy's Law works on other planets besides Earth.

The Soviets used the diamond as a front glass to protect the lens of the camera on their spacecraft. Venera 13 and Venera 14 sent back colour photographs of the surface of Venus. On the way down through the atmosphere, the lens cap was left on the camera to protect the lens from the clouds of sulphuric acid. But once the spacecraft had landed, the lens cap was thrown off, exposing the diamond front glass. Diamond is the hardest substance known in the Universe to the human race, and the Soviets thought that it would not be affected by the terrible atmosphere.

Each spacecraft also had an experiment called the "Dynamic Penetrometer". The Penetrometer was a spring-loaded arm with a point on the end of it. The point would penetrate deep into soft ground, but not so deep into hard ground.

The photographs from Venera 13 show the penetrometer point embedded in the soil, and the lens cap off to one side. But the photographs from Venera 14 show that the point of the penetrometer landed exactly on the lens cap. This is proof that Murphy's Law is a universal law. The diamond is still waiting on the surface of Venus. If you want to get it, all you need is the space fare. o
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So there ya go, a useful gem quality diamond. :D

And DeBeers is easily dispatched with $15,000 diamonds made for only $100 each. "They are too perfect".
o

Hey, I may use colorful or poetic metaphors, but I defend them!
 
Tanja said:
Pravda means justice, not truth.
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No, "pravda" does mean "(the) truth." It's used the same way "verdad" is in Spanish.

The Russian word for justice is "spravedlivost"--they're related, but not the same.
 
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