5 Different types of truth .

Aesthetic truth

The kind of truth that is found in Novels and Television programmes. We are not saying that these things that we read or look at are actually true. However, we can say that they are "True to life" . By this we mean that they are believable - it could happen - although its not acutally true itself.

Historical truth

This is where we can say that we 'know' something in the past even though we were not there and we did not see it for ourselves. We know that it happened becasue we have seen evidence, such as archaeological or films or documents, and from this we know that certain things happened.

Moral truth

When we talk about moral truth we mean that we 'know' that something is right or wrong. This is almost like an instinct. We know that it is wrong to steal or to kill people. We may also know that we will be punished in some way if we do this but we are saying that we know within ourselves that this is wrong anyway. This sort of truth is linked with the moral argument for the existence of God.

Scientific truth

Scientists can only say that something is true if they can prove it by experiment; they have to be able to show that each time they conduct the experiment the same thing happens. When the same result is obtained from an experiment that is repeated over and over again, this is known as empirical evidence and is the basis of scientific truth.

Spiritual or religious truth

This is the sort of truth which we find in religion. This sort of truth deals with faith and belief. People may say that they 'know' God but they cannot prove it in a scientific way and, unlike some of the other sorts of truth, it is very difficult to persuade other people if they are sceptical or do not believe themselves.

People who follow a particular religion may say that by doing so they are discovering the 'real truth' about life and about God. This definition of truth is linked with the argument from experience.

One of the problems is that often people from different religions claim that they have ‘the truth’ and that other people do not. This is a difficult situation because it may be almost impossible to convince other people that you are right.