What does it mean to say that something is "true"?

What does it mean to say "The Bible is true"?

What is truth?

Miller's Law (from the theory of communication): "To understand what someone is saying, you must first assume that it is true, and then determine what it is true of.". (George Miller)

This is the same Miller who made the observation that the number of things an average person can hold in working memory is about seven (plus or minus two). So when a person says something that seems odd or wrong to you, do not jump to conclusions but start from the position that it makes sense and is right for them, and then talk to them in ways that will similarly make sense to them and help you make more sense of what they say. (from changingminds.org)

There are three levels of statistical truth used to determine probabilities.

• Logical/Classical: (approximates, but does not exist in, the real world)
• Empirical: past history, based on experience.
• Subjective: human opinion

Example: Football game outcome

• Financial accounting
• Managerial accounting
• Other accounting methods (including no accounting)

• Father
• Son
• Holy Spirit (Ghost/Guest)

Logical truth involves mathematical and computer/information logic using two discrete logic values (e.g., true and false, 1 and 0) and symbol manipulation using rules to determine which claims are "true" or "false".

Computer logic and programming involves logical truth.

Hilbert and his problems and the separation of math with reality and philosophy.

Note that generalizations of logical truth can involve paradoxes, incompleteness, undecidability, etc.

Reality truth involves what exactly is real, or reality. Reality truth involves probability, statistics, approximations, unknowns, etc. The traditional scientific method involves reality truth. So does, to some extent, the traditional legal process.

Examples:

• software engineering
• data science

For lack of a better term, everything other than logical truth and statistical truth is lumped together as human truth.

Human truth can be whatever one or more humans decide it is. Thus, there are no precise rules for defining human truth other than it is not necessarily logical truth or statistical truth.

Examples: (from programming)

• Best way to indent using curly braces.
• Best programming language.
• Best operating system - Linux, Windows, Apple, Android,

Which side is longer? (top-bottom or left-right)

Now go back and look at the previous image, repeated here, and see how this table influences how you look at the previous image.

People are at the human/opinion level and, to some extent, use logic truth and/or reality truth.

Many people have difficulty distinguishing between opinion based in reality and/or logic and opinion not based on reality and/or logic.

Logic tends not to work with people who do not think logically. These areas can overlap but the distinction is, nonetheless, useful. All humans work at the level of opinion, but more or less connect that opinion with reality truth and/or logical truth.

Logical truth: symbol manipulation involving integer values, which is exact but may involve paradoxes. This includes coded information, programming languages, digital computers, etc.

Mathematics is concerned with logical without any connection to reality. (Mathematicians such as Hilbert made this decision in the early 1900's).

In the 1920's, Hilbert (1928) proposed finding a consistent mathematical system that will allow all possible truths
to be decided. This would allow the automatic, or mechanical, proving of all possible truths.

Hilbert invented/discovered the Hilbert curve, a monster curve that was not fully understood until the introduction of fractals a half-century later. Logical truth involves mathematical and computer/information logic using two discrete logic values (e.g., true and false, 1 and 0) and symbol manipulation using rules to determine which claims are "true" or "false".

Computer logic and programming involves logical truth.

Hilbert and his problems and the separation of math with reality and philosophy.

Note that generalizations of logical truth can involve paradoxes, incompleteness, undecidability, etc.

Reality truth: approximations using all math values, probability and statistics, etc., which may use logical truth. Traditional science involves reality truth.

Reality truth involves what exactly is real, or reality. Reality truth involves probability, statistics, approximations, unknowns, etc. The traditional scientific method involves reality truth. So does, to some extent, the traditional legal process.

Opinion truth: all other types of truth, which may or may not use logical and reality truth, but need not do so.

Human truth can be whatever one or more humans decide it is. Thus, there are no precise rules for defining human truth other than it is not necessarily logical truth or statistical truth.

In a programming languages course, one is primarily concerned with logical truth. There may or may not be any connection of logical truth with reality truth and/or human truth.

Thus, a Boolean condition that is either true or false may or may have no connection to "reality".

The Greek word for truth is «αλήθεια» means, literally, "not nothing" or "not oblivion". It has to do with reality. Hebrew has a similar construction (that which is made).

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

εν αρχη ην ο λογος και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον και θεος ην ο λογος.

• Faith is not a feeling but a rational belief.
• Hope is an expectation of this reality.
• Love is a total devotion.

Short title: Logically promoting and defending Bible truth

Longer title: Logically promoting and defending Bible truth using concepts of information, computation, languages, history, science and the Bible.

One often hears that "the Bible is the truth", "the Bible is the true word of God", "the truth shall set you free", (Jesus saying) "I am the way, the truth, and the life". What exactly does "truth" mean? How do we know that the Bible is "true"? Some often presented reasons why the Bible is the "true" word of God do not withstand the test of man-made logical reasoning - making Christian reasoning using these arguments appear somewhat silly to non-believers. Some modern reasons involving the field of computation and information and linguistics can be used to show that the Bible is true but these modern reasons are not widely known or used. Interestingly, these modern reasoning methods of why the Bible is true are essentially the same methods used by Isaiah, Jeremiah, John, Paul, Jesus, and others in the Bible, but are often not understood and usually ignored in establishing the truth of the Bible.

A primary goal of here is to facilitate the learning and discussion of both man-made logical truth and God-made reality truth in terms of information, computation, logic, languages, science, secular history, and the Bible. Just as Paul used the Greek truth of his day to promote and defend the truth of the Bible, so too can the worldly concepts of man-made truth be used to both promote the truth of the Bible yesterday, today, and forever, and to defend against logical attacks of the faith by the world, letting believers put on the whole armor of God, including the sword of truth. Such ideas to be learned and discussed can help one be ready to give a logical defense of the faith and the hope that is within us.

Note that such learning and discussion do not constitute any special knowledge other than logical reasoning as to why the Bible is true - the salvation message is clear without such knowledge. Such knowledge is one additional tool in the armor of God (the sword of truth) that can be used to challenge the unbelief of non-believers.

Some talks and presentations (complete or fragments) that I have given in the past involve the following.

• The impossibility of evolution (i.e., information by chance) and implications for the special creation of the Bible.
• Programs that write programs - with connections to creation as described in the Bible.
• Optical illusions - how they deceive the eye and brain, and related statements in the Bible.
• The top-down design methods, as used by modern computer scientists, and as used by John in his books of John, 1 John, and Revelation.
• Fractal - how self-similarity concepts are used in modern animations and science and how they relate to the creation we see all around us.
• Technology statements in the Bible that did not become possible until the past 200 years.
• Creating simple spreadsheet models that can be used to verify claims of the Bible.
• (more to be added over time)

Other ideas partially developed include the following, with Bible references as applicable.

• Infinity and forever, eternal, etc.
• Randomness and chance
• Algorithms in the Bible
• Mathematical equivalence relations and racism - the Bible has it right
• (more to be added over time)