The Truth Will Set You Free

Introduction

Our goal in this book is to find the truth. Seek and you shall find.

Our search will not be perfect or complete, but search we must and an advance in knowledge we will achieve.

One may say, “We don’t need the truth—that is, if it even exists. Let’s enjoy sweet illusions.” Well, that’s fine if those illusions lead to contentment. But as far as I know, all illusions have led to much more pain, disappointment, failure, desperation, and disillusionment than pleasure.

Does the truth exist? It is unquestionably true that you are now thinking about these words. Therefore, something true exists.

I ask the reader to be intellectually honest. If you believe that American astronauts never landed on the moon, that the American government had a deliberate role in the attacks of 9/11, or that more than a lone killer was responsible for the direct assassination of JFK without pointing to one solid piece of evidence, please do not waste your time reading what I have written. At its best, my reasoning won’t do much to change your mind. If you base your judgments on preconceived, unchallengeable, unquestionable ideas, often deeply influenced by emotions and personal biases, I can’t help you much.

Everything is open to questioning, and anything that rejects questioning on traditional, religious, political, or social grounds has a lot to fear from the light and probably was built on sand. If you have the ability to question your parents’ love for you or how healthy it was or is, this is a good sign. If you don’t have this ability, you still have work to do on your intellectual impartiality.

The most difficult, embarrassing, controversial questions will be asked in this book because if we don’t ask them now, they will certainly be posed by someone else in the future. I know that not everything can be said, but I am certain we can discuss much more than we think we can.

We shall face contradictions and come to a few conclusions that are perfectly clear and internally coherent. But when faced with multiple explanations, we should side with the one that makes the most sense and has the least contradiction (determined with the help of Occam’s razor). Once again, the truth is our goal—not simplicity.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of my ideas will be expressed; if you agree with all of them and don’t get angered by any of them, you must be my clone. I challenge you to be a tough critic of whatever I write because you won’t have long-lasting convictions unless you go through this harsh judgment.

Most often, the truth is like a bitter pill. It is bitter, but we know the sick body needs it. It is bitter because, most often, it is not what we—or more accurately, our egos—want it to be. But we have no choice.

The only place to build is on solid rock.