Another example of why we should pursue the truth at any cost is in the area of the natural sciences. Currently in Geneva, a project called the Large Hadron Collider is taking place. What this huge machine does is collide opposing particle beams to try and discover if there is anything smaller than a proton. The purpose of this project is to gain even more knowledge in areas such as gravity, black holes and possible extra dimensions. This project however has been met with some controversy. People have been worried that by actually performing this experiment the world would be completely absorbed in itself. But if we do not perform this experiment, the human population is missing out on the chance to see what we are really made of, and how the universe became what it is today. It can also allow us to map the future of the universe, and work out how we, as in life, can exist in such conditions. If we did not pursue this, we would be denying the society knowledge and therefore the truth that could potentially allow us to exist on other planets. However, this view only represents a proportion of society and is then another example of how the truth can differentiate between people, and how this can cause such problems when pursuing the truth.
A third reason why we should pursue the truth at any cost is that it uncovers mistakes made by people. An example that has recently came to light is the apparent tortures that took place at Guantanamo Bay owned by the United States, a country which is against such a thing. Guantanamo Bay is a detention facility for high-risk criminals such as terrorists. By having people fully research and try to find out what was really happening to these criminals, the people of America were able to stop such acts which are inhumane. Although the people who are held in this prison are criminals, they should not be treated in a way which inflicts severe pain if we are to believe the reports that have been compiled against this prison. The truth in this case, has allowed society to prevent some awful from occurring rather than not just allow society to develop, although it could be argued as a development of society also. Lastly, by pursuing this truth, the United States reputation was put on the line and this is definitely not something that is done every day. However, the fact that this is not done every day does not affect society being able to know about the truth of these torture incidents. This would be wrong and it is a way of developing into a dictorial state, by a way of censorship.
Lastly, a question that has been asked many times is; is there something like the truth? The answer to this could be yes. Another thing that could be compared to the truth is religion. For people, the religion they believe in is their truth and they follow this because they believe what the religion is telling them is right. It is why people believe that violence is the only way to be heard, it is the truth they believe in from their religion, even if that religion does not really state it. Once again though, this is a very controversial issue and great care should be taken when dealing with such a subject.
To conclude, the truth is a valuable piece of knowledge that should be handled carefully. It is not something that a person can take for granted, or society for that matter. As human beings, it in our right to pursue the truth at any cost, as it allows us to gain significant and priceless knowledge that cannot be achieved anywhere else. The truth allows us to discover what we can do with society and the world, how we can change society, protect civilization. It also allows the human population to prevent terrible things from happening to individuals, for example the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Also, by gaining truth we are gaining further and further access into the unknown and piece by piece being able to decipher not only where we live in, but what we live in. But sometimes the path to discovering truth is not always the most morally-safe one. Sometimes, the path taken is a dangerous and costs more than just a few thousand dollars, it can cost lives too. This is when it can get hard to understand why we must pursue the truth at any cost, as it is when the truth can become dangerous too. Then, there is also the possibility that religion could be another form of the truth, which adds in even more controversy than before. Finally, the truth is something that every human being has the right to knowing, and nothing should stand in the way of that.
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"Definition of Truth." WordNet Search. 21 Apr. 2009.
"Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Wikipedia. 21 Apr. 2009.
"Large Hadron Collider." Wikipedia. 21 Apr. 2009.