By Miles Jaye
Colunmist
I once had the cause and occasion to ask a contractor “How many degrees are in a 90-degree angle?”
It was a joke, like what color is a red horse? It was a humorous way to communicate my concern over what I saw as inaccuracies in his work– or so I thought.
He stared at me like the proverbial deer in the headlights. It was then that it occurred to me that not only had he missed the joke, but also the point. God made degrees, angles, frequencies, distances, time and measurements of all kinds for a reason. To be clear, man created the terminology, the words, but God created the reality. Measurements of angles or temperature in degrees, distances in inches, feet, yards, miles or kilometers, frequencies of sound or light in hertz, weight in ounces, pounds or grams satisfy man’s need to communicate.
God made each of these things true, consistent and accurate. A mile is measured the same anywhere in the world– 5,280 feet, a kilometer is 1,000 meters, “middle C” is 262 cycles per second. There’s a reason we call 90-degree angles, right-angles. There’s a reason north is referred to as true north. These measurements and others have been in use throughout the history of mankind.
Einstein challenged the viability of time itself. However, did he question whether time, a man made construct, subject to bending or distortion, or whether or not the sun rises and falls with precision over… time? Calendars are not perfect, but cycles of time are quite reliable. Sixty seconds makes a minute, 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours is the same every day. Monday is Monday every week, December is December every year and Haley’s comet appears every 75 years.
I believe many of those who hate math would have a change of heart if they only knew God as a master mathematician. To realize that the movements of the planets throughout the Universe, the shapes and patterns of flowers and the perfect design of a snowflake are Sacred Geometry– God’s math. Colors are frequencies, so art is math. Music, all music regardless of genre, is math– God’s math.
Would you want to live in a house, drive a car or fly in an airplane where the engineering and craftsmanship were close but not accurate? Accuracy represents the truth. Either it is straight, or it isn’t. Either it is level, or it isn’t. The problem with inaccuracy is that it is compounded when you try to build on it. The first level may be adequate, and you may not notice by the second, but by the time you reach the third or fourth level, flaws in either the design or the construction become obvious. A taller structure would run the risk of collapse. The same can be said of companies, organizations and governments.
Philosophers have weighed in on the matter of truth for hundreds of years. Plato said, “Man is the measure of all things.” Notice he says the measure of all things, not the creator of all things. He’s speaking of perceptions and observations. The truth is, a yard is a yard, and a meter is a meter, whether it is measured, regardless of man’s observations. Socrates was more of the mind of questioning other’s perceptions of truth, so he would question whether or not a meter was actually a meter or simply the perception of a meter.
Aristotle said of the truth, “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true.” Pythagoras, the great Greek mathematician/philosopher believed that numbers were not only the way to truth but truth itself. Numbers, not beliefs, not opinions, but numbers. 90-degrees is 90-degrees period, that’s the truth, and the truth matters.
Truth is the essence of justice, and of true freedom. Jesus told the Jews in John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Notice He doesn’t say, ye shall know peace and peace shall make you free. It’s been said, no justice no peace, I would add, no truth, no justice, no peace. Anyone denying, resisting or withholding truth has no heart for or interest in justice. A government built on lies and deceit is the equivalent of the building built on inaccuracies and flawed measurements. A measurement is just information. If the information is built on mistruths, there will always be consequences.
March all you want, protest all you want, vote all you want, pray all you want, your government is deceptive, your leaders use lies as a normal course of conduct; therefore there can be no justice and subsequently, you will never know peace as you seek it.
The history of man and of civilizations shows that man is not in the peace business, man is in the power business. Man is in the business of control at all costs and business is good for those who possess the power. Man is not in the business of relinquishing control or power, so if a few lies is all it takes to maintain control, the pain and anguish they may cause are simply the cost of doing business.
90-degrees is 90-degrees, and that’s the truth, and the truth matters.
That’s what’s on my mind.
Website: www.milesjaye.net
Podcast: https://bit.ly/2zkhSRv
Email: milesjaye360@gmail.com
