Seeking the truth about impactful things helps us to know the truth more accurately. This helps us to make better decisions that benefit us including our families, our businesses, and our world.

Author: T.K.

Date: 2 July 2026 (rev); 25 March 2026 (original)

Seeking the truth in our daily lives can help us

If we do seek the things that are true about something important, we can choose a better path forward. The better path forward could be a better refrigerator, a more reliable automobile, a better vacation destination, a better health choice, a better career choice, or a better life choice.

The contents of the articles include how and when to slow down in our decision-making process to improve our understanding of the truth of an important / impactful topic. Some articles explain how our brains work and how those functions affect our view of what is “true”. That understanding helps us to be motivated to compensate for the biases that result from the way our brains work. Those workings are affected by advertising including how information is presented and manipulated in advertisements, stories, speeches, etc.

If we are considering purchasing a product for our family such as an automobile, we may want to consider the details. If we purchase the wrong automobile, we could lose a large amount of time and money if the automobile is prone to having problems. If we check the reliability ratings of the automobile and eliminate automobile options that are significantly less reliable we reduce the risk of high repair costs and the risk of spending too much time taking the auto in for repairs. If we check the size of the auto, the gas mileage, the size of storage areas, the seating size compared to family/occupant numbers we can avoid the cost of replacing the auto when we decide that we need capabilities that better match our needs.

This is one example of how we can choose more carefully by seeking the truth about a thing with a goal of benefit oneself and one’s family (group of cohabitants).

In general, seeking the truth can result in many different positive results such as the following:

• Choose a product with better reliability, less frequent replacement saves money.
• Select the medication that is most likely to help a family member, producing a better health outcome.
• Choose a vacation, activity, experience that is more likely to result in positive learning and fun for a family.
• Select a better development process or approach for a business, producing a better product and/or a faster development resulting in better profits.
• Select a better choice of presentation visuals, and talking points that will help sell a service to potential customers.
…. and many more.

What about Ethics?

We can also take an ethical approach and choose to what to do and what to say more carefully for the benefit of others. This would impact our neighbors, our friends, our schoolmates, or for people throughout the world. Many people grew up with parents or teachers telling them to “tell the truth” or telling them that “honesty is the best policy”. Others of us also attended religious classes and were told that telling the truth, seeking the truth (with effort), or following what is true were spiritual.

What does Seek the Truth mean?

To seek the truth means that one could make an effort to discover what is true regarding something. This can take some effort, an investment of effort. This is important when the value is high. When the possible impact is high then it is worth the effort to double check your knowledge and investigate the details … such as searching for information on-line.
To tell the truth is also important. If we know (or think we know) what is true then reflecting that when it is needed or useful will benefit others. The others could be people that you work with, family members, or students in school or college.

What is the cost/benefit? When should we do work to seek the truth?

If we are going to seek the truth we may need to put some effort into the activity. If the area that we are dealing with, for example topic X, is of very small value it may not be worth the effort to investigate/seek more information.
Seeking more information that will improve our knowledge about the “truth” for topic X may be of little value. It may cost us more time/effort/money than it is worth. If the topic is “what is 1 plus 1” and we know that the answer is “2” then additional effort to check this out is not likely worth the effort.

What about Religion and Seeking the Truth?

The largest religion in the world (Earth) is Christianity with about 28.8% of the population in 2020 (Pew Research, Link). Christians are encouraged to tell the truth and to seek the truth. Seeking the truth and telling the truth are important as part of the respecting other people. Loving one’s neighbor is tied with loving God as the most important things to do. The “things to do” are often referred to as Commandments.
The primary source of guidance for Christians is what is written in the Bible. In the Bible the number of occurrences related to truth exceeds 560 different entries. The command to be truthful and to seek the truth is one of the most mentioned commands. For all of the references directly applying to truth there is a strong positive affirmation for the truth. For all of the references applying to falsehood or lying there is a strong negative assessment for lying. For the references to deception the vast majority show a strong negative value. Some of the references to deception can be interpreted as ambiguous.
A study of the Christian Bible references is examined in the “Truth and the Bible” article (Link).
Regarding the truth and different religions there can be areas of significant controversy. The different viewpoints and controversies relating to truth and religions are addressed in a separate website, SeekTruthReligion.com. [2]

Seeking the Truth in Politics

Seeking the truth in politics is, well … political. There have been conflicts between political power and the truth for thousands of years on our planet. There will be continuing conflicts between the image that a politician wants to project to get more support and/or votes and the interests of seeking the truth. There will also be continuing conflict between political parties around the world and those who back the political parties. Topics related to this area are deferred to another website, SeekTruthPolitical.com. [3]

Notes:

[1] The term the Bible originates from τὰ βιβλία (ta biblia) in ancient Koine Greek. Generally, the Bible is associated with the name for “book” in different languages. In ancient Latin the term Biblus is used. In English the terms English Bible, book, Holy Book, and Holy Bible are sometimes used.
[2] Religion related different opinions, challenges, and conflicts are presented and commented on in the SeekTruthReligion.com website. Any controversial issues regarding truth and seeking truth should be investigated in that website rather that this website related to the positive benefits of seeking the truth. (Link)
[3] See the SeekTruthPolitical.com web site for information and viewpoints on the relationship between politics and truth. There are articles on the cognitive / brain research and the response people’s brains have to presentation of information. The implications seem to clearly indicate that politicians who tell untruths in the right way have an advantage over people who tell the truth. (Link)