# Questioning Our Truth

It can be profoundly confusing to grasp the concept that there is no such 
a thing as an absolute truth. It is impossible to know whether your 
experience of reality is a simulation, a dream or a hallucination since 
seeing a 3rd party's point of view as an objective truth is an assumption 
within your frame of reference. This can sound counterintuitive at first 
but the world you experience would not exist without you. Fully 
understanding this concept can restructure the brain to be less attached 
and more capable of rationally evaluating different beliefs.

The problem with seeing even our own existence as an absolute truth is 
that we have to assume that time and space objectively exist. Surprisingly, 
this is a point of quite some debate in science and there are phenomena 
that violate our intuitive understanding of them. When there is strong 
evidence, scientists consider a theory to be true, but only within our 
current knowledge or understanding of it. You don't have to take my word 
for it, questioning everything I bring up in this book is a good mental 
exercise that will help you correct flaws within socially conditioned 
beliefs.

I try to be very empirical and construct logical arguments that are based 
on the assumptions I deem likely, such as what I read in reliable 
scientific papers. Emotionally, it is very appealing to believe in 
absolute truths and most people tend to avoid or reject confrontational 
ideas because their gut feeling tells them to do so. But erroneous 
certainties can hold people back or lock them into beliefs that may be 
illogical or even harmful. Unfortunately, these beliefs are most often 
created by rationalizing around conclusions and decisions after they've 
already been made. And even though these automatic mechanisms are natural, 
we also have the ability to override them with self-awareness. Some might 
wonder why that even matters if, either way, there are no certainties 
without absolute truths. But instead of thinking with certainties, it is 
more accurate to think in probabilities. This is perhaps the most 
important insight I have learned from how scientists approach the smallest 
building blocks of our world. Our entire universe is made of quanta such 
as electrons and photons that all behave probabilistically rather than 
deterministically. Ultimately, anything is possible and answering any yes 
or no question with "there is a chance" is actually factually correct. As 
much as we'd love to believe in absolute truths, real answers will always 
lie in probabilities and approximations.