Is there a limit?

Do you believe there is an absolute truth, some idea or concept that will always stand? I believe there is such thing, an immutable and everlasting truth on which all the momentaneous things subsist. I think, however, that we can never know it.* We must, though, keep on searching for it and, in fact, I even made a motto for myself that anything meaningful and worthy fighting for should be related to it. Recently an episode has made me reconsider how much I actually value the quest for true answers.

Most of us have passed through moments where people begin arguing about what we believe is true. Many of us, however, few uneasy, and are always trying to avoid it, certainly because we are not well grounded and fear the arguments may destroy our comfort and peace. Different from most people, I could not accept to be grounded on thin air, so I have myself doubted everything I've been taught, so no one would be able to say I was eluded.

This week, a friend of mine, who has been building his beliefs on very strong ground, with much study and reasoning, began arguing me about some ideas. I have to confess I felt uneasy, I began thinking of all the moments I had passed in the past considering such things and how I reached a point where I honestly just wanted to take it for granted and go onto other issues. Unfortunately, if this is the recipe for alienation, on the other hand we will never stop facing new arguments and, therefore, we will eternally be fools. Is it different if you are a fool level 9 or 10 in a scale going up to a billion? Certainly it is essential to have people around pushing you higher by such questioning, but is there a limit, is it worth the try?

This process of search for truth means you will continually criticize every idea you build, much like the dialectic method of Socrates, where you can never accept you know something, but enter this cycle of destruction-construction that leads you to a higher level of understanding. In fact, it is interesting how this evolution pattern repeats itself in reality.

In swimming and weight lifting (about which I can speak) we pass through long hours of workout, 'destroying' fibers of our muscles, then we get a good rest and nutrition in order to make it grow in quality and size. The sleeping and eating without exercises won't bring good results, nor the opposite. It is by intensifying this cycle, doing all of it more and better, that you will get where you want. The same is in economy, where by raising the flow of selling and buying products you produce greater wealth. This concept show us the government shouldn't be worried about decreasing imports, but focusing more on stimulating exports, that is, balancing the opposite forces in a higher level. (I don't ignore the other more complex factors, but this is certainly an underlying principle)

Alright, so, when will we stop this process? Some have argued that the Allegory of the Cave would be more complete if there were various caves, in an eternal loop, and just as we leave one and start enjoying the sun, we find that the figures we see still are a mere shadow of an even greater reality outside. But the question remains, if there will always be a better light outside, when will we stop and start enjoying the shadows playing on the wall?

*I personally believe that absolute truth can only be known if it decides to reveal itself to us, and it has amazingly done it by its personification in Jesus Christ, who leads us to a deeper and unexplainable experience with truth.