For as long as mankind has been called such, it has been blessed with many evolving gifts like curiosity, imagination, creativity and the ability to love. But more importantly, it has been plagued with two major evils, the thirst for power and a deeply rooted system of beliefs. While most people would probably argue that the former is responsible for most of the suffering we as a species have endured and still do, I propose the latter as the actual culprit. This post will be a brief adventure into the realm of human beliefs as opposed to the absolute Truth.

Yes, you read me right. I pretend to hold the answer to the universe, life and everything. No, it’s not 42. You see, mine is the only truth. I will live my life according to it and if needed, fight for it. There’s only one problem. No, in fact, there are two: first, my absolute truth changes over time; second, yours is different than mine, and they sometimes clash so strongly that sparks fly and thunder erupts. And yet you are as convinced as I am to hold the only truth there is.

So we have an issue. If our truths are subdued and open-minded in nature, we’ll tolerate each other the best we can and go about our business, feeling sorry for others who have obviously lost their way and hence greatly need to be shown the path. If our truths are more radical, though, we might end up spilling blood for them, ours and that of our opponents. And while we’re at it, unavoidably, we’ll spill the blood of innocent bystanders. No one is really innocent after all, they should know better and rally our cause.

This last paragraph contains the essence of human history; a never-ending series of wars, conquests and exterminations waged in the name of some ideal, an irresistible belief in a truth we hold as unique and almighty.

But how can so many people each have their own beliefs and each be convinced they only, have found the truth?

This question applies to an individual level but for our discussion’s sake, let’s restrict it to larger bodies like religions and political parties, for instance. You most likely belong to one of each. Everyone does, one way or another. And you most likely are willing to bet your way of life that yours are the right choices and that the other teams are completely blind and mislead. You believe this with every parcel of intelligence that glows in you. Your life is based upon the certitude that while there are so many wrong theories about the universe out there, you managed to find the only true one and are sticking to it. I know I do.

However, if we stop for a second and force ourselves into a detached and analytical state of mind, it becomes evident that this picture is hilariously flawed. Even though my core beliefs and emotions tell me that the way I think is the most logical one, it would take a gigantic ego to blind me to the fact that every person on earth feels the same about their own beliefs, thus creating an incredibly chaotic web of contradictions, incompatibilities and anger.

How can we integrate all these seemingly conflicting values, these impossibly opposite stances that have been forcing us to defend our beliefs so fiercely that the world has never know true peace? I can see only one way: by accepting once and for all that nothing is true, and nothing is real, that there are as many different universes as there are minds perceiving them; by admitting that our world is created around us by the simple fact that we observe it; by embracing the somehow scary thought that every single definition of the Truth is as valid as ours, and that none are real – not even ours.

Imagine a world where people would exchange business cards on which, below name and contact, would appear a belief. Why not? When I receive a business card from Joe Blow, I don’t feel compelled to assault him verbally because is name is not Vincent. His reality is different. He passes on some information about him to me, for reference. He is neither trying to impose his name on me nor to steal mine. The same should hold true for beliefs.

Whether one believes in Buddha, in Christ, in Brigitte Bardot, in quantum physics, in the Church of Scientology, in little green men, in the flying spaghetti monster, in the Democratic Party, in the United Nations, in eco-terrorism or in nothing at all, one is right. And one is wrong. What we believe in, we manifest and hence make it real. Every atom in our body becomes impregnated by that reality. And that’s a lot of atoms. Yet we are wrong to think of our belief as "better than". There just cannot be only one truth.

What we really should do is seek a way to incorporate our beliefs into the global consciousness, to fit them into something bigger. Something intangible, beyond our understanding or perception, and that joins everything once and for all.

Just as quantum physics has shown some particles to exist indefinitely only in a state of probability until we actually chose to observe them, at which point they decide to become one thing or another and will remain that way as long as we are involved, so does our presence in the world define reality and our beliefs shape our own truth. We must just understand that everyone shapes up their world in different ways because they look at it through different eyes.

Now we need to accept that your god, my god and her particle accelerator are all as real, all as powerful, and all as deceiving. But only through our human experience can we ever know that. Consciousness might very well be the last frontier. Beyond it lies a sea of simplicity.