The Disaster of Avoiding Reality

“Without truth, there is no genuine freedom and fulfillment.”  – Os Guinness

Harold likes to drive his car, but the route he needs to take goes through a congested urban area with many traffic lights, and he cannot drive near as fast as he would like.
However, that won’t be a problem on his way home tonight because Harold just thought of a solution. He decided to set the cruise control at 55 miles per hour, and if a vehicle is in front of him, he’ll just believe it is not there. And if he comes to a red light, he’ll just believe it is green, so he should arrive home in record time…
Yes, we agree it would be foolish to set the cruise control at 55 mph through a congested area and just assume it will work out. Yet that is just what many people are doing in life. Are many folks not quick to fabricate and support any lie they imagine will make them feel better?
We will not escape the truth as we drive down the road, and neither will we, in the end, successfully evade any other truths in life.
Has avoiding the truth not always been a cruel and disappointing road to travel?
I think we can agree that it is essential to maintain an open mind to the truth and bravely pursue it. Is anything as secure as confidently standing on the solid ground of certainty? And is anything as repulsive as struggling through the swamp of falsehoods and error?
If we hold conflicting ideas, we both cannot be correct, even if we convince ourselves we are right. Considering the countless contradicting opinions that abound, we can note that many people who are sure they are right are quite mistaken. In reality, it could be us who is wrong.
One might wonder, “If it is possible to know the truth about life, why are there so many contradicting opinions?”
Are diverse views not often the result of people, especially those who are highly influential, refusing to accept ideas that contradict what they want to think? These folks are not afraid to assert their opinion as fact, regardless of reality. This bias leaves them, and those they influence, with a dreadfully distorted perspective. Will we find the truth if our preferences are more important to us than factual evidence?
I also fight this tendency. I must repeatedly remind myself that accepting reality will be far more rewarding than believing only what I want to think.
How about you? Are you willing to discredit desired opinions for the sake of truth?
Barry Leventhal pointed out, “There are none who are as deaf as those who do not want to hear.”  Blaise Pascal also noted, “Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”  
What we want to believe can easily influence our reasoning; thus, if we are unwilling to accept the truth at all costs, we likely do not possess it.
Taking a thorough and honest look at a view that does not interest us is certainly challenging. Jonathan Swift wrote, “Reasoning itself is true and just, but the reasoning of every man is weak and wavering, perpetually swayed and turned by his interest, his passions, and his vices.”  No wonder folks are confused about reality when it is so common to allow our preferences to distort our view of the truth.
In his book, Time for Truth, Os Guinness wrote, “Truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity—it is simply true and that is the end of it. … In this modern age, more and more people are all surface, skills, and résumé—and no character. … By the end of the 20th century, it was widely accepted that old notions such as ‘true self’ had gone the way of common-sense reality.”
In his blog, Steve Simms shared, “The exaltation of desire is leading our culture to sacrifice truth, reason, and conscience. It takes courage to be awakened enough to search for truth when the truth doesn’t contain what we desire.”