The Cornerstone

By Lael Arrington

Truman Burbank was born and raised on a TV set, the star of his own show.  He is completely unaware of reality. He believes he lives on a coastal island.  He believes that his wife and friends, all paid actors, really love him. Christoff,  the producer in the film, says, “While the world he inhabits is . . . counterfeit,  there’s nothing fake about Truman himself.” Truman is real. That’s what makes him “so good to watch.”³

The 1998 film The Truman Show illustrates the often confusing distinctions between belief and knowledge, truth and untruth. What constitutes knowledge?  Most philosophers would agree that knowledge is justified true belief.   It is belief, something we take to be true by at least 51 percent, that agrees with the evidence.   At the beginning of the movie, Truman believes that his life on Seahaven is real, not a scripted TV show. But his belief does not qualify as knowledge because it is not justified by the evidence of which the viewing audience is clearly aware.

What is truth? Truth is telling it like it really is. Truth is not a thing, but rather a relationship between our words or ideas and reality. Whether Truman can see it or not, whether he believes it or not, whether his words agree with it or not, his life is entertainment for the masses. Truman’s beliefs do not correspond to reality. They are false.

We may think of belief as an all-or-nothing proposition. But belief is more of a continuum.  In the course of the movie, we see Truman’s confidence in what he believes to be true steadily diminish.  Lighting canisters fall out of the “sky.” The man he knew as “Dad” shows up one day, trying to warn him before he is hustled onto a bus. He catches on to his wife doing product placement commercials.  You can almost see the needle on the continuum between belief and unbelief falling, falling past the 50/50 point. He suspects he is being deceived and controlled.  When he escapes on a sailboat, the producer

creates a ferocious storm.  Truman shouts to the sky, “Is that the best you can do? You’re going to have to kill me!” He survives and sails on until the ship reaches the edge of the watery set and, quite literally, pokes a hole in the bubble of deceit that has been his life.

In the same way, we can live in deceit and illusion until one day we hit the wall of reality. When our false beliefs collide with reality, we then have a choice: Will we live according to knowledge — true belief justified by good evidence? Or will we settle for illusion? The producer promises Truman an illusion of safety. Truman chooses the truth that sets him free. The cheers from the audience gradually subside as they stare at their blank screens, then grope around for their TV guides and some other virtual  adventure to soothe and distract. But that is another story.

To seek knowledge, we weigh all our beliefs against the best evidence — God’s revelation, both general and special. In order to live and speak with truth, we do so “in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2). That is, we live and speak words that correspond to reality as God created it and as The One Who Sees Everything sees it.  Frederica Mathewes-Green has said, “Reality is God’s home address.” ⁴ To be a person of truth is to live before God in the reality he created rather than to settle for illusions, even those of our own making.

For reflection and discussion

As I look back over seasons of pain and escape into distraction and daydreams,

I think of how I described my journey in my book Godsight:

“I think how the emptiness I often felt came from being in a place, either

in my head or on a screen, where I was not present to God.  My life did not

correspond to his reality.

“I sensed the lack of integrity deep in my bones.  The reality of my own life,

full of potential moments of love and ser vice to God and others was ticking

by.  My escapes were killing me softly — one evening of entertainment, one

daydream at a time.

“What is most real is eternal life. Jesus said, ‘Now this is eternal life: that

they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent’

(John 17:3).  If we truly want to love and seek God, we find him when our

words and lives correspond to reality, even painful reality.  Not in untruth,

fantasy or distraction.”⁵

• Have you experienced hitting the wall of reality? Did you discover that

any of your beliefs were untrue?

• What counts for true knowledge in today’s world? What limitations

might you find with today’s approach to knowledge?

When Truman discovered his life was an illusion, the director begged

him to stay in the safety of Seahaven. He didn’t stay. Why do you think it

is so hard to live in an illusion? Why not enjoy the safety?

• Are there places in your life or heart that do not correspond to reality as

God sees it? What reality have you constructed?

• What greater reality might God be inviting you into?

• What might you want to say to God about being a person of truth?

3. Andrew Niccol, The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir, starring Jim Carrey (Hollywood:

Paramount Pictures, 1998).

4. Frederica Mathewes-Green, in a conversation with Lael Arrington in 2004.

5. Lael Arrington, Godsight: Renewing the Eyes of Our Hearts (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway,

2005).