Truth vs. truths

I don't feel like I was able to adequately make the distinction I wanted too in class, so here we go:

A Truth implies some fundamental or immutable law, possibly related to or decreed by the Godhead. It is applicable across all fields of study, though it may be more useful in some than others. A bad example is the concept of mass (closely related to the common idea of weight); it acts in the same way for all objects we know of and often passes unnoticed because it is so fundamental to us (Literature almost never mentions mass, but novels would certainly be different if mass acted in a different ways in our universe). I call mass a bad example because at the most fundamental level we still do not know how it really works. We have some ideas, but they have not yet been verified.

truths are facts or theories discovered by each individual field of study, and may be applicable in some related fields or not at all in others. Note that though a truth is not disproved by the fact that it may not be applicable to each individual field. An example is the mathematical fact that the cosine of two pi is zero. This is highly applicable in math and science but less useful in literature.

All fields of study are interested in finding both Truth and truths. After all, that is what a field of study does; it expands what is Known. A helpful metaphor is an arbitrarily shaped blob. Everything inside constitutes human knowledge. Everything outside is the Unknown. Every field of study is at some particular point along the edge of this blob, pushing outwards to enlarge the Known. Every so often, the field of study will encounter a Truth, and everyone will have to reevaluate their knowledge to see how the Truth changes or does not change the Known. More often, a field will simply encounter a truth. This field will excitedly consider this new fact or figure, and then carry on. Other fields may change with this new fact, or may not, but nevertheless the Known is greater than it was.

So we see it isn't a matter of science versus literature. Everyone is on the same team, working together to push back the curtain of the Unknown.

I'll get off the soapbox now.