Truth and a pulse…

written by JD Thomas

I was watching the news the other day when a breaking story came across the screen: a person was murdered last night in the northeast section of the city… and the victim was found with a pulse, he was dead.  Now I hoped that the news anchor just misspoke and meant to say that the victim was found with a pulse but later died, because… you cannot BE DEAD and have a pulse. You ever watch the twilight zone?  I felt like I was in it!

Anyone who works in the EMS/FIRE/POLICE field (myself included) can confirm this: we’re always yelling at the TV or in the theater when they depict something that isn’t factual in our profession.

I was reminded of a student who wanted to argue with me in the CPR class that I was the INSTRUCTOR for.  I advised the class that if you have no pulse, you’re in cardiac arrest.  She raised her hand and told me that a person could be in cardiac arrest and still have a pulse… she said you could be dead and still be alive!!!!

No Pulse

WOW!  The most interesting part for me was that she ended her statement with “I’m an EMT”.  She had no idea that I was an EMT too, while she was still in elementary school.  Do you see the problem here?  The problem: Her statement violated the law of non-contradiction.

My reply to her was, “How can a person be dead and have a pulse?  A pulse equates to being alive regardless of the quality of life.  Having a pulse means having life.  Death is the absence of a pulse.  So, I asked her if a person can BE dead and yet still BE alive?”

She…said…yes…let that sink in for a minute…is that logical?

Many people try to say the same thing…there is no truth…hmmm…let’s think about that.

Flatlined

An atheist once told me, there are no absolute certainties.  I replied, are you absolutely certain about that?  He replied YES…hmmm… . I asked him how he could believe that there were no absolute certainties while that statement itself is a claim to absolute certainty.  I advised him that it violated the law of non-contradiction, but he just reiterated his original statement.

The atheist gave us a…flat line answer, and that is unacceptable.

Let me tell you, if there is no truth (or absolute certainties) then we can’t trust anything; not our parents, our friends, our family, our spouses, or science…we can’t even trust ourselves.  The question is: Does truth exist?  I’m quite sure you can agree with me that it does.  And if you don’t agree, then I ask you, “Is that true?”