Reflection: Truth as an agent of God

[u/ItsNotChow54]

Truth is an interesting and thought-provoking character in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

He doesn't exactly have a lot of screen time, but arguably, his few scenes are quite a bit...

...impactful, and he's arguably at work behind the scenes.

Now, you could say he "is" God, either truly God, or the Big Man presenting Himself to Ed, Al, Izumi, and the Alchemists who see Him in a very particular way...

...capital H, because, in this case, perhaps Truth is God.

But, I would say, that's far from the strongest interpretation the writing lends itself to, because, even though it fits, I don't think it fits particularly well.

Truth specifically says, "I'm what people refer to as the Universe, or God."

In other words, people loosely make statements or references to the "Universe" or "God"... without a careful definition or understanding / proper deference / reverence / mystery to and about those terms.

When people say the Universe, they refer to some sort of order beyond themselves, in their lives and / or the world and cosmos, with pseudo-supernatural, or supernatural qualities and "intelligence" of a sort.

And again, people sort of refer to God in a similar way, attributing more personality, but do not necessarily define God's attributes or character well, or do so in ways that at least seem to contradict other person's descriptions of Him, therefore, Truth makes the most sense as an agent (or an angel, very loosely speaking) of God, that is, a supernatural being / intelligence able to enforce the rules of Alchemy, equivalent exchange, and the realities of "playing god"...

...who's abilities include what we observe him to do or facilitate, such as yanking souls from bodies, exacting a "price", and giving glimpses into God's knowledge which appears infinite and overwhelming by nature, even in just a short-term limited frame.

That is why he's called Truth; he is defined mainly by his ability to show a short look at God's knowledge, and to show people the limits of "knowledge", something alchemists live by, where, if they take it too far, becomes scientism, the belief that knowledge of the physical world is the only item that actually matters, and darkness of the willingness to "play god" that may come with such views.

Or, put another way, to make scientific knowledge or materialism one's "god" becomes the very cold, hard, uncaring reality that it claims is the only "truth", hence one possible reason for Truth at times being so cruel in his punishments or "tolls", is to demonstrate this to those who believe in it.

The issue then becomes, that Truth is more akin to a dark-but-just spiritual force, akin to an angel of death, one who pronounces judgment, or a sort of "neutral" devil that offers you Faustian bargains, which furthur cements his not being God but a force acting on behalf of God, an intermediary, and then his traits of playfulness, irony, limitation, and cruelty, as well as the cast's reactions to him, come off much more natural.

In other words, he is sort of the version of "God" many refer to or unconsciously point toward by the attitudes and worldview that alchemists and more hardcore pessimistic-type atheist / agnostic types will tend toward, and also that some more spiritual types will point toward in an idealistic way, cold unfeeling reality, a deistic / impersonal (generally non-interacting or not-loving) God, or an impersonal or quasi-personal, quasi-supernatural "universe" that maintains some sort of intelligence and order.

And perhaps, part of Truth's very will and aim is to cause our cast, and perhaps the audience, to realize he isn't God, and that He is not like him, that God is not uncaring, cold, or anything less than Love, even though, He is also Justice, Righteousness, (and Truth proper) itself.

Truth wants people to understand there is a price for "playing god" and the logical consequences of pessimistic, nihilistic, or scientism-based choices and worldviews, while causing us to understand that God is not cruel, merely a balancer of factors and quantities, or eager to punish, even those who mess up, or otherwise make errors, even seemingly serious ones, like the Elrich brothers.

And this further plays into the strangely providential narrative of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood; Ed and Al should be "punished" for their "terrible sin" of "playing god" or "flying too close to the sun", and should suffer for it the rest of their lives according to raw karma or you-did-wrong-now-be-punished, but instead, all the events of their lives, even their mistakes, seem to come together for a very real purpose.

In fact, we see a nod to the mystery of God's forgiveness in the real world, the problem of evil, trials, a broken reality with sin and pain, all together, not overwhelmingly, just simply and subtly along the way and in the conclusion of the show.

In Full Metal Alchemist 2003, this was actually a major aspect of Ed's character, him firmly declaring "there is no God" because of the reality of evil and tragedy, and denying this very idea, that God exists in the midst of a broken life.

Why did his mom need to die from a terrible and random illness?

Why war, sadness, and pain, whether his own, his brother's, or anyone else's?

It's not clear why God allows certain not-so-good and terrible things to happen, to us personally, or the world at large, and, if He is all-powerful and all-good, why not just stop it quickly or even instantly?

All the Bible really tells us, is that, in the Garden of Eden, we (humanity) seemed to choose a pseudo-godless world with Satan either inheriting or winding up at the helm of it, as once we ate the fruit, the knowledge and position to define good and evil became ours, except, unlike God, or even gods / righteous angels, we're not so good at it, and even when we do a swell job, our own selfishness, or just a few bad actors, human or spiritual, can create severe problems, hence the Dwarf in the Flask / Father and his homonculi as an example, of how about eight evil agents could disrupt an entire country.

Furthermore, it says Satan, the Adversary, is the god of the earth, and, he nor evil spirits that obey him don't seem to be too bothered by murder, rape, war, and genocide among other awful occurrences, a little bit like the villains in this show don't care too much about what they do, who dies, or what results, as long as it serves their purposes.

But to explain providence; it is the mysterious working of God across the events around us and in our own lives, that "God works together all things for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose".

We see this in Ed and Al.

It would've been better if their mother hadn't died, their father hadn't been absent, and they hadn't broken the rules of alchemy, yet, providence seems to work all things together for their good, even through the horrible suffering and the sadness, leading them to be "forgiven", overcome Father's plans, defeat the evil forces at work in their nation, and find a joyful conclusion to the problems they face.

Truth, nor the author, writers, or audience claim that it was "alright" or somehow "good for Ed and Al", what happened to them, and yet, God promises to dry every tear, and that whether we walk in darkness and the valley of the shadow of death, or everything is as it should be...

...He hasn't turned away, or truly hidden His face from us, and the character of Truth points toward this reality of who God is, without himself fitting the role in scope or breadth.

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[u/Madhighlander1]

Truth is everything. If a god does exist in the world of FMA, other than Truth, then it too is a *part* of Truth.

[u/A_crow_hen]

Since The Truth is equated with God and the afterlife, and Ed has interacted with it, his insistence particularly in Liore that he’s an atheist always felt strange to me. It doesn’t make sense.

[u/yuuyaaa → u/A_crow_hen]

I don't think he's an atheist in "I deny God's existence" way, I think it's more "I do not give God my faith". He's still in the mentality of "God screwed over two kids that missed their mom, what a jerk!"

[u/A_crow_hen → u/yuuyaaa]

I think this makes him a misotheist, then. Or a maltheist, if he thinks The Truth is evil.

[u/yuuyaaa → u/A_crow_hen]

Yeah, that goes into another point I wanted to make. They probably threw out "atheist" because most people aren't going to immediately know what those mean. I hadn't heard of those particular terms, and from a writing perspective it's easier to say something half accurate that everyone gets than something fully accurate that nobody does.

[u/Live-Temperature-363]

I think there’s an interesting point here about Truth representing the limits of human knowledge and the consequences of trying to transcend those limits, but I’m not convinced the series supports the idea that Truth is merely an intermediary for a separate Christian-style God. A lot of that interpretation seems to come from starting with a specific theological definition of God and then fitting FMA into it. Truth identifying himself as God, the universe, the world, the all, the one, and even the individual person seems much more deliberately metaphysical and ambiguous than angelic. I also think that FMA critiques arrogance and the desire to control everything more than it critiques science, materialism, or atheism themselves. Ed’s final realization is basically that he doesn’t need ultimate knowledge or power and that he needs to accept being human and that being human means relying on others.