We all have truths that are clear in our minds. Our hearts cherish them, and when other deny them we may feel insulted. Yet these varying truths – in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism – or indeed the philosophies of our age – secularism, scientism, atheism or agnosticism – cannot be so easily reconciled. As soon as we profess one truth boldly by implication another belief is a lie. The relation of “God Truth and Lies” has preoccupied my mind much. How do we know that the truth we believe in is fact, and that the illusion of someone else’s mind is based upon a lie? Don’t the accused liars of our minds think the same thing against us?
I do not like to get lost in a relativist swamp, however. There are moral truths, I believe. Doing right does matter, and justice is not just a relative or temporary illusion. Loving your neighbor, valuing human life, and justly defending what is right and good, these do not seem to be whims of the heart or mind. It may be a pretense and whimsical to think we have a monopoly on truth, but it is not whimsical to think that there is truth.
