Letter: What is ‘the truth?’

Laptop

From: Bob Hyatt

Columbus

What is "the truth”?

Truth is generally assumed to be what we can physically see or touch or know to be, in fact, true.

Jesus said, “I am truth.” What does that mean? Jesus started a revolution that now has 1.6 billion followers worldwide.

And yet truth can be what we have convinced ourselves to be factual. Older people often suffer from dementia and lose touch with reality or truth. Young people learning their way often think they really know how the world works.

Generally, people believe that local newspapers are a good source of the truth. We trust them. We also seem to certainly believe what we see on TV or “hear” what is reported “on the news.” Yet, there is a fair amount of skepticism over “news” we hear online and what people say about reality in emails and social media.

Trust is what we feel about people or sources that generally tell us the truth. There’s nothing harder for a marriage to overcome than a loss of trust due to a lack of truthfulness.

Americans seem to be very trusting of our elected officials. Sure, we hear political speeches that suggest there are big differences between politicians but generally we recognize baloney when we hear it.

Former President Trump said, “the press is the enemy of the people.” Mike Pence even made an effort to have an “Indiana” news network run by the government. They both seem to suggest that only THEY know the Truth. The “big lie” is that Biden didn’t actually win the election. Millions of Americans think this is “truth." Do you?

When the top elected official suggests that they are the “truth” then we have a problem. In countries where dictators exist, there are no elections or if there are, the dictators always win. They seem to act like only they know the truth.

What I’m telling you is the truth…or is it a lie??