A Question About Truth for These Pandemic Times

It is one of those questions that has been asked since ancient times.

What is truth? From Pontius Pilate’s question to Jesus before he ordered his crucifixion through the last 2,000 plus years of philosophers, academics, theologians and scientists, seeking the truth has been a human endeavor.

But here in 2021, finding the truth seems to have become harder than ever. The evidence is all around us with the greatest examples of this being true about the truth are the politics and the pandemic of our time. One person’s truth is another person’s fake news. And one person’s scientific truth is another person’s scientific fraud.

President Biden’s comment to a White House reporter just this week was just one recent example. When asked about his statement three months ago that if you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask, Mr. Biden said, "That was true at the time." Adding that he thought people were going to understand the need to get vaccinated but many have not.

And during a discussion on a Christian TV program this week, panelists doubted the truth of what was being said by government health officials about the vaccine.

And then there is social media, which in our times, has become ground zero for fact and fiction and what is true and what is not when it comes to almost anything.

As a wise person once said, where there is no truth, there is chaos.

(Photo Getty Images)