This issue of truth isn't a new phenomenon, Pilate asked the question "What is truth?" the serpent asked the question, "Did God really say..." followed by "You shall not surely die." The first paragraph of the Screwtape Letters contains the following:
Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen
incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't
think of doctrines as primarily 'true' or 'false', but as 'academic' or 'practical',
'outworn' or 'contemporary', 'conventional' or 'ruthless'. Jargon, not argument
is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to
make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark,
or courageous - that is the philosophy of the future.
I would say that is a most prophetic passage and a grand place to start to understand our own world. We have become those who embrace truth that has to commend it as actually true in science or experience so long as it supports what we already believe. Christians and Jews have been accused of this for centuries, believing in things that have no archaeological evidence, only to find later that they were indeed true. We are capable of saying something is false but accurate.
We are a world with an opinion seeking proof that our opinion is true and reliable. What we have seen is the breakdown of consensus and optimism that began in the Enlightenment. We believed in progress through science and the abandonment of religion and it hasn't happened. We have more stuff but less life, less joy and less optimism. We have lost coherence and hope in the face of disappointment and we now cling to doomsday scenarios as our organizing principle and our consensus.
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