It is simply true that the sun is hotter than the earth, true that the desk on which I am writing is made of wood. These are not hypotheses awaiting falsification, not temporary approximations of an ever elusive truth, not local truths that might be denied in another culture. They are just plain true. It is forever true that DNA is a double helix, true that if you and a chimpanzee (or an octopus or a kangaroo) trace your ancestors back far enough, you will eventually hit a shared ancestor.

You would not believe the number of sensitivities that have to be kept in mind in public discourse. I once got mad at some Texas legislators over a spectacularly pea-brained stunt and referred to them as “a bunch of droolers.” I was promptly served with pamphlets from an outfit called the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Those Who Involuntarily Drool. (Very sad, actually, people who have had strokes often drool involuntarily.) People make fun of political correctness, but if you’re running for office, left-handed lesbians of Czech descent are out there, and they are touchy.

I do not mean that we must consult reason, and examine whether a proposition revealed from God can be made out by natural principles, and if it cannot, that then we may reject it: but consult it we must,
and by it examine whether it be a revelation from God or no: and if
reason finds it to be revealed from God, reason then declares for it as
much as for any other truth, and makes it one of her dictates.

To be a citizen is, literally, to be “of the city” — the very fractiousness that makes a city means that a “civic sense” is going to be a not a monument, but a river which is constantly carving out new channels, overflowing its banks, absorbing new tributaries and branching out into deltas. It is a spirit that pervades urban life at its best, which creates a sense of openness and possibity, and importantly a sense of the possibility of creating a community of choice — the hall mark of the city is that one may find, whatever ones interests and ideas, at least some small number of people who share them to an intensity that you may gather together as a group to advance them. The great urban flowerings of the past — for example Pharonic Thebes, Classical Athens, Hellenistic Alexandria, Moghul Dehli, Augustinian Rome, Renaissance Florence, Elizabethan London, Romantic Paris, Fin de la Siecle Vienna, Weimar Berlin, Modern New York – shows what it is capable of producing in its hey dey. The imperfection of civic life is, to me, part of the dynamic energy which makes it exciting. Utopian ideals are for idyllic rural colonies in the hills, where serenity reigns and there is a quiet exclusivity. Urbanity is the profane orgy of human excitement wrapped in the fine control of a sacred sense of polity.

Beginning with the original Gospel message, Ward charts six major changes in the history of Christianity, each of which illustrates that theology is a human, and mutable, endeavor. The Hellenistic re-statement of the Gospel in the early Church Councils altered the character of the original Christian faith, and, many would argue, for the better. From the medieval Latin elaboration of doctrines of sin and atonement, Heaven, Purgatory and Hell, to the Reformation proclamation of salvation by faith alone; from the German liberal attempt to recover the historical Jesus to the challenges of the cosmic evolutionary view of modern science, Ward draws the conclusion that there is no one essence of faith. In fact, the very quest for truth requires change-and openness to it is openness to a fuller revelation of God. ~ Product Description

It seems to me that modern man, with our touchingly naive belief in reason and science and our delusion that we can understand existence, has lost sight of how miraculous existence truly is. Science, with button-bursting pride, offers us explanations for the history of the universe, but has not even begun to dream of what might have preceded the Big Bang. Science assures us that we are not unique, that there must be myriad planets with intelligent life on them, intelligence that is similar or even superior to ours, but can not answer the Fermi Paradox: “where are they?” Science assures us that Darwinism explains away the rise of humans and that had this or that element of evolution been just slightly different, we may never have existed, and that there must be other planets where life is quite different. And yet, with all of these scientific explanations, the fact remains that to the best of our knowledge: we exist; alone among the creatures of creation, we can comprehend our existence; and our creation seems to have been a goal of the universe. I know, I know, that’s far too anthropomorphic, yadda, yadda, yadda… Well, there’s an old saying down South, maybe it’s even popular down near where Mr. Price lives and teaches: if you see a turtle sitting on a fence post, it’s safe to assume he didn’t get there by himself. You can, of course, concoct all kinds of theories, maybe even prove some of them scientifically, that’ll show that the turtle got there naturally, but, as for me, I’d tend to assume that someone placed him there. As you look around the universe, we damn sure seem to resemble that turtle.

The October 2000 issue of Forbes ASAP is a remarkable, voluminous anthology pondering the question: “What is true?” An impressive crowd of cognoscenti discuss the status of truth in the digital age in each of their respective specialties: business, culture, faith, science, history, and people. A tone of jaded skepticism pervades, except, of course, in the science column, where scientism perseveres. On culture, Pico Lyer’s [sic], “Do You Copy?” and, Ian Frazier’s, “Th-Th-That’s Not All Folks,” both commend the facsimile over the original, the fabrication over the real. In contrast, Stephen Jay Gould’s, “Only Human,” offers a wistful tribute to the authentic artifact en route to a biological definition of the human essence. Richard Dawkins’, “Hall of Mirrors,” is a stirring apologetic for science being the oracle of truth. For faith, Reynolds Price discloses a gentle and wisehearted Christian confession written to his godson. And, Michael Korda offers an amusing, if derisive, look at the Bible from the perspective of a publisher. This special issue features fine, fascinating writing across the board and is highly recommended. Finally, Zogby’s, What is “True”? Poll includes several notes of interest.