Is it true?

Truth is one of the easiest things in the world to define. An old philosopher once put it straightforwardly: "To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true." Any true statement will be true because it accurately reflects the facts, the reality of things. Truth is "tellin' it like it is."

Truth is unfortunately one of the hardest things to find. There's no quick formula for testing the truth of a claim. If you want to know who the tallest Englishman is, you have to fly across the pond and find him (or someone who knows him). Not all claims to truth can even be tested in the same way. If you want to know whether differential calculus is true, you must work it out with a proof. If you want to know whether there is a God, there is no science experiment in the world that will tell you -- test tubes don't apply to the creator of glass.

Perhaps, even more frustrating is that truth waits for no one. Whether you find him or not, there is at least one tallest man on the British island. Differential calculus is true whether you understand it or not. And whatever you may think or believe, God either exists or doesn't. Truth is independent of who knows it. Even if no one in the world agrees, or no one is around to know, a truth would be there all the same.

Truth may not be dependent on us, but we are certainly dependent on it. If something can so affect us regardless of our opinion, how could we not try to discover whatever we can about it? Truth matters because knowing the truth is the only way to be in sync with the world around us.

There are four further questions that will help in any search for beliefs that are true. The first question to ask of any claim is, "What is actually being said?" Everything must start here and nothing can come from a search for truth if this question isn't answered first. This requires listening. It is easy to assume someone is saying something they really would never even think. Someone who says, "We need affirmative action" is not saying, "White people are no good."

Another danger is letting what is actually said get crowded out by how it is said, or who says it. Whether said sensitively or not, the ideas behind the words are what are important. And whatever words are used, it is essential that their meaning is clear. Too many words these days ("empire," "puppet government," and "democracy") are being thrown around with no care to bother about what they actually mean -- other than a vague association with "good thing" or "bad thing." The result is quite a few people writing about nothing at all and truth getting lost in the shuffle.

The second key question is, "What are your sources?" Or, by what authority is the writer claiming what is said. "Authority" is a word that makes some people's skin crawl. But it is nothing more than the source of information you have no direct access to otherwise.

Trusting in someone's authority is something we do every day, any time we consider someone trustworthy to give us information about something we don't know. When our roommate tells us there's no milk, we go to the store. We take her word for it. Provided, of course, she's a good authority.

The vast majority of regular beliefs we have are taken from some authority, not direct experience. We can't restrict what we believe to what we can ourselves experience, but we can continually examine the integrity of the sources we trust. Not all sources are created equal; I would trust Ari Fleischer before I'd take the Iraqi Information Minister at his word.

The third question is, "Why do you believe it is true?" Once one knows precisely the claim being made and the source backing it up, one needs to test whether one's reasoning is good. We must beware of thinking that something is so obviously true that everyone should be able to see it. There are such self-evident truths, but it never hurts to ask why they are so. One might legitimately answer that the authority behind the claim is just that trustworthy. But it is illegitimate to answer, "because I want it to be true." We cannot make the truth conform to us, only us to it.

Lastly, everyone must consider, "What if it isn't true?" This is the hardest question because it leaves open the possibility of being wrong -- which no one is fond of admitting. But it is also the most important, for wrong choices follow directly from wrong beliefs. The less trivial the belief in question, the more significant the consequences if one is wrong.

I titled this column "Is It True?" to ensure the question would be ever-present before the eyes. It is the ultimate question that one ought to continually ask. I've made a lot of claims in these pages to truth. Now, I am either right or wrong because my claims are either true or false. The same is true for anyone else. When approaching anyone's writings, the most important consideration is not whether they are popular, cutting edge, or agreeable, but whether what they say is true.