Jesus said, ‘For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’ (John 18:37-38).
Pilate’s cynical put-down continues to echo down the centuries. The concept of truth has always been contested and in one sense there is nothing new about the questioning of truth and authenticity which are a feature of our current digital age.
What is the truth?
But there do seem to be growing levels of confusion and uncertainty about the nature of truth in the public square. Our common understanding and agreement about reality and what is happening seems to have become untethered. There is a sense of ‘truth decay’ in the political and public realms. Can democracy itself survive if we cannot agree together on what is true? In a world where deepfake videos and voice calls are becoming ever more sophisticated, and AI-generated marketing and propaganda is starting to flood the internet, how can we ever know what is genuine, true and authentic?
There is a common sense understanding of truth which all human beings share, and it is interesting that even nursery age children can grasp the difference between truth and lies. ‘Tell me the truth Tom. Did you or didn’t you hit Anna?’ This common sense understanding of truth underpins our justice system. Every day in our law courts, judges, lawyers and juries attempt to work out whether witnesses are truthful – whether there is a match between what the witness says and what actually happened.
Philosophers call this the correspondence theory of truth, and the Apostle Paul rests the
