Remembering all Veterans November 11, 2008

Today I wish to pay respect to our war heroes who fought against tyrants. Trinity of Truth is a political philosophy that claims that truth can only be found by balancing the different truths offered by religion, reason and personal experience and anyone who discredits one of the three ways of knowing truth is dogmatic at best, a tyrant at worst.

I have come to see religious faith, reason and my own personal experiences, as three different sources of knowledge that reliably contribute to what is true and right (an adolescence properly lived eliminates parental authority). The three sources interact much like the game of rock, paper, scissors. Experience, faith and reason can go on endlessly trumping each other because each offers a different, but reliable version of truth.

While many can point to the horrors of religion and therefore want to throw the baby out with the bathwater - it is wise to remember that when one overreacts a counter-reaction is guaranteed.

Political philosophy is the study of how each of these three ways of knowing truth is given different priority. In liberal, freedom loving societies like America, experience is trump, reason is strong and religion is relegated to private sphere; in China reason is trump, but religion and personal freedoms are crushed; and in Taliban countries religion trumps, crushing personal experiences and reason.

As a wise Chilean refugee once told me at a cold bus stop in Edmonton in January 1982-beware of the politician with the simple message. In memory of all of those who have died fighting tyrants remember the trinity and try to fight your own moments of dogmatic indignation.