The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

Truth seems to be a pretty flexible commodity these days. And in politics, truth seems to be downright elusive.

We’ve heard some real doozies from politicians down through the years:

“We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
“I am not a crook.”
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
“Abortion is health care.”

Profundity or Fallacy

But politics, aside, today we often hear statements like, “Well, that’s your truth but it’s not my truth” or, as relativists like to say, “The only truths are facts that can be tested and proven.  Everything else is just opinion.”  But there are problems with both of these statements.

In the first instance, there cannot be contradictory truths.  If John says “God exists” and Sam says “there is no God,” both statements cannot be true.  One of the statements must be false.

There’s also a problem with the relativists’ claim.  If the only truths are facts that can be tested and proven, the “everything else is just opinion” part of the statement is just opinion.  And since it’s not a fact (because it cannot be tested and proven), it may or may not be true.  This means the first part of the statement may or may not be true as well.  This is a formal fallacy known as Affirming the Consequent.

What’s really maddening is that people today think these statements exhibit profound thinking.  That people think this is an indictment of the educational system.

But even in the sciences, truth can be elusive. As “retired, cranky, old physicist” and CS writer Bob Kurland has pointed out, there are a lot of “why” questions science just can’t answer.  There are also “how” questions science cannot answer as well (example: how was this person cured of such and such when there is no scientific explanation for such a cure?).

Propaganda and Censorship

So should we really “follow the science” when it comes to things like Covid-19 and the vaccines?

Yes, we should follow it very closely.  Unfortunately following the science on both of these topics has not been easy.  This is because the science has been both propagandized and heavily censored.

As Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Professor Dr. Marty Makary noted, for example, “the CDC has been “using science as political propaganda. The absolute worst studies that were done during the pandemic came out of the CDC.”  Yet the studies held up by public policy dissenters to the approved script were dismissed as flawed.

Remember the Great Barrington Declaration?  Some 928,000 infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists signed the declaration. These scientists voiced “grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies.”  These experts recommended an approach they called “Focused Protection.”  Yet the declaration was ignored or ridiculed.  It did not follow the approved script.

When it comes to medical science the opinions of reputable medical experts should be openly discussed.  Debate is part and parcel of proper scientific inquiry.  In the U.S. debate is also called freedom of speech.

The opinions of recognized experts should not be censored just because they do not follow an “approved” narrative.  And they should certainly not be made subservient to anonymous, and possibly incompetent and biased fact checkers.

Yet articles like “The Silencing of Joe Rogan” abound.

“The Left wants Joe Rogan silenced for peddling “misinformation” about COVID-19,” wrote Angus Milne.

“Joe Rogan’s crime is discussing COVID-19 vaccines and COVID policy with two medical professionals: Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough. Both men are highly qualified to talk about this subject; both men reject the narrative pushed by Western governments and the mainstream media.”

Tyranny

Of course such tactics should no longer shock us.  The day before the Rogan article appeared at Crisis, Noelle Mering, writing at Catholic World Report succinctly stated the situation we are in.  She says there are

“. . . two essential conditions of tyranny: foster in citizens an unhealthy suspicion of one another and an unhealthy faith in the powers that be. Identity politics habituated us to this. COVID-19 has put it on steroids.”

Then she delivers a knockout blow to the would-be censors:  “Truth does not need coercion or censorship.  Power decoupled from truth demands both” [emphasis added].

Vaccine Truth

So what is “the truth” when it comes to the Covid vaccines?

Setting aside the philosophical discussions of “What is truth?” let’s go with a common sense definition: Truth is that which is not false.

Consider these two statements:

1. “The vaccines are safe and effective.”
2. “There is evidence that the jab is harmful even deadly.”

Which statement is “True?”

The “approved” narrative says statement #1 is true and statement #2 is false.  In fact, if you watch any television you’ve probably seem public service advertisements loudly proclaiming some variant of statement #1.

There are, however, many who say statement #2 is true and statement #1 is false.  Even the prestigious Mayo Clinic points out in regard to the vaccines: “Because COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials only started in the summer of 2020, it’s not yet clear if the vaccines will have long-term effects.”

Muddy Water

Of course, proponents of both statements point to statistics and studies to support their claims that what they are saying is true. And both sides cast doubt on the statistics and studies offered by their opponents.

The result of all the contradictory information floating around is that the truth is clear as mud.

The real truth may actually be closer to a third statement:  The vaccines were developed using the cloned cells of an aborted baby.  The vaccines appear to be safe for most people.  The long term effects of the vaccines are not yet known.  The vaccines can be harmful and even deadly, for a percentage of those who get vaccinated. In addition, the vaccines will not prevent you from contracting Covid or passing the virus on to others, but they may lessen the severity of your symptoms.

Or, as this article points out, maybe the whole truth is yet to be determined.  The article is concerning:  “The Most Objective Evidence Shows No Indication That Covid Vaccines Save More Lives Than They Take.”

Perhaps Phil Lawler is right.  Maybe a “Covid Truth-and-Reconciliation committee” would be a good thing.  But he’s also right that “the odds are stacked heavily against its adoption.”

Truth in Advertising?

By law, all drug advertisements have to provide full disclosure and mention possible side effects.  Vaccine “public service announcements,” however, say only that the vaccines are “safe and effective.” No mention of possible risks or side effects.

Is the world we now live in one in which the government is exempted from following the law?  Should the government be able to force you to take a vaccine in violation of your well-formed conscience? And should the government be able to force you to take a vaccine that may be injurious to your health, or even kill you?

The answer to all three of these questions is “No.”

To paraphrase Shakespeare, something is rotten in the U.S.  Or, As CS writer/managing editor Peter Darcy wrote not too long ago, “There is almost nothing happening in American cities and capitals today that is honest.”

Of course, just as statement #2 is contrary to the approved narrative, statement #3 would likely get censored on social media as well.  Such a cautionary statement is not going be conducive to achieving a 100 percent vaxxed goal, or whatever is the real goal.

And it’s possible that “the real goal” has been something other than defeating Covid.  As Rahm Emanuel famously stated, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.  And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”

Suppressing Truth

So if quelling the pandemic was not the goal, what was the real goal?  The real goal may have been more wealth and power for the already rich and powerful.

As Joseph D’Hippolito writes about a new blockbuster of a book by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., son of deceased U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy –

“Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. exposes Fauci’s corruption and incompetence in The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma and the Global War against Democracy and Public Health. Kennedy details the ongoing collusion between the federal government and pharmaceutical firms, collusion that Fauci devised to enrich himself and his allies.”

It’s not that difficult to suppress the truth, at least for a time.  As depicted in the movie “Concussion” the truth about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), was suppressed for a good number of years.  (CTE is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated blows to the head.)

It was only because of the dogged determination of one man, Dr. Bennet Omalu, that the truth finally came out – CTE was causing severe behavioral problems, mood problems, and thinking problems for a good number of former NFL players. Yet Dr. Omalu was censored – he was effectively ridiculed and canceled (“coercion and censorship”) by those who opposed the truth.

So it is possible to suppress the truth for a time.  And when the main stream media, social media, and educational institutions all collude with the government, suppressing the truth should not be too difficult.  George Orwell warned us of this in his book “1984.”

The Truth

Good Catholics need to start speaking up.  We need to speak out against the destructive ideologies and falsehoods being bandied about today.  We need to proclaim the truth loudly and often.

• All lives matter.
• Abortion is murder.
• Celebrating diversity is divisive; celebrating the oneness of the human race unites.
• God does not make homosexuals.
• Sexual acts between two men or two women are immoral.
• Two men or two women cannot be “married;” such a union is unnatural and cannot be blessed.
• There are only two sexes – male and female.
• Men cannot become women and women cannot become men.
• Women cannot be ordained priests.
• Fornication is a sin.
• Cohabitation is a sin.
• The use of artificial birth control is a sin.
• Violence and looting is not peaceful assembly.
• Socialism and Communism are political systems that are contrary to the nature of the human person.
• Critical Race Theory is irrational drivel.

And, a shout out here to Father Jerry Pokorsky who wrote recently:

• “Equity” does not mean “equal dignity before God.” It means equality of outcomes and violates logic and common sense on every level (intelligence, athletic abilities, etc.).”
• “The doctrine of “inclusion” camouflages moral relativism.”

Fear Hell

Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his first inaugural address that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  That was another doozy.  He was wrong.  We should all fear spending eternity in hell.

Far too many today, however, seem to think sin is not sin and everyone will go to heaven when they die.  They no longer “tolerate sound doctrine.”  Instead, they follow “their own desires and insatiable curiosity.”  They “stop listening to the truth” [2 Timothy 4:3].  They pay attention, instead, to the “deceitful spirits and demonic instructions” of false teachers [1 Timothy 4:1].

Fortunately for us there is one source of truth that cannot be corrupted.

“For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” [John 18:37].

God’s teachings are the answers to all our problems yet we continue to put our trust in the princes of the world.  But by and large the princes of today have abandoned God.  Many “leaders” today are totalitarian wolves in sheep’s’ clothing.

“For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths” [2 Timothy 4:3-4].

“Thus says the LORD:  Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD” [Jeremiah 17:5].

We need to start listening to God.