Propaganda: Truth or Tolerance

Bumper stickers can always be relied on for good debating topics, here's an example "Truth, not tolerance".

First what is truth? There are universal truths, like the famous 1+1=2 that hardly anybody on earth disputes. Therefore it's called universal, as we earthlings just assume that any other intelligent beings in the universe would agree with us.

Second there are local truths. These truths are only true in a given geographic area. For example, if I say the legal drinking age is 19, that would be a local truth.

Then there are eternal truths, meaning that it was true at the beginning of time and will still be true at the end of time. Possibly my example of 1+1=2 qualifies as eternal as well as universal.

Transient truths are true only for a period of time, they have not always been true and someday will stop being true. The earth orbits the sun is a transient truth, where it is conceivable that one day if earth collides with another planet or the sun blows up, that the orbit could come to an end.

"Slavery is wrong" is a truth now, but thousands of years ago it was accepted as being good, or at least it was not often challenged. If it's hard to understand that slavery used to be OK, remember that life was a lot harsher back a few thousand years ago, and there were many types of slavery, some of which were actually not that cruel or sadistic. Slavery only became bad after an unusually evil type of slavery had developed, and most people finally realized it needed to be stopped.

Now getting back to the bumper sticker "Truth not tolerance", and the question is are they talking about 1+1=2? If so, the slogan means that people who believe in 1+1=3 should not be tolerated. I don't know if I agree with this, but for sure I would not put a sticker about it on my bumper.

Now for the opposite of truth. A lie is one type of untruth, where the teller knows it is wrong but says it anyway just gain an advantage. A different type of untruth is just an honest error. Only a thousand years ago, many people believed that the sun orbited the earth. That was not a lie, because nobody really gained any advantage out of it. Just an honest mistake that people believed to be true.

How many other "truths" do we hold dear today that one day will be found to be wrong?

So in my opinion, tolerance actually does have some value, or we would never advance. If you define your truths at a given point in time, then suppress anyone who thinks differently, your society will stagnate and become (as we often say) intolerant.

It's still OK to try to find the truth, but the best truths are the ones that most people can accept, not the ones that needlessly exclude other people. For example - "murder is bad" is a truth that is accepted almost universally (although with local interpretations, and sadly some horrific exceptions.)

Here is an interesting website examining the most important kind of tolerance, religious tolerance.