Humanities subjects do serve a purpose. They are not just discussions about 'all truths being equal'.

While there might be a tendency to over-complicate it is good for people to re-examine their stance on various topics from time to time (without overdoing the navel gazing or pontificating for inordinate lengths of time).

One truth we can be certain about is that 'belief' is not truth even if people couch their beliefs in terms of 'their truth'.

Beliefs or opinions are shaped over time and influenced by upbringing, experiences and I would imagine genetic disposition.

We can see that belief or adherence to a political party tends to obscure truth with rarely bipartisan commentary on fora like OLO or in the media.

pelican,
I believe it to be the truth when people say Labor is incompetent.

david f
>>Luke 9:27 But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.<<

Unless one interprets “taste of death” and “seeing the kingdom of God” in terms accessible through (scientific) verification, and “till” as referring to measurable time, the prediction (actually a promise of “salvation in afterlife”) is not false but non-falsifiable, even meaningless.

One cannot decide about the truthfulness or not of a statement if one does not take its words in the context they are meant. This is especially so if this meaning clashes with their everyday meaning. (Like you cannot tell whether a statement about Hilbert spaces is true or not, if by “space” you understand only that what you are looking for if you want to park your car.)

As for John 8:32, it refers to the religious meaning of the word truth, that I mentioned above, so you are right to connect it with belief, or rather faith, meaningless to non-believers who, indeed, can “get along without that kind of truth”.

Dear individual,

I do not understand your position on engineers. One minute you are holding them up as philosophers and the next minute you are debasing them as dimwits.

Can we agree that they are not philosophers and are dimwits?

Dear Poirot,

My apologies at the rather droll humour. I had imagined you saying the following;

“The famous link. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my link?”

So I did.

Humour and truth are often in the eye of the beholder.

csteele,

Strangely enough, I was just about to say:

"The famous link. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my link?"

You did!....(very clever:)