How can we know what is true?

• We watch one news network that claims President Trump is destroying America, and we watch another news network that claims Trump is the savior of America. How do we know which political claim is true?
• We read of a scientist claiming climate change is a natural cycle with an ebb and flow and humans are not its cause. Then we read of another scientist claiming humans are the primary cause of climate change, with a disruption of nature that threatens our very existence. How do we know which scientific claim is fact and which is false?
• We also hear one pastor preaching that wealth and prosperity are signs of God’s blessing and poverty a lack of faith and another preaching that wealth inequality is the result of human greed and sin. How do we know which religious teaching should guide our faith?

How do we discern truth from untruth when “alternative” facts conflate with “established” facts? How do we know what is true and what is not?

These are the questions I ask and the answers I seek. Maybe you do as well. Today’s topic will review the very nature of knowledge. I hope that with this analysis we can re-assess and reclaim what we value, what we believe, and how we should conduct ourselves in the sacred interactions we call life.