What is the Truth?

I was raised as a Roman Catholic and I "believed" in the teaching of the Catholic church. I as many others believed that following the teaching of the church would lead us to the ultimate prize, heaven. Although the message wasn't explicit, it was implied that if you weren't Catholic you wouldn't go to heaven. For many years I held firm this belief, then as I grew up and perhaps became a little wiser I found "this truth" offended my sense of logic and common sense.

I began to question, what about the several hundred other Christian denominations, the Muslins, the Jews, the Hindus, and the Buddhists to name a few that represented several billion people? What will happen to them? What is the true religion or is there a true religion? Or to become a bit more philosophical: Does heaven, hell or God exist?

Which brings me to the main point of my article, the area we have come to know as Israel and Palestine. Since 1948 there have been ongoing conflicts in Israel/ Palestine. lan Pappé an Israeli historian and political scientist would have us believe prior to 1948 Muslins, Jews and Christians lived in relative peace for centuries.

What happened? The current conflict is primarily between two competing religions or more accurately put two ideologies, the Jewish Zionists and the Hamas Muslins.

Since 1948 most people in the world would have been more or less blissfully ignorant as to the conflict and or atrocities committed by both sides. Middle east news not unlike the waves created on a lake, the further they travel the smaller the waves become and so it is with news, with time and distance we are exposed to less and less and our lives are relatively unaffected.

Today global communications, the internet, cell phones and YouTube has changed our level of exposure and awareness. If there's a mass murder anywhere is the world the practitioners of "social media" have the ability to broadcast the event or news on the "web" within seconds and the world is aware. Today we not only have main stream media we also have "citizen journalism". The birth of citizen journalist can be traced back to 2000, when South Korean online entrepreneur Oh Yeon-ho noted that “every citizen is a reporter", therein lies the good the bad and the ugly. The internet can and is used as a platform to spread both the truth as well as lies, fabrications and half truths.

“In war, truth is the first casualty.”- Aeschylus , 500 BC“ Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. It had occurred to Aeschylus nearly 500 years before Christ that with war comes lies, fabrications and half truths and as a consequence "truth" is the first to die.

As it was true 2500 years ago so it's also true today. Many of us, unfortunately, tend to "believe" or can be swayed that which supports our belief structure even when we are faced with indisputable concrete evidence or truth to the contrary.

As it relates to the the 75 years old ongoing conflict in Israel/ Palestine we have people sitting on both sides of the fence and there will be no shortage of media sources with stories to support "what we believe to be true".

I, personally, have become increasingly less and less willing to "buy" many of the main stream media' stories of the "truth" as it relates to the IDF/Hamas war. For that reason I decided to do a search on the world's most unbiased and credible sources when it comes to reporting the news.

The Associated Press came in as #1. Although it may offend some people here is a current example of AP reporting.

After several searches I found a list of some of the more st creditable world new sources: 1 Associated Press. 2 Reuters. 3 NPR. 4 BBC. 5 PBS News Hour. 6 CBS News. 7 The Guardian. 8 The New York Times.

As I searched through the above list of media sources I also came across a short video that brings the conflict down to the human level. The video was taken by the New York Times 2 years before the current conflict, please take the time to watch it.

"We often measure the tragedy of war in the suffering of children, but rarely do we hear from them. Two years ago, filmmakers asked children in Gaza, where nearly half the population is under 18, a seemingly simple question: What is your dream? The video above reveals their answers which, in light of the violence that has embroiled the region in recent weeks, are all the more poignant." New York Times"

What is the truth? Think about it.