This poem by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a favorite.  It sums up the essence of Provisional Truth, in that what we think, feel, believe and swear to be true, sometimes isn't, and the mystery of truth often is revealed only slowly, through the efforts of countless lives and generations, if at all.

Once we thought the earth was flat - What of that?
It was just as globos then, under believing men
As our later folks have found it, by success in running round it;
What we think may guide our acts, but it does not alter facts.
                                          --Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)
 

  What Is Provisional Truth?
As Charlotte Perkins Gilman observed a century ago, "what we think may guide our acts, but it does not alter facts."

Like a flat earth, yesterday's "truth" has become today's fables, superstitions and discarded dogmas and doctrines. Today's "heresy" may become tomorrow's truth.  As such - like tax law - truth is provisional and always subject to change.

Everything we "know" yet may be altered, refined, perhaps someday proven wrong, so it's advantageous to keep an open mind.  Welcome to the world of Provisional Truth, where absolutes are not to be found.

For a chilling example of only one recent discarded "truth," see late author Michael Crichton's brief summary of the theory of Eugenics which ultimately led to the horrific extermination of millions of humans in World War II.

There are no absolutes. No one knows "the truth," therefore all beliefs are equally valid until proven otherwise.  We just can't keep killing each other in our quest for proof. 

Once we thought the world was flat...I hope your search for truth is as rewarding.

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