Truth, Reason, and Faith in Modern Civilisation: The violence of truth and the truth of violence in modern ‘secular’ Western civilisation

What is truth? What is reason? What is faith? These questions have been hotly debated andhave been the cause of violence prior to the rise of the modern and so-called secular state.The rise of the modern ‘secular’ state was founded on the distinction between reason andfaith thus bringing to an end the religious violence which was inspired by their respectivetruths. The concept of truth will be questioned, thus questioning the ‘truth’ that reason andfaith can be neatly separated from each other and consequently that the secular and religiouscan be separated into neat categories. There is an inherent violence (political, religious andlinguistic) in the Truth(s), be it the truths of either religion or secular reason, namely theoriginary linguistic violence of truth. This article will ask the question: How can one speak oftruth, reason and faith in a modern civilisation and seek ways beyond the violence of truthstowards interdisciplinary open dialogue of a democracy still to come?