Here is something interesting I read on “X” recently: “A take: The more you travel, the less politically extreme you become.” That is an interesting “take,” for sure, and I have no doubt that for some people, that is probably their experience. But it isn’t mine because of the title of this article: truth never changes.

I’ve traveled some in my life (to about 15 different countries), having been to Europe and Asia, though never Africa, South America, or Australia. I’ve lived most of the last 15 years in Asia, spent a few years in England, and have dwelt approximately 20 years of my life outside the United States. So, I’ve “traveled,” seen many interesting things and cultures, but I’ve never seen one thing, in all of my travels and overseas living, that changes the title and theme of this essay: truth never changes.

Truth is truth is truth, folks, and indeed, I have learned many things in the course of my 70-year earthly sojourn. But anything that I learned that was “true” 50 years ago is just as true today as it was when I first learned it. For example, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. That is a fact, a truth, and it always will be. Nothing will ever change that. We have irrefutable evidence that proves such. It was true in 1860, it was true in 1861, it is true in 2025, it is true in America, it is true in Thailand, it is true in China, and every place else on earth. It was true yesterday, it will be true tomorrow, it will be true 5,000 years from now. And it is true whether people know it or believe it or not. A lot of people on earth don’t know that Lincoln was elected President in 1860, but that doesn’t change the truth. There are a lot of “truths” I do not know, and they are true even though I don’t know them. But no truth that I don’t know will change any truth that I do know. There is no truth that I don’t know that could possibly change the truth that Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in 1860. Nothing that I know, or don’t know, can change that, and never will.

 So, it doesn’t matter where I go on this earth; there are “truths” that cannot, and never will, be changed. People can deny them, of course, and many people deny many truths. But the denial of a truth doesn’t suddenly make it a non-truth. Cultures are different, and that’s fine and interesting. Because of their culture, the people in Thailand eat a lot of things that are different from the people in China and America. But none of that changes the truth that Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. Truth never changes.

Now, of course, not all truth is historical. As a historian, I deal a lot with historical facts and truths, and I find the idea (which isn’t uncommonly held) that “we can’t really know anything from history” to be utterly absurd. That’s, frankly, just dumb, usually used by someone who is trying to negate a historical fact the speaker feels uncomfortable with. But there are, obviously, scientific truths, philosophical truths, religious truths, and many other kinds of truths.

Thus, when Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” he wasn’t speaking of historical or scientific truths; he was speaking philosophically and, in one sense, religiously. “That all men are created equal”—that has certain religious elements to it:  “all men are CREATED…”  A God is introduced. We cannot prove, historically or scientifically, that “all men are created equal.” This is a religious or philosophic truth. A primary Jeffersonian meaning here (given what he subsequently wrote) is that nobody is born with a right to rule someone else. If all men are created equal, and God is no respecter of persons, then truly nobody is born with the inherent right to govern another person.That’s the principle the Founding Fathers were rebelling against—a king. And such is the whole foundation of the American system.  No one is born with the right to rule others.

Is this a “truth”? The Founders, and most Americans since, have believed that it is—“we hold these TRUTHS to be self-evident…” And if there is a God, and if He is no respecter of persons, then it logically (philosophically) follows that kings are produced through time and culture, not born that way with a “right” from God to rule, “divine right monarchy” to the contrary notwithstanding.  

Of course, many people on the Left (especially) deny these fundamental “self-evident truths,” and their denial is part of their foundation for wanting to overthrow our Founding Fathers and transform America into something else. Atheism denies there is a God; thus, obviously, by default and logic, it must reject this cardinal principle of America—that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain natural rights, such as life, liberty, and property. If the truths that there is a God, that we are all equal in His sight, that our fundamental rights come from Him, are denied, then the result is the foundation for denying life, liberty, and property. You have the cornerstone of atheistic, Leftist Marxism. And they’ve lived by it. How many babies have they aborted? How many innocent people have they murdered over the past 100 years in Marxist societies? How many people living in non-God-believing Marxist countries have had true liberty? The “abolition of private property” is a basic tenet of Marxism and New York City’s (probable) next mayor. Deny certain religious (philosophic) truths and look at the outcomes.

Truth never changes. And the foundation truths America was built upon are just as true today as in 1776. And just as worth fighting for.

My substacks are a little unique. Not just current events, but history, our Founding Fathers, what America was meant to be, and Biblical exegesis. Check them out. “Mark It Down! (mklewis929.substack.com), and “Mark It Down! Bible Substack” (mklbibless.substack.com) Both free. Follow me on “X”:  @thailandmkl. Read my western novels, Whitewater, River Bend,  Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon.