Faith + Reason = Truth

Or, if you prefer Greek to the Latin title of this post, then "hodos, aletheia, zoe" would be the closest concepts to "way, truth, life" - as in the Gospel of John's recounting of Christ's statement (in English):  "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

The Greeks were not recognized by other civilizations as a particularly "truthful" people; in fact, they did not even have a word that strictly translates to the English "truth" or the Latin "veritas."  From Greek mythology and history, it would seem that they valued guile and slyness over honesty (the gods "tricking" [lying to] humans into doing things they were not otherwise inclined to do; the ruse of the Trojan Horse to end that war; these are but a few drops of water in a vast sea of examples).  The Persians, on the other hand, as well as the Romans, were known as possessing the virtue of being truthful, but virtue is a relative term.  The Greeks simply did not see it as being as virtuous as the ability to cunningly outwit adversaries in any of life's encounters.

The word "aletheia" is an interesting study unto itself, and rather than meaning the same thing as the English word "truth," would more accurately be translated as the quality of not being hidden:  e.g., the revealing of everything that is known about something.  This original spirit of the Greek version of truth has clearly been lost on today's leaders, be they political, executive, or otherwise inclined to sway public opinion in one way or another.  Now, telling the truth has become (for some) only the strictest, most literal revelation of facts or details that are inquired of, and a very far cry from the speaker "revealing all that is known about something, leaving nothing hidden."

When you communicate with people, do you deal with the "truth" of our modern conception, attempting to reveal as little and non-incriminating as possible without resorting to outright falsehood, or do you attempt to fully engage with the notion of "aletheia" as set forth by the ancient Greeks?