Many paths to truth.

You have seen or experienced mirages. Mirages can be photographed, easily experienced. They can be so prominent and obvious that the observer is convinced of their actual existence. The truth is, often what is seen as a mirage does not exist.

So it is with the perception of reality when one considers beliefs, dogmas, and traditions. What is held to be correct is not necessarily correct because it is believed to be so by many. Reality is not ruled; reality exists. Reality is not determined by majority; reality exists. Reality is not changed by arguments that are contrary to that existence. Reality persists only because it is real. There are many whose sense of reality is warped or in some way distorted because of previously held beliefs, but for those experiencing it, that reality is not a distortion. It is firmly believed.

The behavior of individuals and groups which results in mass suffering and death is not perpetrated because individuals assume that their own thoughts are lies. Their actions are justified by what they perceive to be truth. Some religions in the world capitalize on the attractiveness of their being the only truth in beliefs, but the actual truth is, of course, that there is not just one path toward truth. You may recognize that there are many paths, but there are many who travel the wrong paths with seeming blinders on that prevent them from being aware of and supporting the validity of other paths of beliefs.