Letters: Is cycling really conservative?

Veritas vincit

Sir: Professor Dawkins eloquently and engagingly defines true truth for us (‘Matters of fact’, 19 December). It seems to me that ‘true’ is a poor little four-letter word with a heavier workload than is reasonable. Historic truth may include ascertainable facts, which I suppose he would pass, but combined with conclusions based on available evidence or ‘true-to-life’ conjecture. Theological truth combines historic fact with unassailable moral principle and a journey of imagination beyond the reach of experience. It cannot be called untrue — only unproven.

Perhaps we need to find a word with more gravitas than ‘truth’ for the scientists. I suggest ‘veritas’ — as found in vino.
Charles Keen
Marshfield, Chippenham

Tu and thou

Sir: Tim Hudson (Letters, 19 December) wonders why French uses the informal second person singular for God, but the formal second person plural for the Virgin Mary. Other Latin-based languages which also use the plural to indicate formality do the same thing. Latin itself, however, uses the singular form for both prayers, as do the Germanic languages, including English.

As an aside, it’s always worth remembering that English speakers’ assumption that theirs is the more egalitarian language, by not having the formal/informal second person distinction, is false. In fact, English preferences were so formal that it was our plural form ‘you’ and not the informal singular ‘thou’ which completely won out (except in archaic uses). The Quakers vainly tried to turn this tide by insisting that Friends refer to each other as thou, and were much mocked for it — even in the 17th century.
James Hickman
West Raynham, Norfolk

Straight Outta Brompton

Sir: Jeremy Vine (Diary, 12 December) has a typical BBC misunderstanding of what is right-wing. He seems to think that wild uncontrolled liberalism, ‘throwing off the shackles of the state’, is conservative.