Truth

I read book The Luminous Web by Barbara Brown Taylor.  It's a small book that she wrote to address the connections and disconnections (my words) between science and theology.  My kind of stuff. I'm sure I'll share more.  

But for today, I wanted to share a quote from the book.  This is the life-guiding principle of one of Taylor's friends:  "When truth and belief come into conflict, it is better to change on'es belief to fit the truth that to change the turht to fit one's belief."

That quote struck me as so "spot on" that I got up from my desk and walked into a co-worker's office to read it to her.  

I think we do sometimes try to change the truth to fit our beliefs.  Don't you think there is a futility in that?  We can't really change the truth - it is the truth.  So by trying to change it, we instead ignore it.

At the same time I was reading this quote, I had an article from the magazine Rotarian on my desk, open to an article called "How to tell fact from fiction and truth the news again."  I'll link the article here.   

It's an article about how professional fact checkers do their work.  Most of us aren't professionals, but in a world where so many lies are spread via social media, I think we have a responsilbity to check the facts of what we post.  We need to stop spreading memes and posts that support our beliefs without checking their veracity.

Here are the articles three easy stops to stop fake news:

1. Gut-check.  Did the headline or image you just saw make you feel a strong emotion?  Misinformation is designed do to that.  I would add that we should ask ourselves if the "fact" presented really makes any logical sense.  Is it so designed to create in us a strong emotion that the "fact," when we think about, just couldn't be true.  
2. Fact-check.  What is the original source of the information? Have you heard it from other, reputable sources? You can do a reverse image search to see if an image could have been created from other images - put together to tell a false story.  What do independent, nonpartisan fact-checking sources like Snopes, PolitFact, or FactCheck.org have to say?
3. Read real news.  News institutions that reported on events like Watergate are still producing top-quality journalism.  Subscribe to a variety of reputable publications and get your information directly from those sources - not from social media.  We both know that certain cable news outlets broadcast opinion more than facts.  Don't rely on only them for your news. What are other people saying?

Those who connect with you on social media are your friends.  Don't spread what is untrue to your friends.  And if you are brave, fact-check their posts and share the truth. Let's not be used - let's be beacons of the truth so that we are not trying to ignore the truth to fit our beliefs.