Gravity is real! I don’t think anyone (with the possible exception of ultrametaphysical scientists) would argue that fact. We see the evidence of gravitational pull all the time. Drop something, like a hammer, and it falls directly earthward to land on your foot. Therefore, we know that gravity can be painfully real!

But what about knowledge we’ve acquired that isn’t self-evident?

The Earth goes around the sun. All rational people know that today, but our unsophisticated ancestors thought the Sun went around the Earth.

So how is it that we know the truth today? Have all of us traveled to a point in space far enough above the north pole of the Sun to see for ourselves that the planets orbit around our star? Of course not. Yet we accept how the solar system works, because we believe the experts who tell us this.

Astronomers spend their lives studying our universe. They use what’s known as the Scientific Method. They make an observation about a certain phenomenon, develop a theory to explain it, and then test the theory’s power to make predictions about that phenomenon. If their predictions come true, the theory is proven, and it becomes a universally accepted fact. That’s how we know what we know about the movement of planets. We trust that the space scientists are unswayed by popular dogma, and operate with the utmost integrity.

The same thing goes for other areas too.

 

History tells us the city of Rome once ruled over a far-flung empire, spread over three continents. We accept this to be true; not because of personal time machines that allow us to become tourists and observe Roman imperial life for ourselves, but because we know that historians and archaeologists painstakingly researched records and meticulously dug around in ruins to prove it.

 

As a society, we have a common base of accepted knowledge. It helps us judge new claims. In politics, it helps leaders make rational policy. That’s healthy.

But what happens to society if accepted facts are challenged by nonexperts? If the society is healthy, nothing happens. There have always been fringe elements that dispute things like the earth is spherical, or there was a Moon landing, or Elvis died.

People in those groups are thoroughly convinced that their ill-considered, heartfelt notions are reality. And they’re entitled to their beliefs. But sadly, fringe notions that haven’t been properly vetted have invaded the mainstream of thought. They cloud reality and threaten to derail rational decisionmaking processes.

That’s not healthy for society.

 

Which forces have elevated nonsense into the public discourse?

Greed seems to be a driving factor. Peddling disinformation is big business. Opportunists, who may or may not believe their own myths, just have to appeal to already-ingrained biases to develop a following. Then money and fame flow, thanks to the modern power of the Internet.

Skepticism is a useful attitude — particularly today — to help guard against dubious rationales. Disinformation, masquerading as fact, is generally designed to enrich or empower self-serving miscreants.

Lifelong learning can enrich our lives, but it’s important to pick our information sources wisely. Self-proclaimed experts can be provocative when they reinforce what we think we know, but may be wrong. Basing policy on those biases can be costly, as in the following examples.

 

• Bloodletting using leeches is good medicine
• The Salem witch trials were true justice
• Nothing can sink the RMS Titanic
• “Divine right of kings” justifies all actions of a monarch
• The Maginot Line will stop Nazi Germany

 

Can you think of any examples of misinformed thinking that have infected public discourse today?

 

The End

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