The fact/opinion myth: have you bought into it?

• Fact or Opinion?: Sea water contains salts.
• Fact or Opinion?: Chocolate is delicious.
• Fact or Opinion?: Murder is bad.

How you categorize the above statements can possibly date you. Of course, there should be no question about the first statement, which is clearly a fact. Likewise, the second statement is an opinion, which is especially clear if you happen not to like chocolate. However, the last statement is the most likely to generate disagreement.

If you believe that the statement "Murder is bad" is a fact, you either have been living in a cave or you haven't bought into all the new definitions of our day. We haven't either! What is happening?

There was a time when a fact meant "a thing that...is really true." (Websters 2nd). Times have changed. Students in school today are frequently asked to evaluate whether certain statements are fact or opinion, much like above. What is the criterion given to the students to distinguish between the two? Facts are defined, not as "a thing that is really true", but rather as those things which are verifiable through direct observation. Anything outside the realm of the directly observable falls in the category of opinion.

No question, in today's world of charlatans and manipulative promotionals and politicians, it is imperative that students learn to be critical thinkers and to be taught to distinguish between substantiated and unsubstantiated statements. However, the choice of language is an unfortunate one. A word which once had valuable meaning in the English language has been nearly stripped of its potency, and with the word, a concept that once profoundly affected intellectual thought has been virtually forgotten. That concept is this: there are truths that are by their nature beyond the scope of direct observation and measurement, and yet, they are true all the same, regardless of what anyone's opinions may be pertaining to them.

To be fair, this shift in language is not so much to blame for the shift in our thinking as it is symptomatic of a shift in our thinking that had already begun to take place. The new definition of the word "fact" fits well with the mindset of our modern day in which a higher reality - God - either doesn't exist, or His existence really is of no consequence to us. After all, if God doesn't exist, then really, whether something is right or wrong, good or bad, really has no relevance outside the neurons of a person's brain. After all, how could it? If there is no God, or at least some sort of moral code or set of moral principles outside of ourselves, who or what is to arbitrate between one person's sense of ethics and another's? The government? Societal consensus? If so, who determines if a government or society is corrupt? Society, by abandoning the concept that ideals exist which transcend human opinion, has made the statement "Murder is bad" to be regarded just as much an opinion and no more of a fact as "Chocolate is delicious" and "the Beetles trump Beethoven" (or vise versa). We are outraged at the alarming rate of murders and wholesale violence escalating in our world today, but could it be that society has given the person with the gun little cause for second thought before making tomorrow's headlines? Time will prove our contemporary society wrong, and we are already paying the price. This is a sad day!

We do not for a moment suggest that what we need is for government to legislate in matters of religion and to compel the consciences of its citizenry. The liberty of conscience that the American forefathers fought for—to worship according to the dictates of personal conscience rather than according to the dictates of someone else's conscience—is a priceless treasure to be safeguarded with eternal vigilance. The history of religious intolerance by nearly every major branch of religious thought (including atheism) is bathed deep in blood. Every thinking person owes it to himself or herself to study this out, for it has largely been forgotten and swept under the opulent carpet of modern forgetfulness. This in itself is very disturbing, because history that is forgotten is destined to be repeated - and it could happen sooner than we think.

The force of truth itself should be the instrumentality to change minds, and not the force of civil power.

Page last modified: 2023.08.11