We live in a time where truth is under attack from false narratives, fake news, fabricated accounts and phony messages. It has been said that when folk believe in nothing, when they have no firm faith and foundations in their lives, then they are susceptible to believing in anything and everything. The moral and ethical vacuum is filled with fantasies and fables; they are open to all sorts of crazy ideas and ideologies.
It is so important to teach critical thinking skills, the ability to spot error and falsehood, to distinguish between fact and fiction, to discern what is based on evidence and tested truth. History, religious studies and English, when well taught, should explain the difference between interpretation and established attested fact, the difference between primary source material and secondary sources, and the importance of understanding the difference between exegesis and eisegesis. The ability to discern when someone is drawing out what is the meaning of the text and when someone is inserting their own or fabricated ideas into the text. What is interpretation and what is not an interpretation. A skillful enterprise but necessary.
We should be grateful to scholars who took us through the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution to a refined and well informed understanding of truth, that which can stand the test of time and intellectual scrutiny, and arguably eternity.
Jesus exclaimed that the truth will set you free. Sadly many people, I would argue are in chains, believing in falsehoods, vain hopes and erroneous narratives that will lead them to despair and destruction, and some will walk blindly in the broad way without even realizing the dangers, comfortable in their complacency and spiritually perilous condition.
When politicians and people in the media lie, cloak and dissemble so often and so liberally, we must be on our guard to stand for the truth and the values that serve us well, Christian values and Gospel truth.
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