Pierre Whalon
Mar 13, 2022

--

No. An unverified hypothesis, for example, is just a hypothesis, not a fact. Facts are either personally verified (as in Missouri, the "Show-Me State"), or verified by others. Most of what we think we know as fact is in this latter category, because it is impossible to verify everything personally.

Beliefs are what we trust to be facts, because we trust their origin: a teacher, a book by a competent author, a speaker, etc. Furthermore, we have judged those people to be trustworthy thinkers. Part of education is developing this critical ability. Unfortunately we are falling down on helping students to learn to think for themselves, else few people would fall for propaganda, conspiracies, and "alternative facts."

--

--

Pierre Whalon
Pierre Whalon

Written by Pierre Whalon

Episcopal Bishop, musician, composer, author, happily married. www.pierrewhalon.info. Read my books on Amazon! Now on Blusky: bppwhalon973.bsky.social

Responses (1)