What is the truth?

    

       During the discussions this week I was reminded of how carful one needs to be with information that you have received from any source especially the media given how hard it is nowadays to differentiate between the falsehoods and the truth when even the person who thinks they are right may be misinformed as well depending on how they obtained how they gained said information.

     The example that was given in the discussion while it did use actual research in the case they took to the Supreme Court on the debate on same sex marriage. The biggest issue is how faulty the data they used was and despite that being pointed out it was still used and accepted. What I afraid of most from this is how easily people will be misinformed or lid to and yet easily except it as the truth because someone they trust or is a fried told them.

    A good example of how this has affected people and families both in the past and present is the vaccine scare that happened years ago where someone at some point said that they may be linked to autism and with out anything significant to even hint at it being true people panicked and many accepted it as the truth never once questioning how iffy it sounds by check to see if it is true despite how important they seem to consider it. An we can still see it’s affect today at least some of those who have chosen not to be vaccinated or have family vaccinated is influenced by the a falsehood that some people still to this day believe.

We can also use more effectively what we are taught in school to help us better understand that which we believe to be true a great example is to apply the scientific method to our lives. Most of us would know the basics of it because of middle and high school and can apply it’s principles to anything we might want to know or consider right. 

For a good and safe example at one point and to a certain extent there are all kinds of diets and fads with different types of food to eat or not to eat. Using the scientific method on top of information you can find on what you want to try you can better find out if it really will help you. For example you first observe something telling you that gluten is bad for you so you should have a gluten free diet. Next you for the hypothesis that this might benefit you but you aren’t sure. Next to test this hypothesis plan to preform an experiment in which you will avoid gluten for three weeks to see if there is any noticeable changes in your health or how you feel and make a plan for what you can and can eat to make sure you avoid any gluten as well as going back to gluten for the same time to see if you feel anything going back. Then after recording your experiences with each and recording them you can analyze to see if going gluten free really is better or just something you found on the internet.

   An while I am sorry for what probably came out long winded I do feel that especially with the things that are important in our lives especially our families we really do need to make sure that what we are doing to or for our families as well as what we are telling them is the truth because sometimes misinformation is just as bad if not worse than no information at all.