The Pursuit of Truth

God calls and enables us to be wise, people who love the truth and who pursue knowledge - of Scripture, certainly, but also, I believe, how Scripture affects the way we view the world around us and how it works. Proverbs 1 states:
5 A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel,
6 To understand a proverb and an enigma, The words of the wise and their riddles.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.

If we want to be wise, not according to the definition of this world, but related to the truth of God, we should be committed to spiritual growth - to knowing Christ, to pursuing truth. A life built on the firm foundation of Christ will reflect our desire to know the heart of God and to follow in His ways.  The Holy Spirit lives in our hearts and will illuminate our minds through the careful appropriation of the Word of God, which the Bible describes as "living and powerful."  

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The writer of Hebrews was explaining some deep truths about the nature of Christ in the 5th chapter of that book, and the author calls out the readers, saying in verse 11 that they have become "dull of hearing."  Reading on, we see these words:

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Yesterday, I made some comments about the pursuit of truth, recognizing we have the Holy Spirit as our guide, who will give us discernment, which will increase as we seek God's face and increase in our knowledge of His Word.

There is polling data that shows Americans are concerned about misinformation. The Just the News website reported on the findings of a poll from The Pearson Institute and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.  The article relates:

According to the results of the poll, conducted in mid-September, 95% of Americans identified misinformation as an issue they consider when attempting to access information online.

Roughly half of those polled place a good deal of blame squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. government, while about 75% of respondents believe social media users and tech companies are to blame.

But, bad information is commonly shared on social media, but those surveyed did not think they were part of the problem, with only about 2 out of 10 Americans saying they had spread misinformation. But 6-in-10 are "concerned" to a certain extent that perhaps their friends or family members are doing it. 

TheHill.com quoted Sheila Kohanteb, the executive director of external relations at the Pearson Institute, who said, “Americans are more likely to blame U.S. politicians, social media companies, and social media users for the spread of misinformation than foreign governments,” adding, “The results show that the public believes the spread of misinformation is an issue that the American government, companies, and individuals all need to try to address.”  

The website noted that, "only 48 percent of respondents saw the U.S. government as responsible for spreading misinformation, and just over half saw the Russian and Chinese governments as culpable for this issue. Even less, around 40 percent, saw the Iranian government and other nations as responsible for misinformation online."

The article related that this comes on the heels of another survey by AP-NORC that indicated "75 percent of respondents said they were extremely concerned or very concerned about direct threats to the nation from the spread of misinformation, more so than issues including cyberattacks and domestic extremism."

You play a role in deciding what is or isn't true - and you have to be aware of editorial comments that may be embedded in an article that you might expect to be "straight news."  Sometimes activism masquerades as journalism. While there is a legitimate place for opinion journalism, even including content that is intentionally written from a Christian worldview perspective in distinctly Christian publications, you have to take into consideration that there are sites and publications that do present the news we consume that will often have a particular slant.  So, we have to square what we read, hear, or view with our Christian worldview and we should make sure we have an assortment of sources, so that we can skillfully process what we expose ourselves to.

And, we can also consider that the selection of stories that some media outlets make can contribute to a narrative that may not be accurate - the weighting of what's important is a manipulative tool to change public perception.  This has especially been true in matters related to COVID, where the bad news seems to outweigh the good, which can elicit a response that may not be based in fact.

God's Word is the standard for truth, the Holy Spirit is our guide, and our conscience, which should be developed through the absorption of Scripture, can be incredibly beneficial in navigating the current information age.  We should be clear-headed and grounded in Christ.