The other day my son was telling me something quite interesting. As he was talking I began to realize that something about it didn’t quite stack up. So I asked where he had heard about that. It was on “talk back radio”, he told me. And who was the person who had shared that gem? Oh, just someone who had called in. So did he believe it was true? Well, yes, why not? Perhaps it is because I’ve been around just a bit longer than him, but I asked instead “well, why?” Why believe something without checking out what is behind it, where is the source, does it comply with the facts, and a few important little things like that?

I have been noticing the same thing on forums and message boards as my son’s experience on talk back radio. People, often keeping anonymous, will say things with a sense of authority and yet it is only their opinion which is just as likely to be quite ill-informed and misguided. I am very aware of this when I write these entries to Judah’s Journal. Who am I to state the things that I do? What authority do I have to claim this or that to be the truth, or not the truth? It is characteristic of the blogosphere that all kinds of stuff gets published, much of it quite dubious in both worth and truth.

These are very good questions, and ones that every reader should be asking… and ask regarding whatever they read or hear.

I hope that readers of Judah’s Journal will notice that I make good use of references and note my sources diligently. Often I link to papers and websites where further information is found and credibility can be checked out. My own logic can be examined here-and-now in the case I present, and I do not point to myself as the expert, but in the direction of credible scholarship and authority. I find it annoying that unqualified or anonymous people will give an unsubstantiated opinion that they expect to have accepted as a sufficient case against the well researched and logically presented work of those with recognized expertise in the subject, even more so when there is no evidence of how they have dealt with the facts to come to their own conclusions, or appeal to such generalizations as “everyone knows…” and other common fallacies of thought that are equally meaningless.

And after that rather long sentence, I will hop off my soapbox for now. But think about it, folks. Do you care about the truth, and if so, how do you determine what is from what’s not?