Beliefs vs. Facts

I am amused when people treat facts like Santa Claus.

Facts--global warming, the mind/body connection or having a man of color in the White House--are frequently treated as if they are beliefs that may or may not be believed.

Well dear readers have a seat. They are true; the climate is changing, the mind and the body are one in the same and we have a non-Caucasian running things in these Untied, I mean United States.

Differentiating between fact and what one wishes or hopes for is a skill that is difficult to acquire. Why? Because humans tend to have a desire to see the world as they want it to be and not as it is.

Regardless, the duty of the educated is to look for evidence from reliable sources and challenge those who espouse ignorance. Doing so will not always make you the most popular person at the party. But, as Edmund Burke wrote a while back, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Pick your battles--you do want to have friends--but when you hear someone challenge your core ideas, go after them. Otherwise you are part of the problem.