Its a Fact

Our society has put more emphasis on the insurance behind saying something is a fact. This is something that many people find comforting. When someone claims a statement to be a fact there is more acceptance of that statement. They almost equate facts with Truths. This is not very stable when what we believe is a fact today may not be a fact tomorrow. How than can you prove the validity of a statement?


If you can't rely on facts to make a statement true (this is truth with a lower case t) or false, then you must rely on your intuition. Your own thoughts or feelings towards something must serve as the validity for whatever that something may be. This gets messy, because every individual human on this planet has a different interpretation of things. They may have some common ground, but different backgrounds and experiences lead to different personal points of view. This can make things difficult when you are dealing with things like international relations. Countries have different cultures that sway the way they think and act. This can go deeper into the way languages play a different role for different words as well. When you don't have that social norm as a common ground to interact upon, then you can end up fighting affecting the lives of millions. The facts that get lost in translation have an effect on people around the world. Can a fact remain solid if it is passed through multiple languages? This is dependant on the languages and how much trust is instilled in the translator.


This is why we need facts. People need facts so they can feel secure about what the other person means. Facts, whether proven or theoretical, can provide the common ground for interpersonal relations. Once you have this common ground, things become clearer than they were before when interpretation was the only reasoning available. It is true that facts have changed over the course of history. Facts are looked at more and more closely in recent years as well. People are skeptical of what they hear. This is most likely a result of the amendments of information that has forever been seen as true. This change over time is not a bad thing though. It is assuring that what we view as a fact is being challenged continuously. This constant challenge results in a better understanding of things in the world around us.


This should not discount the power of intuition. Although I do believe in sound evidence, I know that there are times when a "gut feeling" can be stronger than the logical answer. Some of these gut feelings may have a logical basis that determines the reaction of an individual. These hunches are not often acted upon as quickly as the logical approach would be, but they are nevertheless there. This does not mean that someone’s initial feeling on something is right or that it will pay out in the end, but at times you just know that what you feel you should do is the best option. There are always choices to decide what is best at the time; logic or intuition. Suppose a building is on fire and there is a possibility that there are still people in the building. A fireman may look at the situation logically. He has training that alters the way he sees the situation. It is a very calculated event to someone that has gone through the same crisis before. There are steps that the fireman would take that are different than what the actions of a normal person would be. A normal person may not choose to do anything at all. This is definitely based off a logical thought that most likely they will be powerless to help even if they tried. There is also the concept of self-preservation that is very logical. But this doesn't account for the good citizen that runs in despite the odds. This is when intuition beats logical thought processes. Acting on your intuition is a risk, but the result may be positive.

Completely belief and faith in facts is probably a bad decision. With the constant change in the way society views things there is no room to fully trust the statements of the masses. But to reject every statement that is portrayed as a fact would be a waste of time in the end. Skepticism to a point is a understandable and even beneficial, but there is a line that can be crossed that makes disbelief counter productive. Conspiracy theories can only go so far until they are proven one way or another.