The book has chapters on Logic, Reasoning and Cognitive bias. It points out that we all need critical thinking, and discernment, especially in the news and with government recommendations, when there could be a political bias or agenda being pushed. Matt. 22:37 “He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Acts 17:11 “The people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.”Rom. 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
Being an apologist, I like truth in the press and logic. On the web site Creationapologetics.net, there are some papers on truth. I am reading a good new book ‘Clear Thinking in a Messy World’ (CT). Its available from Reasons to Believe. My papers note that journalists say the press and major news sites are biased to the Left. Freedom of the press and speech is important and part of the first amendment. To get unbiased news one needs to do some searching. During the pandemic, many posts in the media web sites were canceled as disinformation. This appears to have been due political views of the Governments; but many of the posts were factual and true. Good scientific views and reports on the covid vaccine were also canceled. The CT book notes in Chap. 8 that propaganda(P) in the news is common now. A definition of P, is sending information, including biased and misleading information to get someone to accept a particular agenda, often of a political nature. Good journalism should be truthful and have some degree of accuracy. CT notes many journalists and government reports now stray from this. In dictatorial governments freedom of the press is lacking. CT notes in Chap. 1, Christ favored truth, logic and good reasoning; he was disliked by the government and religious leaders of his day.
The book ‘Clear Thinking in a Messy World’ Chap. 11 notes cognitive biases hurting critical thinking. Some of our thinking is consciously irrational. 1. our minds are often lazy. 2 the ad populum or bandwagon fallacy If many people think it- it must be right. the ‘asch’ experiments on university campuses document this. p199. They were to compare line lengths on a card. A bunch of students were coached to give the wrong answer out loud and then one the un-coached test person student was asked. After many group repetitions, it was found the test persons gave the wrong answer following the coached groups wrong leads 33% of time. The error rate was only 1% when there was no coaching group at all. On pg 200 They cited a number of disasters caused by group think, and pressure wrongly influencing a situation. For the Challenger space shuttle disaster, several engineers warned the management group that the rocket booster O ring, was not designed to stand the current temperatures. The management pressured the engineers to sign off, as there had been many delays. Then O ring did fail and the whole rocket exploded, killing a crew of 7. Wikipedia example: Galileo, an astronomer, found from experiments that the earth revolved around the sun and published it. Most scientists and the church believed that the sun revolved around the earth. Galileo was ridiculed for this by both groups, and the church told him to recant it, under threats torture. He didn’t, and the they put him in a dungeon. He was later proved correct and the church changed their interpretation of scriptures on this.
The CT book on table 8, pg128 gives the principles for traditional (good) journalism. One part is to give an opposing view to the thrust of the story. One of the few news stations that do this is Fox news. The lack of freedom of speech at American universities is a legitimate concern, pg 129. In 2014 the Univ. of Chicago issued a detailed report and guidance on this. Here is a note from it: We teach students to think, not what to think, in and independent, flexible way. We foster a skeptical approach and a demand for data. Also on pg. 44-5 R.P. George stated the difference between good education and indoctrination is not hard. Teaching how to think carefully and critically is different than teaching what to think. Indoctrination is often instilling of ideas in an uncritical manner, without challenge or debate. It stands closer to propaganda than education. Propaganda often appeals to our biases and prejudices and often presents slanted or deceptive information to promote an agenda p. 133. p 133-8 discusses conspiracy theories. This is a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by powerful conspirators. A few conspiracy theories have been proven true. It was proved in court of law that a small group of individuals conspired to assassinate Abe Lincoln. Also President Nixon later acknowledged that he knew much more about the Watergate break- in than he initially expressed. a 2016 survey indicated these percents of Americans, thought the federal government is concealing what they know about the following theories ; the 911 Attacks 54.3%, Alien encounters: 42.6% A 2020 survey indicated 20 % of Americans believed the Covid-19 pandemic was planned. The CT authors gave 7 logical questions for evaluating these theories: Here are a few: How many people would need to be in on it? Does the theory comport with the facts? Does the theory handle counter evidence and viable challenges? Most Christians affirm an eschatology that involves a one world government and demonic forces in the end times, which will be battled, which tends to further erode their trust in national governments. We already know some governments are dictatorial and Marxist, with very low value on individual human rights.
Science can also have biases as noted in Clear Thinking in a Messy World'(CT) Chap. 12 Confirmation bias is finding what you want, and reporting favorably data, ignoring the unfavorable. There is pressure to get grants and do papers. There are possible conflicts of interests, like being paid for drug research by drug companies. There is also resistance to change that would disrupt and old theory one favored. Eisenstein encountered this after he shared his Theory of Relativity in 1905. This would overturn the old false ether theory that was popular at that time.(pg 218 and Wikipedia). It took until almost 2023 to fully overturn the old theory., as lot of new experimental data came out confirming his theory . A 2nd major overturn happened for an MD, I. Semmelweis, concerning the use of bleach for hand washing for medical surgery. (pg 217 &Wikipedia) He had a hunch, that this washing of hands would be beneficial and told Drs, in training to do this, and wrote and showed study data; this greatly helped prevent infections in 1861. He was ridiculed and was put in an a mental institution in 1865 where he died. It wasn’t until, when Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory and documented it with experiments, and then it became accepted in 1875-80, that he was also vindicated after facing opposition. Einstein faced opposition for 2 reasons: he was a Jew and two, he overturned an old theory. He was also instrumental in warning Pres. Roosevelt of the soon danger of the Germans developing and atomic bomb weapon, so that the US Manhattan project was started to develop the Bomb. Still he regretted this, as he was a pacifist against war. He also favored independent thinking, and at times left schools that favored rote learning and indoctrination. He was welcomed at universities and many countries, but often left them. These 3 examples and the Bandwagon or group think examples for the space shuttle disaster in Chap. 11 show that, just because a scientist or a group of Drs and scientists state and important truth, that disagrees with the government and most scientists, doesn’t make them wrong. One needs to carefully look at the facts and evidence.
CT Chap. 3 Basic elements of Logical Arguments. A formal argument involves reasoning from premises to a conclusion through an inference (connection between the 2) Example of valid deductive argument. 1. all dogs are animals, 2. Fido is a dog. 3. Therefore, Fido is an animal. An informal argument is a supported opinion. Example: Government taxes are necessary. The provide support for a large body of people, for services they can’t easily provide individually for themselves. An opinion is a claim without support and not an argument. Example: Abe Lincoln was the best American president ever! Have you seen statements by political candidates like this? A belief can be a claim with no support ( if support is not given) , Example: There is no God. Inductive arguments are more complex and varied. Examples: Early on people noted that apples fell always down, so a force gravity must be pulling them. 10 experiments- observation supported this. 10 important people support candidate X , so he must be good.(in this example do the supporters really think the candidate is good or do they have an additional motive? like, they may get paid by candidate X). Arguments can be rated as weak and strong depending on the support given. It’s important to distinguish between these differing arguments and how strong they are and also use critical thinking. Chap.14 explains when biases area threat. Framing is a bias that presents and idea in glowing, emotional terms, with few factual details. Don’t be swayed by the frame, Look for the details. The Bandwagon bias can also use misleading statistics. Examples: p. 221 90% of dentists surveyed recommend toothpaste X. Here how many dentists were surveyed and did they receive free toothpaste samples? 90% of mechanics use brand A oil for their customers. Again what is the sample size? p.233 Chap. 13 discuses misuse of statistics. My book ‘Evidences for God and His Creations’ has an Appendix 2 on Logic and references Jason Lisle’s book ‘The Ultimate Proof of Creation.” which covers logical arguments and some fallacies in reasoning. Another false bias is the ‘Straw man’ that involves misrepresenting the argument of another, by distorting it and making it seam extreme. The 4 laws of logic are 1. the law of identity, A is A; 2. The law of non-contradiction, A can’t be A and non A at the same time; 3. the law of the excluded middle. 4 The law of rational inference, IF A=B and B=C then A=C
CT Chap. 2 P.44-7 Much of the formal education today in the social sciences and humanities involves doses of indoctrination and even propaganda; R. George good education should involve discovery of knowledge, truth and wisdom through critical analysis and teaching how to think, not what to think. Much education today involves identity politics relating to race, sex and class, woke ideology and controlled or limited speech. U. Lehner notes news has half-truths and fake news that cries out for more reason. H. Gray notes, due to increased political polarization, This book with help seekers and christians to sort through the miss-information they encounter and think more critically. Scripture speaks of the importance of discernment, which is a type of critical thinking aided by the Holy Spirit. Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Pastor and author of ‘Logic for Christians’, Z. Lee notes that most college student are not taught logic. Logic orders and clarifies your thinking. Great classical christian thinkers valued logic and viewed philosophy a handmaid to theology. p 52 Paul is described as reasoning about the faith and seeking to persuade non-christians of its truth (Acts 18:4)
I feel led to describe more possible media bias examples, and even lies. In 2020 before the national elections, a story came out about the Hunter Biden laptop documenting corruption and the pedaling of influence with foreign governments. The story is now documented in Wikipedia. Also Tony Bobulinski, who was an energy executive and a Navy veteran who briefly worked with Hunter Biden in 2017 on a company called Sinohawk, testified Oct. 2020 before the House Oversight Committee after publicly claiming President Biden was involved in foreign business deals. The main line news, Facebook and the US government claimed this was all Russian disinformation (RD). In the Biden-Trump debate, Biden again stated this was all RD. Now we know the laptop does exist, and is held by the FBI and was used some in Hunters recent trial. Fox news carried the stories covering some of the truth and that there was no RD here. I spoke of the false RD and the importance of critical thinking, and the bias in the news before in a Facebook video at a local church in 2020.
In another example the US government and the main line press pushed the covid-19 efforts and stated they were needed, safe and effective, and mandated them in, some groups, forcing military members who would not take the shot, to resign. There are a few scientific minority reports that the vaccine is dangerous and has caused many adverse health effects noted in a CDC VAERS database, and may have long term effects also. The government denies this and so does the media. Some government supported studies say the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis slightly increases, after a COVID-19 vaccine. During the active pandemic, these minority reports were greatly suppressed by the media as disinformation. Now the minority reports are somewhat allowed, perhaps because a large percent of the population is already vaccinated. Now there is more evidence to consider! I believe the Covid vaccines and covid variants and other viruses still pose a major risk and that taking nanosilver and some vitamins prevents covid, and other viruses, and also likely prevents and bad components of the vaccine from continuing to grow in our bodies. Taking low doses of nanosilver at 10-20 ppm has no known bad side effects, to my knowledge.