I haven’t written about atheism in a while. A long while. I don’t know why. Maybe because I have nothing more to say about being an atheist. A decade (or so) ago, it seemed (to me, at least) that atheism was all the rage, notably among young people (high school, believe it or not) and it was looking, to me, that the next generation of non-believers was on the cusp. Then, like all fads, it was something that passed like a bowel movement. Honestly, the way things were going, I’m actually happy the trend died out. And not slowly and painfully, but quickly and extremely traumatically for some. But I do miss some of the real activism that occurred during those days.
With the Internet becoming the main source of information for most people today, a little reminder to always be skeptical of what you read and see on te net. Why? There is so much misinformation out there and sometimes it’s difficult to discern between what is true or not. In fact, it’s easy to be fooled by what we see because it’s so well presented. The information may also play into our confirmation bias. A recent example is something I noticed on X the other day about that woman on trial for allegedly killing her 3 children. Supposedly the jury came back with a verdict of not guilty by reason of instanity. That post went viral for a little while until someone came on and said, “Wait, the trial isn’t even over yet”, and suddenly, the comments on that post went to zero. But for a little while, people actually thought the verdict was in and the post was true. When I saw that post, I was home so I just turned on the TV, to a news channel, to discover there were people, right then, talking about the upcoming closing arguments. TV off and I went back to doing other things. Note all the information out there about the Iran conflict, the Russia/Ukraine war, not to mention what’s going on where you live with the finally soon to be over midterm elections. In all of these, stay skeptical, remembering the rule of 3: Three independent sources. If 3 sources agree, you can be fairly confident the information is true (I say “fairly confident” because the media in general has been fooled before.) . Always remain skeptical because you’re the only one looking out for you.
UPDATE: Watching YouTube recently.I came across this video which, I think, proves my point. You can’t always believe something posted on the Internet.
I believe it’s time for all of us to begin being more skeptical of the i formation we consume daily. We can have an opinion, but that doesn’t blunt facts and opinion is like a wish, nothing else required. Sure, some will say their opinions are fact based, but I venture this: Those facts are harvested only to prove a preconceived notion. When all the facts are gathered and evaluated together, sometimes it’s discovered that nothing presupposed is true.
I get a kick out of online drama. It’s nothing new of course, if it’s not a couple of people posting on X going after each other, then it’s podcasters (oops! “content creators”) or something else. There are always sides and a lot of the time I find both sides compelling. I’m not really a fence sitter, I just think that in order to make a reasoned determination on whatever the silly issue happens to be at the time, I need to hear both sides (or more) that’s being offered.
RFK, Jr. has been receiving some significant press since he began his challenge to President Biden for the democratic nomination. He has one huge disadvantage and it has nothing to do with any conspiratorial theories he may tout, but the fact that the democratic nomination is currently rigged in favor of Biden. It’s not unusual for the current office holder to have no challengers, but Biden? Sixty percent of democrats want someone else.
