Fake news alternate facts
FAKE NEWS. ALTERNATIVE FACTS. These are buzzwords in the wake of events like Brexit (the departure of the UK from the European Union) and Donald Trump’s successful US presidential campaign. The question on everyone’s mind is: what is true? It is no longer clear. No wonder Oxford Dictionaries announced that their Word of the Year for 2016 was “post-truth”! In such a world, does truth still exist?
The antithesis of faith is not doubt but indifference. Put differently, the danger is not in doubting, but in the movement toward apathy. Doubting enters the ‘danger zone’ when its effect diminishes your desire to engage with God. As such, you may allow doubt to visit your mind but be sure to ban it from becoming its ruler.
What is post-truth?
Facts are out. Feelings are in. In short, post-truth describes a situation where facts play a lesser role than feelings in determining what people think is true. Fact-based truth is irrelevant. Feelings are true.
In the name of freedom and honesty, truth is often bent to get what we want, meet our needs, and suit our choice of lifestyles. Thus, a simple fact such as “I have a female body, and therefore I am female” is seen to be as true as “I have a female body but feel like a man, so therefore I am actually a man.” Feelings are the ultimate standard of truth.
Pontius Pilate was a post-truth guy. When Jesus declared that He came to the world to bear witness to the truth, Pilate scoffed, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Though he knew Jesus was innocent, he let Jesus be punished as a guilty man. Truth was irrelevant, so chaos reigned.
Like a broken compass that can no longer point true north, the world is lost without a sense of truth. It is now the trend in the media and universities to claim that we belong to a post-truth culture. But if the so-called experts say that we live in a post-truth world, how do we know they are telling the truth?
What is truth?
Truth is more than facts, or certainly alternative facts. Truth is a person. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Truth and life come hand in hand. But, the truth about post-truth is this: it brings death. Post- truth says, “I can believe anything I want, as long as I don’t claim it to be the only truth.” If nothing is true (and nothing can be false), then nothing has meaning; if nothing has meaning, then life has no meaning. No wonder teenage depression and suicide in Singapore is on the rise! According to the Samaritans of Singapore, teenage suicide rates are currently at their highest in 15 years.
Our response
Churchill said it well: “Truth is the most valuable thing in the world, so valuable it is often protected by a bodyguard of lies.” The textbooks, teachers, and media may claim that “God is dead” and “Truth is dead.” Therefore, we can make up our own rules and live how we want. However, they forget that Jesus didn’t stay dead; He came back alive! Truth is neither irrelevant nor outdated. It is so comforting to know that in our world of fake news and alternative facts, one thing remains constant — God is truth.
