Check your sources

I was reviewing some research this morning where "professionals" were making some pretty strong statements about marriage, family, and values in America. There is no question that there are some serious shifts taking place in how people view sex and marriage in our culture, but the thing that troubled me about the articles were the bold affirmations that were being made based on some recent studies.

The results of the surveys could be very revealing about our culture, the affirmations could be absolutely true, but I have lived long enough to know that it is easy to manipulate surveys and data to suit your political or ideological slant. Just look at the recent misrepresentations and falsification of data concerning the global warming issues.

Sitting around the dinner table I often hear my children make some bold proclamation from something they read or more often heard on television or at school. They cringe when I ask them for the source of that information. "Well, it was in the papers, or on the news." Then the next questions, "do you believe everything you read."

God gave us a brain and an intellect and expects us to use them. At times I think we should have been created with a shovel at the end of our arm to deal with all the stuff that piles up around us. I really have a hard time believing that anyone can believe some of the stuff presented as facts.

The bottom line is that we need to spend a little more time investigating something before we buy it wholesale from a biased media (biased from the right and the left). Here is a simple test you can take to help sort through the massive dissemenation of useless information in our society.

1. Does it pass the common sense test? If it sounds ridiculous and outrageous dig a little deeper before accepting it as fact.
2. Consider the source. If the information is presented as common knowledge, or there are no solid facts behind the story, ask for evidence or the research behind the findings.
3. If the information is based on research look at the positions of the research team prior to the study. Did they already have an end in mind before they began? Could this skew the results of their study?
4. Finally, who participated in the study. Was it a balanced sample that represented a fair cross section of our society. Kinsey's research on sexuality used a highly dysfunctional element of our society to determine his results about social norms and sexuality. The results did not represent the general population.

Yes, I am a skeptic. We all look at the world through a biased (even if only slightly biased) pespective. Of course, that is just my opinion - want some facts to back that up?