The reason for truth
As I explained in a recent posting, one of the themes of this weblog and of my web site is that lots of people believe lots of strange things and we have to have a rational means of identifying truth based on evidence. I explained that I was working up a short essay on this subject for my web site. I’ve now finished this essay and offer it for your consideration here. Please feel free to challenge or improve it, either by adding a comment to this posting or by sending me an e-mail.
Some readers will find the essay totally unexceptional, but many others will feel challenged and even angered by it. Yet the need for rational thinking based on evidence is demonstrated constantly. Just today, there is a story that – in a survey of Britain’s brighest, our university students – only 56% support evolution (for which there is massive evidence) compared to 19% who back intelligent design (for which there is very little evidence) and 12% who believe in creationism (for which there is no evidence).