The Difference Between Fact and Opinion…
One more from the workshop, “Power of the Written and Visual Word.”
“The difference between a fact and an opinion is the number of people who agree on it”. (Source Unknown)
I was taking a training course for work. We had gotten through the Myers Briggs and the instructor made the above comment. It seemed really profound and has stuck with me over the years. Even the greatest scientific truths, like the medieval truth that the earth is the center of the universe, are only fleeting. These truths will soon be replaced by other truths. Our conception of the world will change and change again. Some conceptions will change in our lifetime and others in future generations. The debate about evolution versus creationism seems unimportant in this context.
Our whole society seems to be constructed on truths which are not constant. In addition to changing truths, we have rites of passage which are so embedded that they are treated almost as facts; when to graduate from high school, from college, what years to be working, when to retire, what to do at various stages of life. We have other truths which for the most part have gone by the wayside, the role of women and our views on racial relations are examples. If we were willing to see things as changeable we could change the world and would be able to more easily accommodate to a rapidly changing world.
Things don’t need to always be “that” way merely because we’ve always thought or done it that way. In my own lifetime ‘facts’ have changed many times. In many cases my life seemed to be pointed one way then took a very different direction. Even now I think that things which are seemingly sure are only transient. What I know for certain today can change tomorrow. I need to remember this as the world continues to change.
One time while visiting St. Louis, a city in which the weather can be volatile, a friend made the remark “If you don’t like the weather today stick around, it will be different tomorrow”. Everything I do and experience provides a new learning and changes my perspective on the world. I now think there are very few real facts in the world. Looking underneath them, facts are built on concepts which can crumble. It is important to remember this as the world evolves.
– Anonymous
