The truth is that we often don’t know the truth, even though we often think we do. We choose to believe what we want because we have to trust something at some point. You choose this doctor’s data about the virus as fact. I decide another doctor’s data is fact, though it contradicts your facts. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “There are no facts, only interpretations.” He contended that anything that is data-based becomes nothing more than intellectual opinion once it has passed through the mind and explained to us what it means.

Our search for truth has us grabbing the tails of different colored kites flying in the sky and stubbornly we hang on even if a windstorm of other evidence threatens to tear our kites down. Uncertainty causes panic and panic causes us to say, “We have to believe in some things even they’re not universal truths.”

We have become a nation of skeptics. Skepticism is an ancient philosophical system of thought that questions the certainty of knowledge. There are three examples to help illustrate how skeptics dismiss “fact” for being opinion.

Some people will argue their facts on and on, but that means they are really unconvinced themselves, and the more they argue, the less they prove their belief.

“Hey Jim, you’re going to vote for Johnson, right?”

“Don’t think so. Why?”

“I’ll give you ten reasons why. I got them listed right in front of me. After you hear these, Johnson’s a no doubter.”

“If after you’ve read the second reason to vote for him and I’m not convinced, don’t waste your time with me with the next eight.”

Someone else, when his viewpoint is questioned, will attack the opposite view instead of defending his.

“Hey Mike, you going to vote for Johnson, right?”

“Nope. The guy is dishonest and divisive.

“You can’t vote for the Jackson. He’s a socialist. Did you see what stupid ideas he’s proposing?”

“But how do you defend what Johnson has said?”

“Vote for Jackson and be prepared to pay for what everyone else gets for free.”

Another person argues in a circle, ending his points where he began, which never proves a valid conclusion.

“Hey Jimmy. You have to get the vaccine.”

“Why?”

“You’ll never get sick with the virus. And if you don’t get the shot, you’ll probably get the virus.

“Well, you might get a bad side effect from the vaccine and there’s no absolute proof it’ll protect you anyway.”

“Yes, but if you don’t get the vaccine, you’ll probably get the virus.”

Sagan said that we get tired of searching for the absolute truth about anything so we give in to the best idea we think is out there, even though we subconsciously hold doubt about it. He called it getting bamboozled.

“If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a trickster the power over you, you almost never get it back.”

Rather than take the time to examine the facts that could change their minds, many people buy into those opinions that fit into their comfort zones.

American scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “One of the biggest problems with the world today is that we have large groups of people who will accept whatever they hear on the grapevine, just because it suits their worldview - not because it is actually true or because they have evidence to support it.”

So we have skeptics who question every “truth” and then we have follow the leaders whose “truth” comes from whatever makes them happy even if it’s not good for everyone else.

Speaking of leaders, skeptics would cast doubt toward the so-called facts used by politicians during their campaigns. If a politician in office should say that violence has decreased under his tenure, a skeptic would reply, “Prove that has happened directly because of actions you’ve taken. To them, it would be equivalent to him saying, “Since I’ve been in office, there have been 64 more sunny days than we had during the previous administration.”

To give the skeptics credit, we must ask ourselves, what can we believe anymore? The TV media editorializes reported events to the doctrines of belief held by the station’s executive board. Watch CNN and you get one view. Watch Fox News and you get another.

A country full of people who question everything and end up believing next to nothing can be a problem for leadership at every level of government. This can result in authority losing its credibility and growing groups of protesters can lead to anarchy in the streets.

It’s in the genetics of all human beings to want to believe and to want to trust. We want to feel safe and comforted by truth. None of us want lies or deception. We want to lay our heads down on our pillows at night having peace of mind and holding the truth in our hearts.

Best-selling author and motivational speaker Carlos Wallace said, “Until we become the change we seek, the change we seek will never come.” The truth starts within us before we can have the right to demand the truth from our leaders. Otherwise, the number of skeptics will keep growing and growing.

Rich Strack can be reached at katehep11@gmail.com.