Fact or fiction?
For the next few days I’ll be posting entries relating to this site, my thought processes, and my philosophy. That way future posts will make much more sense.
A major issue I have with blogs and society in general is the lack of real scientific sources. Someone will make a statement, such as “3% of adults have served time in prision.” The problem is that they can’t backup their fact or statistic with a valid source. They say something like “I heard it on the news” or “a friend told me.” Both of these sources are not valid! In order to be a responsible person you must state the true source.
Of course, in casual conversation it would be impossible to do something like this. You can’t remember the source of everything you know. However, you should have a general idea of where you got your information so that you can find the real source if necessary.
I’ve always had a scientific mind and strongly believe that society could use a greator focus on the scientific method. This means using real, hard data to come to a conclusion. Either you generate the results yourself or gather them from respectable sources.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Well, for starters I will be listing sources for everything. If I state something as fact or reference a statistic I will state the source. Please let me know if I miss something! If I cannot find a valid source the item will be listed under the “Philosophy” catagory until a suitable source can be found. I want to break the trend of publishing “the truth” without any hard evidence that it is “the truth.”
What does it have to do with you? If you find yourself discussing something think about it first. Do you know where your information came from? Was it a valid, scientific source and not just “some blog I saw on the net”? Fact and fiction blend together very easily, especially on the internet. It’s very easy for someone to tout something as fact when it couldn’t be further from the truth.
PS- The statistic I used above is from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm, and stated correctly it would have said “In 2001, an estimated 2.7% of adults in the U.S. had served time in prison.” Notice how I didn’t reference the year in the first statement? Little facts like this can make a huge difference. In 1991 the statistic was only 1.8%, and 1.3% in 1974.
