Fake News by any other name…

When I was younger, we had several words for what is today called “fake news”.  We called it embellishment, exaggeration, or bold-faced lying.  Consider, however, a peculiar strain of philosophers who question whether or not truth empirically exists, and if so, is it actually knowable? 

Solomon seemed to think so, and he pretty well had the monopoly on wisdom, not be mention several other things:  

Commit yourself to instruction;
    listen carefully to words of knowledge.

And a little further down the page:

Get the truth and never sell it;
    also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment.

I appreciate his imperative use of “get the truth”.  It invokes another part of philosophy called logic, which states  or ‘a’ cannot equal ‘not a’.  In other words, you cannot have two opposing statements be true at the same time (or something like that; one my end, sometimes it’s helpful to put down the philosophy book and pick up Calvin and Hobbes.)

According to King Solomon, truth is something I can go get; I can commit myself to its proper and prosperous instruction because (1) it exists, and (2) is available.  Evidently, it comes with wisdom, discipline and good judgment thrown in for good measure.  But I have to go and get it.  Intentionally.  Persistently.  Disregarding all that is “not truth”.

Which is a muddy pool to wade in for our society these days, or any culture in any time period since we got booted out of the Garden.  We have a distinct tendency (as opposed to the rest of creation, if you’ll notice) to prefer “Not-A” if ‘A’ is less to our liking, and we have various and sundry reasons as to why don’t like it.

Actually, ‘it’ is a ‘Who’, which puts a name and history to just what we are rejecting.  Here’s what Jesus says about Himself:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”

Which makes the rejection personal, not merely philosophical. 

Proverbs 23:12,23; John 14:6  Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.