The internet is not hard. If I agree with it, it's the truth: if I don't it's a lie.
We have to think for ourselves and not blindly accept authority. That said, if it comes from a University source and is about scientific studies that are fully described, then I tend to accept their conclusions, even though I probably don't understand much of it. In other words, accepting authority is what we have to do, just be sure the authority is credible.
One good test is whether or not they make claims to truth. If so, they are lying (maybe not consciously because they believe it, but still there is no such thing as truth). There are just close approximations to truth, or, put another way, the truth as far as we can, in good conscience, determine, based on the evidence.
As far as right and wrong go, this has to be deduced, not taken from authority (although one doesn't go far wrong following Kant). I think conscience is often wrong. It amazes me how much it is that people go through life hurting others, being stingy, voting their personal interest, violating traffic laws and so on, without giving the ethical aspect a second thought. It is that conscience is culturally set, and therefore only mostly right. We have to consider the benefits and harms, the compassion or its lack, the freedom we allow others, and so on, in a rational balance without taking absolutist positions.
We have to think for ourselves and not blindly accept authority. That said, if it comes from a University source and is about scientific studies that are fully described, then I tend to accept their conclusions, even though I probably don't understand much of it. In other words, accepting authority is what we have to do, just be sure the authority is credible.
One good test is whether or not they make claims to truth. If so, they are lying (maybe not consciously because they believe it, but still there is no such thing as truth). There are just close approximations to truth, or, put another way, the truth as far as we can, in good conscience, determine, based on the evidence.
As far as right and wrong go, this has to be deduced, not taken from authority (although one doesn't go far wrong following Kant). I think conscience is often wrong. It amazes me how much it is that people go through life hurting others, being stingy, voting their personal interest, violating traffic laws and so on, without giving the ethical aspect a second thought. It is that conscience is culturally set, and therefore only mostly right. We have to consider the benefits and harms, the compassion or its lack, the freedom we allow others, and so on, in a rational balance without taking absolutist positions.
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