The Issue of Epistemology

How do we know what to believe?   Why do we believe what we do?  How can we be sure that what we believe is right.  How can we be sure that what we know is true.  With all the talk of fake news these days—and the fake news that is actually out there—“knowing”  and “what to believe” is becoming more and more of a problem.  It is an issue of epistemology—the theory of knowledge which asks the questions:  What does it mean to say we know something, and how do we know that we know?   Mark Twain does a good job of putting that in simple terms when it comes to our religious and political beliefs:  “In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, who’s opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”

Much of what I know and what I believe I’ve gotten secondhand from the usual authorities:  teachers, professors, friends and books. Just the other day I wrote that I cut my biblical teeth on William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible.  How else can we become informed.  The media (TV,  books, newspapers, magazines) provide us information—but it isn’t firsthand knowledge—it is knowledge or information that comes from somebody who says they know what they are talking about, or reporting on what they see. (We know that two people looking at the same event see it differently—so that poses a problem:  How do we know which eye-witness to believe?)  We accept the wisdom of the authority view, we accept the word of the authority, then we sort out, examine the stuff they have given us in our heads.  We take all the evidence into consideration and come up with what we are going to accept, believe, and know.  Is it still secondhand after such a process?  Perhaps, but at least we have examined it, thought it through, and come to our own conclusion.

Who are our authorities?  Fox News or CNN?  The New York Times or The New York Post?  Breitbart News or Politico?  Which one is “fake” for you?  How do you know?   Barclay, my authoritative person on scripture is labeled a “false prophet” by an authority of the religious right.  Barclay bases his knowledge on a multiplicity of sources—the authority on the “right” only on his interpretation of scripture.  Which authority knows?

Many of us are intellectually lazy and exhibit a blind willingness to follow the words and prescriptions of our “particular” authority figures, media, etc., who/which are blind followers of other authority figures of a particular “bent.”  That kind of belief and conviction (without examination) is not worth “a brass farthing” as far as Mark Twain is concerned.

Which waterfall is the "true" waterfall?