15AR20-44

AR 20:44 - Where is the truth in that?

In this issue:

Responding to the question in this edition's subject line, we conclude 2015 with a survey touching history, science, medicine, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and the occult.

Apologia Report 20:44 (1,273)

December 26, 2015

PLEASE NOTE: This our final issue of AR for the year. Paul Carden will be attending Urbana <urbana.org> tomorrow and would benefit from your prayers through the 31st as he seeks to further advance apologetics in Christian missions. We plan to send out AR once again the week of January 10.

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Competing truth claims are everywhere, everyday. Just before keying in the first entry for this issue of Apologia Report, an advertising pop-up prompted by the previous night's entertainment touted the Pure History Specials <www.goo.gl/nvnAiw> a 2013 documentary series directed by John Purdie and David Whitehead from the CreateSpace network. The pursuit of "pure" history is certainly a truth quest. Age-old conflicts of opinion in this field can make for absorbing study.

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Seeking Jordan [1], due out in March, is a book-length story subtitled "How I Learned the Truth About Death and the Invisible Universe". Author Matthew McKay (professor at the Berkeley Wright Institute in Berkeley <www.goo.gl/ox7DbQ> and cofounder of Haight Ashbury Psychological Services) "has been actively channeling his late child," Jordan, since 2008. Kirkus, Dec '15 #2. [5]

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Several items in the current issue of Skeptical Inquirer (Jan/Feb '16) touch on the delicate and difficult search for truth. American cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus summarizes her life's work on how even our memory fails as a resource for truth. "Illusions of Memory" (pp22-23) explains that her research has "shown that you could alter people's memories for crimes, accidents, and other events that they had recently witnessed. You could pretty easily make someone believe that a car was going faster than it really was or that the bad guy had curly hair instead of straight hair. Later we would show that you could plant entire events into the minds of ordinary healthy people, letting them believe that they had experiences that they never ever had - even experiences that would have been pretty traumatic had they actually happened." Her findings "help us understand how improper handling of eyewitness testimony can lead to false memories and the conviction of innocent people. They help us understand how suggestive or coercive therapy can lead people to develop memories of being abused in a Satanic cult, accusations that can cause untold misery for innocent people and families."

On pages 36-41, the same magazine’s cover story, "The Lie Detector Test Revisited" by Morton E. Tavel (clinical professor emeritus, Indiana University School of Medicine) reports: "Although the polygraph can be useful in coercing confessions, it is based on scientifically implausible assumptions of accuracy and is biased against the innocent. The scientific community justly considers it pseudoscience, and it should be abandoned." Tavel reviews the polygraph procedure, its history and the evidence against it. "[S]tudies report an average specificity of 52 percent, meaning that out of 100 people who are not lying, only fifty-two will be identified as telling the truth while forty-eight of these honest individuals will be branded as liars. These odds are similar to a coin toss, which would have a specificity of 50 percent. ...

"Since 1923, polygraph evidence has not been admissible in federal court cases because the test was deemed to lack scientific validity. Sadly, however, it is still used widely by the court systems of many states." Not only this, but polygraphs "continue to be used by federal agencies such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency, where they are commonplace in decisions concerning employment." At the same time, "instruction on passing these tests is easily available on some Internet sites." [6]

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Note the elevation implied by the term "higher education" as an enterprise leading to the discovery and establishment of truth. This comes across in the Kirkus review (Dec '15 #1) of Wisdom's Workshop: The Rise of the Modern University, by James Axtell [2]. The glowing evaluation of the author's "thoroughly researched and vigorous history" bestows ironic praise on these "secular ‘temples' for the legitimation of official knowledge." [5]

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Science is considered the crowning glory of secular education, and medical progress is arguably its greatest practical benefit. Yet modern medicine is often dramatically oversold, and its shortcomings are legion (not the least of which may be its contribution to the eventual bankrupting of America's economy). Who hasn't been baffled by revisionistic medical press releases in which "X" - being unquestionably bad for you last year - is suddenly declared both good and necessary for your well-being this year? And how many of us have learned of conflicting advice from medical professionals on the most serious of matters?

Snowball in a Blizzard: A Physician's Notes on Uncertainty in Medicine, by Steven Hatch [3] details such concerns. The book "presents a spectrum of uncertainty, ranging from strong evidence supporting a high confidence of benefit through pure speculation all the way to strong evidence supporting a high confidence of harm. His focus is the middle of the spectrum, the known unknowns, where much of medicine functions." As an example, Hatch reports that even the common practice of "reading a mammogram can be as tricky as looking for a snowball in a blizzard. ... For doctors, Hatch's message is that it is acceptable to say, 'I don't know.' For patients, he suggests asking lots of questions...." Kirkus, Dec '15 #1 [5]

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Last, consider the relationship between truth and meaning. In his article "The Science of Meaning" (also in the Jan/Feb '16 Skepical Inquirer, pp46-49), Ohio State University history professor Gleb Tsipursky <intentionalinsights.org> author of Finding Your Purpose Using Science [4], begins: "According to mainstream, traditional notions, science cannot answer life's big questions, such as how one can find meaning in life; that is the domain of religion." Tsipursky objects by referring to "a wave of research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, sociology, history, and other material as well as social science disciplines on life meaning and purpose." However, his "wave" fails to appear.

After considering the views of Jean-Paul Sartre, Greg Epstein, and Sam Harris, Tsipursky proposes that one can have "meaning and purpose, which fall within the sphere that Harris refers to as spirituality and Epstein terms dignity, without belonging to a faith-based community." Tsipursky reviews the benefits of meaning and purpose - "better lives" via "a substantially higher degree of mental well-being" and "better physical health."

Tsipursky notes studies showing that "a sense of meaning and purpose correlates with religion." To dispute this, he asks: "What are research-based meaning-making activities that we can do without going to a church to gain life meaning and purpose?" In response, all Tsipursky can come up with in his abrupt conclusion are just two weakly supported suggestions: "journaling" and joining "secular venues" such as the organization behind Skeptical Inquirer, the Center for Inquiry. [6]

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And so, wherever you go in 2016, challenge those around you to consistently ask themselves: "Where is the truth in that?"

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - Seeking Jordan: How I Learned the Truth about Death and the Invisible Universe, by Matthew McKay (New World, March 2016, hardcover, 176 pages) <www.goo.gl/JzHoid>

2 - Wisdom's Workshop: The Rise of the Modern University, by James Axtell (Princeton Univ Prs, March 2016, hardcover, 416 pages) <www.goo.gl/CfC4wH>

3 - Snowball in a Blizzard: A Physician's Notes on Uncertainty in Medicine, by Steven Hatch (Basic Books, February 2016, hardcover, 312 pages) <www.goo.gl/rCQv1j>

4 - Finding Your Purpose Using Science, by Gleb Tsipursky (Intentional Insights, 2015, ebook only, 158 pages) <www.goo.gl/bCHzTm>

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