Most people today are trusting in what is generally accepted. Not what is assuredly true.

Like what the doctors say. What the scientists say. What their professors say. What their favorite authors say. What their favorite actors say. What their favorite social media people say. What their favorite news sources say.

Or what their pastors say.

In other words, they look to these groups or “authorities” to get the common or the conventional wisdom of the day.

And most people look to the positions and pontifications coming from the many institutions of higher learning across the country. What they say. What they declare is true.

But why?

What Really is it about these institutions that gives them such weight in our world and our culture?

By what authority do they really speak? What is the real foundation upon which they stand?

Some consider asking such questions to be ridiculous.

Because much of the world believes that those who have a degree or two or three are smarter and wiser and more aware of what reality is than the rest of us less-educated folk.

And, therefore, the more highly-educated are given that authority.

The authority to tell the rest of us what is actually true.

What Is Truth?

Truth then, has become something based on what?

On the wisdom of this world. On the presumptions and presuppositions of those educated in the popular principles of the world.

Principles which the scriptures refer to as “the elements of the world” (Galatians 4:3).

However, the limitations of such thinking are seldom discussed.

Nor are the religious biases of those who are interpreting the natural as well as the supernatural worlds seldom brought into the mix. The existence of any supposed bias is either ignored, gaslighted, or denied altogether.

Apparently, because highly intelligent people do not have any philosophical or religious bias.

Wow! How did that happen?

Such thinking is actually a religious dogma in and of itself. That a person is able to act and think based solely on science and intellect alone – free from the constraints of superstition and religious dogma.

Like Mr. Spock from Star Trek. Or like a mainstream journalist.

Using a Popular “Scientific” Theory as an Example

Taking an example from popular “scientific” theory, Uniformitarianism is a philosophy that has shaped most everything that we think of today as “science”. Or really, I should say, theory. Specifically, the theory of the origin of man.

Uniformitarianism declares that all natural processes have continued from the beginning of all things in the same basic way. Following the same rates of radioactive decay and erosion; with pretty much the same physical forces at work in the world and the cosmos. All very much the same down through time. All without any significant change.

The various theories of origins provide answers (opinions) about such questions as “Where did the universe come from? Where did the earth come from? Where did man come from? How long has man been here? And what is man’s purpose?”

So, how is it that men actually know all this? Was someone there to record all this? Was there a machine recording all this?

The common answers are carbon dating and other forms of dating. While referring to the stratigraphic columns that exist all over the world.

The interpretations of which have serious problems in consistency (not to mention presumption). Leading to a cyclical form of reasoning. Presumptions supporting assumptions leading to absolute scientific certainty.

Journalistic Consensus Does Not Equal Truth

But what does this have to do with our perception of national and world events?

Simply this. If I consult 100 media / journalistic sources all giving me the same basic socialist / progressive bent, all claiming to be unbiased, then why do I assume I am getting the unbiased truth?

100 wrong sources, popular or not, do not guarantee truth. All we have in that case is a very strong commonality in belief and philosophy. In fact, an overwhelming bias of belief.

But Not truth.

Different style. Different presentation. But not truth.

That is a very sobering reality that we all must deal with. Though very few are willing to do that. Especially among the liberal and progressive left. They absolutely will not hear any of that.

For them, there is too much at stake.

Too Much at Stake for Those Who Reject the Word of God

Therefore, they must assume that the liberal, progressive journalists are telling them the truth. They base everything upon this assumption.

Because, across this country and the world. there is a growing hatred for all things conservative. And all things Christian. Unless, of course, it is a brand of Christianity that uses the Bible in a very loose way. In a very pick and choose what they like kind of way.

(And, by the way, I did not just equate Conservativism with Christianity. I just have to pick a place that at least makes some attempt to uphold my religious freedoms and holds some philosophical relationship to the Bible. At least some. Because the humanist bent of modern progressivism is not biblical. Sincere as they may be.)

This is the same as what happens with the Origin of man. They look at what is in effect in the natural world today and extrapolate that it has always been so. And so, they go with the popular scientific consensus.

In other words, no Creator, no perfect world, no supernatural effects, no sin, no universal effects of sin on the physical universe, no worldwide flood, etc., etc.

Darwin, who really can be credited with popularizing this Uniformitarian view, created the theory of Evolution for a very religious reason.

He, knowing what the scriptures taught, denied those scriptures. And pre-determined to create a view of the natural world devoid of God and devoid of supernatural influence.

His view of reality was based on the most significant presumption a man could make. He denied the Creator and what the Creator had said in order to establish a new reality. A new authority.

His bias was not to follow the science alone. His bias was to deny God and then cover himself in an intellectual cloak.

We Choose Our Authority

Our choice on the authorities we trust on the day-to-day questions on national and world events has more to do with us as individuals than it has on the sources themselves.

And who we choose affects everything else that follows. Every ethical, scientific, religious, and cultural viewpoint is dependent upon what someone believes about truth, values, and ethics.

We make certain basic decisions about those things we believe – or want to believe – and then choose those who support those things as our authorities.

We cannot escape these choices.

And, since the journalistic, academic, social, political, and religious worlds are all moving increasingly toward the denial of biblical truth and values, it is no big surprise that people are increasingly being fed the humanistic and atheistic lies of this world.

What then is the bottom line? That the consensus view is what constitutes reality for the vast majority of people.

And the consensus has never been in line with biblical truth.

Image by Vilius Kukanauskas from Pixabay