Thinking About It

Vivian and Evan are growing up fast. They challenge my old ways of thinking all the time.

When I often find myself telling Vivian and Evan that they shouldn't believe everything they hear including what their teachers tell them (religious pre-school is interesting in that way), the next logical step is to tell them that they shouldn't believe everything I tell them. I've taken that step long ago.

Which often makes me wonder - how will they know what to believe? Evan can't be an expert on everything that matters. So he must have proxy experts. People and institutions he and Vivian trust as a source of information. For instance I somewhat trust the New York Times. Not to the extent I would trust the Pope if I was a devout catholic. But at least as a first level filter. Here's an article that a friend posted on FB yesterday- a news story about how Big Oil and Coal is funding Romney because Obama isn't as pro-fossil fuel as they are used to. I didn't wonder if NYT made up the numbers. I trust them to that extent. 

Another example. The Shah's don't drink water right before or after meals. Helps the body absorb nutrients from the food they eat, they say. I've made a bit of fun at their expense on this topic before (though I don't usually drink fluids during meals unless it's a half-decent wine). Jo is in the middle of a course on nutrition (Fuel21). The creator of the course is Crystal - a crossfit coach we've known for a few years. Crystal told Jo the same thing about water and meals. Jo is much more likely to believe it when it comes from Crystal.

Then there are things that may have been facts back then but I know to be untrue now. Or approximate. Newtonian physics before Relativity. Speciation and Darwin. Stuff that I assumed Fareed Zakaria wrote. Lance and doping. Being able to change my position isn't a bad thing when there is new evidence. Many things that Vivian and Evan are taught as facts today will change during their lifetimes.

You say be like a compass. Unwavering and true forever. But what of the true north, of which the compass' magnetic north is only an approximation. What of the compass' north changing from place to place and from time to time? What of the occasional complete flipping in the earth's magnetic field? The compass looks more like a wind vane.

I don't want to tell my children what to believe. Teaching them how to think for themselves is good enough for me.