This is much more difficult than many think, because we know much less than we think we do. Many of the facts presented to us are mere opinions, and many of these are dubious at best. We are for instance told that stars and planets are created through gravity. However, the fact that gravity cannot actually do this has been known to scientists for decades. It is nevertheless taught in school as a fact. Plate tectonics is also taught in school, and presented as fact. The internal makeup of our planet as well. None of this is very well founded. The evidence to support this is extremely flimsy.
By repeatedly presenting opinion as evidence, we indoctrinate our children into a mindset in which the opinions of experts are considered facts. As adults we become easily led. All that is required is to set up a panel of experts. Whatever this panel tells us will be believed by most of us.
When opinions becomes facts, strange things happen. What is currently going on in Norwegian politics is an example of this. Norway has one of the best funded and most powerful child protecting service on the planet. Their opinions are so valued that they count as evidence in court. Children are taken away from their parents based solely on the opinions of the child protecting service.
When the child protecting service recently got criticized by Polish diplomats in Norway, the organization responded by venting a negative opinion of one of the diplomats. This in turn was taken as facts by the Norwegian Foreign office leading them to expel the diplomat in question. Never was there any demand for physical evidence. The opinion of the experts in the child protection service was taken as evidence in itself.
The result of this is that Norway now is in the embarrassing situation where the Foreign office has to admit to the world that the opinion of experts are used as facts inside the Norwegian legal system.
As individuals, we should take note of this. We must always ask ourselves if evidence presented to us is fact or mere opinion. If we start navigating according to opinion, we will sooner or later get ourselves into trouble. We may find ourselves wasting time over non-issues, squandering our time and resources on things that in the end is nothing more than opinion.
That's why I waste no time on climate change issues. However, I do take an active interest in what's going on in the Norwegian child protection service. I have a friend from high school who lost her daughter to this organization. The court case was a sham. The opinion of the experts was enough to declare her unfit to be the mother of her own daughter. Since I know the woman personally, I know that she would never hurt anyone, least of all her own daughter. She was as loving a mother as any. Her only crime was her somewhat eccentric opinions and world view. That caught the attention of the experts and formed the basis of the case against her.
The case of my friend is a real problem based on evidence personally observed by me. I know for a fact that the child protecting service in Norway has way too much power, that they should be stripped of their ability to present opinions as facts. This problem is real and therefore worth my time and energy. Time spent on helping my friend and other people in her situation will never be a complete waste.
By Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library NZ on The Commons - originally posted to Flickr as Ship Garthsnaid, ca 1920s, Public Domain, Link
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