The Flawed Search for Truth: Surrendering Our Intellect To A Search Engine

How easy is it to find the real truth?  If it’s easy, it may not be true…

Early this morning, my pastor sent me an email with a link to this article.  It reveals a flawed trait of our technologically-minded culture, a trait that leads us away from a real and methodical search for genuine facts.  The real truth is often hidden, and purposely so.  What so often emerges as real truth in our culture can sadly be a whitewashed compilation of editorialized opinions devoid of the collaboration of actual facts.  They can be written with a narrative built to drive a specific thought process that leads us away from reality and into a world of fantasy.  When evaluated with just a “touch” of common sense, much of this fact-free jargon can easily be identified as false, as it is often presented without the foundation of genuine reason.  

Those who promote falsehoods as truth expect the masses to devour their lies “intuition-free,” and the masses do not disappoint.  Vincent D’Onofrio said, “The search for truth is not for the faint-hearted,” and he was right.  Real truth is often ugly, and it may not reflect the sterling veneer of political correctness which seems to be a requirement for validity in the present culture.  Real truth may not allow room for the plush comforts that can so often only be found when one enjoys the warmth of being wrapped in ideological ignorance.  And real truth screams real facts, facts that may be hard to uncover, but facts that need to be uncovered…simply because they exist to expose reality.   

What are we ingesting as truth?  Whose facts do we take at face value and believe?  There can be a lack of open sourcing in our search, whether it’s because we’re lazy or we’ve surrendered our intellect to a search engine.  I think it’s becoming more common that where our search begins is often where it ends…Google.  Beware. 

Take a moment and read the article below... 

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The Google Minded

Few would be surprised to learn that Google handles 90% of all internet searches. What would be news to many is that – according to journalist Jack Nicas – the internet giant is increasingly “presenting itself as the authority on truth by promoting a single search result as the answer.”

And those results are often wrong.

For example, to the question “Does money buy happiness?” Google recently highlighted a result that stated: “There is enough scientific research to prove it.”

To “Who are the worst CEOs of all time?” Google answered with the names and photos of 11 chief executives, including Gordon Bethune of Continental Airlines and Robert Nardelli of Home Depot.

To “Should abortion be legal?” Google cited a South African news site saying, “It is not the place of government to legislate against women’s choices.”

These are “promoted answers” or “featured snippets” outlined in boxes above other results and presented in larger type, often with images.

And they are believed, by many, to be the definitive answer. Surveys show people “consider search engines their most-trusted source of information, over traditional media or social media.” This is why Google’s featured answers “are feeding a raging global debate about the ability of Silicon Valley companies to influence society... the power of their products and their vulnerability to bias or manipulation.”

This is larger than the criticism directed at Facebook over the spread of “fake news” during the 2016 presidential election. It’s about a new day when the dominant source of information is not simply divorced from truth, but the recipients are divorced from wisdom. And this is the curse of our day: almost unlimited access to information and virtually no wisdom by which to parse it.

When a Google spokesperson said the company’s goal isn’t to do the thinking for users but “to help you find relevant information quickly and easily… [and to] encourage users to understand the full context by clicking through to the source,” I couldn’t help but think back on a similar statement by film director Oliver Stone.

In a speech given at American University, responding to the distortions and factual errors pointed out in his film JFK (presented as a faux-documentary on the Kennedy assassination), Stone said that films shouldn’t be the end-all for what is true and that people “have a responsibility to read a book.”

He went on to say, “[No one is] going to sit through a three-hour movie and say, ‘That’s that.’”

He’s wrong. That is exactly what people do.

Or, as University of North Carolina professor Zeynep Tufekci who studies technology’s effect on society said,

“This is how people learn about the world.”

Yes, it is.

So when the featured answer to the query, “Why are Komodo dragons endangered?” is volcanoes, fire and tourism, there is a problem. Particularly when you find the source was a Canadian elementary school student’s report that was posted online, and that Komodo dragons aren’t endangered at all.

But people who actually know this, or bother to find out,

... are.

James Emery White

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Sources...

Jack Nicas, “Google Has Already Picked an Answer for You—Too Bad It’s Often Wrong,” The Wall Street Journal, November 16, 2017, read online.

See also James Emery White, A Mind for God (InterVarsity Press).

About the Author...

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Meet Generation Z: Understanding and Reaching the New Post-Christian World, is available on Amazon. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit ChurchAndCulture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. Follow Dr. White on twitter @JamesEmeryWhite.​