You aren't right unless you know why...

In the last few days an all-too-common occurrence has revealed to me a nice little epiphany - you aren't right unless you know why.

We have no shortage of loud mouths proclaiming "truth" today, and it is pretty difficult to find two mouths proclaiming that same truth if you change to a different media outlet. Thousands of leaders each have millions of followers who buy into their mantras whole hog. I suppose most of all that is a matter of opinion. I can't say what governmental processes will and will not work, and neither can anyone else. The best we can do is to try different things and say - well that didn't work either...

I suppose I don't have a huge problem with anyone claiming to have the answer, but my recent experiences have left me overexposed to something of a different ilk - those who have answers that, by all accounts, are accurate but have no reasons why.

When you take a math test, no teachers let you just write down the answers without showing at least part of HOW you got those answers. Putting down an accurate solution doesn't prove you can do long division - it proves that either you can use calculator or that you have a good view of your neighbor's paper.

What really caught my attention was someone stating absolutes, then using faulty reasoning to prove said absolutes. To be honest, the reasoning wasn't even quite faulty - it was closer to being silly or just plain nonexistent.

In another instance, I heard someone make a crazy claim, then cite a source for that claim. In taking the simple steps to see if there was any credence to the claim, I realized that it was just as ridiculous as I initially surmised - there was absolutely no connection between the source and the suggestion. It would have been laughable if it weren't quite so disturbing.

Later on, someone questioned the conclusion the first person came to. I was hoping to listen in and find out that the initial explanation had just been an incomplete or poorly worded version of what the person had said - but their only response was to say, oh you are reading into that a bit too much... basically the answer was, no I am right and you aren't. period. What?

Show your work. I know that, in this case, you are actually right. Do you KNOW that?

All too often, I think we fail to question the conclusions we are delivered. Political. Religious. Academic. Social. These answers need to stand up to your own scrutiny otherwise they have zero chance of standing up to the scrutiny of someone else.

Everyone wants to be right so bad that they rush to the end. They find someone to tell them what is right so they can simply point at them and say, that guy is right. Sadly, often "that guy" can't even retrace the steps from conjecture to proclamation.

In the end, it isn't all about being right - it is also about knowing the reasons why.

Ask the Pharisees...