Fake news

The spat between the US president and the news media (whom he needs to disseminate his own message) has reached new levels of intensity. ‘Fake news’ was almost unheard of six months ago, but now Twitter is full accusation and counter-accusation.

In a fascinating experiment with children, a class of 11 year olds were given articles from a news site and asked to work out which they thought were genuine and which were fake. One article was about UFO sightings with an impressive picture of a recent flying saucer. Another was about scientists developing the technology to beam objects, especially hamburgers, from one place to another. All of them were close enough to reality to be believable, but far enough from every day life to provoke scepticism. They were all written by journalists and presented in the news format we take for granted. Of the ten articles, most children thought most of the articles were genuine, including the story about UFOs.

In reality, every single story was a fake.

It was the children’s reactions to this revelation that were so revealing. They all showed surprise, some felt cheated, but one boy was defiant. Looking the BBC reporter straight in the eye he asserted “No! You’re lying! They’re not all fake!”

So how can we detect truth from fakery? This is a vital following Christ. How can I be sure that what I hear and see in the Bible is reliable? Is there fake news embedded in its pages. Many people think there is, but closer examination shows us otherwise. Looking at the context (both then and now) will help. So too will understanding (as best we can) how the Bible was written and the type of literature we’re reading. poetry of the Psalms very differently from the history of the gospels, for example.

Fake news, misconceptions, half truth and garbled messages can leave us unnecessarily uncertain about the Bible. In reality we have every reason to trust its message, even though it sometimes challenges our preconceptions. Truth matters and eternal truth matters eternally.

In comparison to other faith streams which, for all their history and cultural heritage, are based on the unverifiable ideas or additions to the Bible, the book itself contains material written by ordinary people who were witness to events they could verify. They wrote about God they knew personally and wanted others to have the same experience.

The truth is our trump card.