Truth My Kids Will Know - Not All Opinions Are Equally Valid

 Lie #23 - "Their opinion is just as valid as anyone else's."

Do you remember, all the way back to the beginning of this series, when we debunked the claim that all religions are equally valid? Back then I said everyone has the right to have faith in anything...but that isn't the same thing as saying their faith is equally right. Indeed, we all have the personal right to believe something that is completely wrong.

This isn't just true about faith and religion though, it's also true about everything. You can have any opinion you want about any subject you want, and I would never deny your right to do so. However...not all opinions are equally valid! Did you know that wrong ideas are still wrong, even if you believe them?

Abortion is still the killing of an innocent human being - even if that's not your opinion.

A man is still a man - even if he is of the opinion that he's a woman.

Jesus absolutely rose from the dead - even if you believe it was just a legend.

Now hold on...don't get bent out of shape on this!

A lot of people get very offended when you question what they believe. In fact, there are way too many people that act as if you're attacking them personally if you have a different opinion than they do. (We covered a lot of this in "Disagreement Doesn't Equal Hatred".) Simply put...we are allowed to disagree with each other!

Even Sincere Opinions Can Be Wrong

Some people have excellent, even heartfelt intentions behind their opinions. Sometimes they just want to help people. Sometimes, their entire identity is wrapped up in what they believe. Because their heart is in their opinion, many of these people view different points of view as personal attacks against them.

But regardless of how sincere you may be; wrong ideas are still wrong. 

For example: 

In 2007, Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change and global warming. As he was accepting the prize, Gore declared "there is a 75 percent chance the entire polar ice cap will melt in summer within the next five to seven years."

I don't want to accuse Gore of being insincere when he said this - but the man wrote a book on the topic! If anyone should've known the data that opposed this opinion, it should've been him! I do know this: after he made that statement, there were many people who sincerely believed what he said. People were genuinely scared that we were heading towards a completely flooded, ice-free world.

But no one seemed to notice that in the same year as Al Gore's speech (2007), the Arctic ice was higher than it had been in the prior two years. Seven years passed - there was still no dramatic drop in the ice levels. Ten years passed - still nothing. In fact, in the tenth year since his statement (2017), the Arctic ice cap was measuring at a 16-year high!

The fact is: although we do see cycles of warmer and colder weather at the poles, recorded data shows that the volume of ice at the poles is at its highest level since the "little ice age"!

When it comes to the polar ice caps: there was an enormous amount of panic over nothing. Even though a lot of people were sincere in their opinion, and even though they had the best intentions to fix the problem...the fact remains: They were wrong.

The sad part is, this wrong opinion on climate change refuses to go away!

Just recently, in 2019, a bartender-turned-congresswoman had this quote: "Millennials and people, you know, Gen Z and all these folks that will come after us are looking up and we're like: 'The world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?'"  Whether this politician was sincere or just playing politics, too many people who follow her now hold this same belief - the world will be over in 2031.

Just because an opinion is sincere, doesn't mean it's correct.

When Opinions Clash

So what's the answer? How do we keep from being offended when our opinion clashes with another? There are two points to consider:

#1 - You must be willing to listen to other opinions.

This doesn't mean you have to consider that opinion equally valid. Open-mindedness definitely needs to have limits. Someone making the claim that the earth is flat has an absolutely incorrect opinion - one that can sadly take us backwards in our scientific discovery.

So when I say that you should listen to them, I'm not saying that you should agree with them.

But it does mean you should let that person explain why they hold their ideas. Give them a chance to articulate their belief and to tell you how important that belief is to them. Ultimately, your plan should be to let them to explain the logic and evidence behind their idea. Like we said in a prior post, your goal should be to understand their opinion as well as they do. 

Why?

 - Because if their opinion is valid and yours turns out to be incorrect, then obviously you should consider the validity of what they're saying.

 - But if their opinion cannot be logically defended and yours hold up to scrutiny, then you still need to understand their viewpoint if you want to debate it effectively.

#2 - Be ready to defend your opinion.

No one should form an opinion blindly. No one should just copy-paste someone else's opinion as their own. And no solid opinion can be formed (only) by emotion.

Let's go back to the above example of climate change:
I hold the opinion that the climate has always been changing, it does not threaten civilization, and it's not primarily caused by human activity.

I didn't form this opinion because it makes me feel better. I didn't form it by closing my eyes and ignoring the evidence. On the contrary, I dove into the evidence on both sides, and came to my own conclusion. (Sadly, sometimes I feel like I can provide more arguments for man-made climate change than the average person who believes it!)

It's ironic that there are so many people who say they "trust the science" on climate change, but have never actually looked into it. Maybe they've read a news article about it. Maybe they've seen the thousands of headlines about it. They've probably heard something about a "consensus" of scientists who agree with man-made climate change. But their opinions are usually not any deeper than that.

And yet, they'll accuse me of being ignorant when I question their opinion.

Don't be that person. If you're going to have the courage to form an opinion, then you also have got to be ready to defend it. Whatever you believe, do your best to know why you believe it - and why you don't believe something else. (I can say this as a Christian, because I'm not afraid of investigation and scrutiny. I firmly believe that the truth of God's Word wins every time!)

"My opinion on that is..."

Listen, that's not a statement of truth. Any statement that come after that phrase is not infallible.

Sure, that opinion may be right, but it can also be wrong!

There are people that have well-thought-out and rock-solid opinions that they can defend and articulate
        (My kids will be in that group!)

But then there are others with...to put it nicely)...less valid opinions.

Just because we have the right to our own opinions, doesn't mean we're exempt from having them questioned.