What is a fact? According to Google, “A thing that is indisputably the case”. Yeah… I don’t know about that. Personally, I find a huge problem with this definition. I feel that facts are not nearly as concrete as people believe they are. That they are instead forever changing as people and society grow over time.
Some may say, “a fact is a fact” or, “a fact is true and there is no changing it.” The thing is, that’s not always the case. Facts are always changing and will continue to change as people’s opinions do. It used to be a “fact” that the world was flat. It also used to be a “fact” that atoms were the smallest form of matter. For god sake, it used to be a “fact” that people of color were of a lesser, subhuman species. All these “facts” were indisputably the case, yet as we all know these examples are no longer even considered.
Facts change, which proves it is no more than an opinion. Facts like two plus two equal four is an example of a universally agreed-upon opinion. One where everyone’s opinion agrees, so it appears undeniably true. We consider facts as such when everyone’s opinion is the same on a given topic, which leaves no argument and the disillusion of total truth.
The only reason that two plus two does not equal five is because of the mathematical rules we have implemented into a human-made system. If we were instead taught that two plus two equals five and then rearranged the systems, logic, and axioms so that this opinion stayed true, it would be no different than the answer being four. This way of thinking stays true for anything we consider to be absolute and unchanging. Therefore, if everyone were to suddenly start calling cats dogs and dogs cats would that make everyone wrong or would a new reality emerge?Some people may say how those people were just wrong when they thought the world was flat, that they instead believed in a false fact. Yet that statement makes no sense. The people of that time did not believe their facts were false. It was not until the day they were told otherwise that they even begin to question this once invincible truth.
Plus, and this is the hardest part to accept, who is to say that the very facts we believe today will be the facts we believe in a year, in a month or even tomorrow. The opinions we have today, that we consider facts, will stay that way until different opinions are agreed upon. Thus, replacing the old with the new.
So in summary, a fact is when everyone’s opinion is the same which makes it appear indisputable. I’m not saying there are no facts, I’m simply redefining the word. So who cares. Google’s definition, my definition, does it matter? I believe so, simply because of the effect it has on people. I believe it leads to a huge change in the mindset of the public. Facts are agreed upon opinions. This means that literally anything, any idea, any belief, any thought, can be debated and disputed. Meaning there is no guarantee that anything is certain and will always be certain.
By understanding that we cannot know for sure that anything will always be true, means that people can talk openly about anything. Anything and everything is up for debate and debate we should. We should want to know the absolute truth, and we should do everything we can to find it.
The irony of this is that we will never know if we have stumbled upon the absolute truth. Assuming there even is one, we would never know if we came across it. This can be a little sad, but I will encourage you to look at the issue from a different light. By never knowing if we have crossed the finish line, we will never stop racing. We would never stop modernizing, growing, and learning together. This is why I instead see this ironic twist as a blessing. Together we should strive to debate and discuss this infinitely confusing world. If we can do that together, then let the opinions come, I want to consider them all.