The time it took for you to finish reading this sentence was probably around three seconds. During that time, the internet processed roughly 343,000 Gigabytes of Information, 28,000 posts were made on X, eight new websites were launched, and 25 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube.
Actually, those statistics are way out of date. They were collected before people started using AI to generate pages of information in seconds.
There are a million voices telling us what we should believe. Given this ocean of competing information blasting at our eyes and ears every time we look at our phones (not to mention laptops, tablets, PCs and more), how can we know who to trust? There’s just so much out there! What can we do to cut through confusion in this unprecedented era of voice overload?
The So-Much-Out-There Problem
The fact that there’s so much disagreement is mentally exhausting when we are trying to figure out the truth of important and controversial things. For many, it has corroded our trust that any controversial claim can be known for certain. At the very least, many become suspicious of topics like Christianity. I don’t have a great name for this problem, but let’s just call it the so-much-out-there problem.
I suspect the anxiety of the so-much-out-there problem is why some become skeptics about controversial things. If nothing can be known or trusted about controversial things, then truth is relative, everyone is right in their ow way and we can stop worrying about it. Problem solved, right?
Hate to say it, but… I disagree. The so-much-out-there problem is more complex and deserves better answers than what skepticism or relativism can provide. These answers are really just coping mechanisms, and we don’t need coping mechanisms; we need a way to sort through bad information and determine good information that can be trusted. We also need to know that disagreement is not as big of an issue as we make it out to be. Let’s work through these needs briefly.
Sorting Through Bad Information
The way I see it, there are three hurdles we face in this world of information. The first is sorting through deceptive information that is simply made up and totally false. The second hurdle is sorting through information that might be technically true but is terribly misleading. The third hurdle is sorting through information that is presented honestly and carefully yet still may be wrong.
Breaking past the first two hurdles is simply a matter of conducting proper research. This is done by working with authoritative sources. We must ask: Who is the author? Is the author qualified to speak on this topic? Who is the publisher? Is the publisher a respectable source? If you stick to qualified authors who are publishing through reputable sources, you’ll do well. You’ve also eliminated about 99% of the ocean of information out there. Don’t worry—there’s still plenty to work with.
Once you’re working with good sources, you’re ready to work through that final hurdle. This is done by comparing the different perspectives. For example, I have found that Christianity makes the best sense of this world, it does the best job answering questions raised against it, and it leaves the fewest questions unanswered. These would be hollow beliefs if not for the fact that I did my homework to compare the arguments for Christianity with other perspectives out there.
But What About Disagreement?
Even after doing my best attempt to break through the three hurdles in my investigation of Christianity, the so-much-out-there problem doesn’t want to go away. After all, there’s so much out there from other smart people who disagree with me! Shouldn’t that mean I should give up my belief in Christianity?
This is a complicated issue. If you’re interested, I wrote a semi-technical paper about it here. But here is one way to think about it: If disagreement counts as evidence against a belief, then it’s merely just that: evidence against a belief. It would also mean that agreement is evidence for a belief. Now, those who have seriously studied the arguments for and against Christianity are divided. Some think Christianity is true, others do not. So it seems the evidence of agreement and the evidence of disagreement cancel each other out. But even if disagreement evidence is stronger than agreement evidence, there’s still a bunch of other evidence for Christianity that I find convincing. Thus, after weighing all of the evidence for and against Christianity, I still find that the evidence for Christianity is greater, despite disagreements.
So no, disagreement does not mean I should give up my belief in Christianity. Even if it did, I wouldn’t be able to! I can’t look at the evidence for Christianity—evidence which I find incredibly persuasive—and tell it to stop persuading me. Put differently, it’s easier for me to “not know” why people disagree with the evidence than for me to give up on my evidence and “not know” how I got it wrong.
So What Can We Do?
One thing I tried to make clear from the last section is that I can’t help but go by whatever I find to be most convincing. None of us can. At the end of the day, we all believe according to the evidence in front of us, not according to the evidence in front of other people.
This means we have a responsibility to push through the so-much-out-there problem as best as we can. Do your homework, use good research, compare the perspectives, and trust the process. One excellent place to start is Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh and Sean McDowell. The book has two qualified authors with strong credentials and a reputable publisher. It covers the issues in depth and uses extensive research from scholars on both sides of the debate.
Just remember: If Christianity is true, then the Bible’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 2 is also true. It says that we need God’s help to understand spiritual truths. So, if you’re serious about investigating Christianity, you should be serious about prayer. Even if you’re unsure whether God is out there, you can still get on your knees and say, “God, if you’re there, and if Jesus really is your Son, show me the truth of these things.”
Yes, there’s a lot out there, more than we could possibly know. But if God is real, then God knows all of it, and I’m convinced he is willing to help us find our way.
