Many people pretend neutrality in their views. Journalists say time after time that they’re unbiased in their reporting. Educators, bloggers, and many common people usually pretend impartialness in their writing and speaking. In reality though, there is no absolute neutrality that a human being can possess.
All humans have an opinion on everything. Unless you’re going to say something completely factual like, “At 5:30 pm, Sally went to the store,” you can’t be completely unbiased. Bias is part of humanity since the fall. We cannot control our bias in what we say. We insert it unconsciously. Even the sentence above could be biased toward Sally, since it doesn’t mention anything about who was with her. She could have been a kidnapper, and was taking a victim to a store that she owned to hold that person hostage. We don’t know, but that is a very important part of biasness today in reporting is leaving things out.
People can have a completely wrong view if they don’t know all of the information in a certain case. If you leave out one, small, but essential fact, the story could take on a whole new meaning that could be completely false.
Educators always have bias toward a certain view. You can’t avoid making a statement in commentary on an event. Bias also directly affects the way you interpret an event. People sometimes ignore facts in their prejudice. Take the Hezbollah-Israel conflict, for example. Some people say it’s a case of an aggressor overwhelming a small organization of poor, unprivileged people. Others say that it’s a case of defensive measures to insure that the organization does not use terrorist tactics against the country. It all depends on your bias as to how you accept and interpret the evidence. The same thing applies to science. Creationists say that such and such is proof of creation, whereas evolutionists say that it’s proof of evolution. It depends on what evidence you’re looking at, and what your bias is.
Photos and videos can give impressions from the angles they’re taking the picture from. You can see the amount of deception that pictures can contain from the Reutergate incident and the following discoveries having to do with “The Green Helmet Guy”, “The Collapsed Building that was Destroyed Over and Over Again”, etc. More are coming out everyday. Just read a few of the things coming out of Little Green Footballs.
There is also no neutrality in worldview. You can’t be partly Christian and partly secular, or Muslim, or what-have-you at the same time. They are what you call mutually exclusive views. Either you accept God and the offer of the Gospel, or you are not saved. It’s that simple. There’s no “balancing your good works against your bad ones”. That’s a myth, and if you’re trusting in it, you are headed for trouble.
August 14th, 2006 at 6:41 am
I find your opinion amusing.
Relevant link.
August 14th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
So would you like to say why my opinion is amusing? I would welcome any discussion of why my post is wrong.
That cartoon is not what I’m saying at all. That’s making assumptions based on practically no evidence. It’s jumping to conclusions. What I am saying is that people should not pretend neutrality in thought and writing. People who do often have a certain bias that they insert anyway.
The fox in the cartoon was probably opposed to guns, but it doesn’t follow that he wants to take everyone’s guns away. However he is biased on the issue toward gun control.
I’m not talking about normal, small talk conversation so much as topics that matter. When you’re educating, writing, etc. you have a certain bias.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:46 am
Althusius said…
You can’t be partly Christian and partly secular, or Muslim, or what-have-you at the same time. They are what you call mutually exclusive views. Either you accept God and the offer of the Gospel, or you are not saved. It’s that simple.
August 15th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Yes, that’s one thing that you can have absolutely no neutrality about. There is no in-between place between heaven and hell.
August 16th, 2006 at 6:58 am
Althusius said…
There is no in-between place between heaven and hell.
Are you sure?
August 16th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Yes, I’m sure. The Roman Catholics say there is Purgatory, but that isn’t taught anywhere in the Bible.
August 16th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:19-31)
What do you think?