Nexus of Thought: 20 Points to Ponder when analyzing News, Commentary or Reported Information

Sunday, May 27, 2018

20 Points to Ponder when analyzing News, Commentary or Reported Information

1. What is the bias of the source?

2. What is the bias of the writer (not necessarily the same as the publication)?
3. Why do I believe this to be true or false?
4. What are the assumptions behind the article?
5. What is the article saying?
6. What is the article not saying?
7. Do sources provide a clear path to the primary source?
8. Have quotes been deliberately decontextualized?
9.How does my Confirmation bias play into my appreciation of the article?
10. If I am rejecting the analysis...could I be in a state of cognitive dissonance?
11. Are sources circular ie. a references b which in turn references a?
12. How much of the report is wishful thinking?
13. Is the author making the necessary distinction between 'some' and 'all'?
14. How can this piece of writing be misinterpreted?
15. Are there any obvious logical fallacies in the reasoning?
16. How strong is the appeal to emotion?
17. What are the basic premises of the article?
18. Do the premises justify the conclusion?
19. Could it be otherwise interpreted?
20. What is the overall purpose of this article?

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My beliefs

I believe ….

1.That there is a God who transcends space and time. (I call it God for want of a name although I personally prefer the Kabbalistic term Ein Sof).

2. That it is impossible to know the nature of God. It cannot be truly defined.

3. That the universe operates according to the Laws of Physics. Life evolved through a combination of natural selection, genetic drift and other selection pressures acting on a genome whose variation arose as a consequence of mutation.

4. That God can intervene but such intervention is undetectable and does not contravene the laws of physics. God is a subtle actor who presents no evidence of understandable design.

5. That an agnostic position on a personal God makes sense.

6. That revealed religion are merely man made attempts at trying to understand God and although some carry the wisdom of earlier thought they are all inherently flawed.

7. That humans need to develop their own moral code based on reason, logic and the collective thinking of what has worked in the past.

8. That some religious customs may serve a purpose with respect to group cohesion but they need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

9. That God is a minimalist in action but not necessarily a disinterested party.

10. That the afterlife is unknowable.

11. That skepticism and the scientific method are the best tools we have in understanding the world.