There is a Difference Between Facts and Truths

Too often in today’s world, people take opinions to be facts, when they aren’t at all facts. What is worse is when they use meaningless facts in order to support their opinions. They then attempt to state that their opinions are the truth when in fact, they aren’t.

This happens in almost all walks of life, but it is particularly common in politics and in the media. Still, what so many people apparently fail to realize is that “facts” and “truths” aren’t necessarily the same thing. Quite often, facts are totally meaningless because they are so narrow.

Here is a simple example to illustrate the difference between an actual but meaningless fact and a truth:

For the sake of argument, let’s say that I hate eggs. (For the record, I love eggs, but I’m using this as an example.) Perhaps I hate eggs so much that I want to convince other people not to eat eggs. There doesn’t need to be a real reason I hate eggs or want other people to stop eating them, mind you, since that is a personal opinion and opinions are never wrong. They can be misguided, but they aren’t wrong.

In my hatred of eggs, I tell people, “Eggs are unhealthy and very bad for you. It is a proven fact that people who eat eggs die!”

This is stating an opinion and backing it up with a meaningless, though actual fact. If the second sentence was fact-checked, it would pass. It really is a proven fact that if you eat eggs, you will die. However, the fact is totally meaningless and doesn’t at all support the first sentence.

You might wonder why it is meaningless and unsupportive. It is because while it is true that people who eat eggs die, it is also true that people who don’t eat eggs die. Our time on Earth is finite and we all die eventually. Notice that the originally stated fact didn’t at all say that eating eggs was the cause of people dying. It is implied but not stated. If the statement had actually said that eggs were the cause of death for everyone who ate them, it would no longer be a fact, it would be a falsehood.

This means that saying that it is a proven fact that people who eat eggs die is a meaningless fact.

Meaningless facts abound and are the support for many statements that are uttered every day. They are often used when vegans and omnivorous “meat and potatoes” people get into a heated debate, for instance.

The person who eats meat might try to tell the vegan that a vegan diet is bad because so many vegans are overweight or obese. This would be an actual fact. However, it is also meaningless because many people who eat meat are also overweight or obese.

The meaningless fact doesn’t even need to be used, and by removing it, the disagreement could be partly defused. This would be done by simply weaving meaningful facts together into a truth, thusly:

Being overweight or obese is often caused by eating far too many carbohydrates and not nearly enough protein, compounded by not being active enough to burn the calories. Since fruits and vegetables are normally high in carbohydrates and low in protein, while meat is high in protein and low in carbohydrates, it is harder for a vegan to decrease their carbohydrate and increase their protein intake. Still, if they do and they also become more active, they will probably lose weight.

This is a truth. The truthful statement contains no absolute statements, it identifies why both vegans and meat-eaters can have a weight problem, it acknowledges that vegans have more of a challenge in overcoming the issue without saying that they can’t do it, and it offers a solution to both groups without condemning either.

The point is that “facts” and “truths” aren’t necessarily the same thing. The tricky part is in recognizing the meaningless facts. For this, a measure of critical thinking is necessary.