Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Truth or Fiction?

There are few things in this world that bother me more than the propagation of untruths. The ability to email has done more to promote blatant lies than any other phenomenon.

Unfortunately, conservative Christians are the worst at passing on statements that purportedly support their cause. Most of these forwarded emails have long ago been proven false. By passing them on as though they are true, you make the rest of us look gullible (at best) and idiotic (at worst).

Please, people...before you forward those emails you get, check them out at any of these reliable sources:

truthorfiction.com
urbanlegends.about.com
hoaxbusters.org
breakthechain.org
hoax-slayer.com
snopes.com (No, it's not owned by flaming liberals...another untruth. Snopes info is well documented, with sources cited.)

Who Do You Believe?

I have often heard the following said by people who love to forward chain emails, after I tell them that the email is untrue:

"How do you know you can trust Snopes to be true?"

For real? That's your response?

You'd rather believe all those chain emails than a research site that cites actual sources? (I say Snopes, but it could be any of the sites listed above.)

Think for just a minute. You get an email from a friend, who got it from a friend, who got it from a friend, and so on. No one knows where it originated. Yet that's where you prefer to place your trust?

Don't carry your ignorance on your sleeve. Even if you don't completely trust Snopes, what is your logic for completely trusting anonymous sources?

Here's my philosophy toward chain emails:

1. Almost all of them are false. There are a few good gems out there, but very few.

2. If the content interests me in the least, I check for accuracy. I'm usually disappointed.

3. If it ends with any form of "You better pass this on or else!" I immediately delete it. Take that, you foul demon!

Getting off high horse now. But in future postings, I plan to expose some of the worst offenses to hit my inbox.

2 comments:

  1. I too am offended by emails that insist I forward them to even one person in my address list, but even more so, the ones which quote the Bible verse about being ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. Since then, I've added an automatic signature to all of my personal emails: "Please don't forward this email unless you just want to. To really prove you're unashamed of the gospel of Christ, go walk your city's streets and tell three people how Jesus has changed you." I have yet to have anyone comment on it. =D

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  2. An excellent comment, Co-Pilot; I wholeheartedly agree. These people forward unproven statements then add insult if you don't jump on board. Sorry, people, that ain't "the gospel of Christ." No need for shame here.

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