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Shermin Manalel

Air Import Customer Service Agent, Panalpina World Transport I Pvt Ltd

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Do you believe everything you read or hear? I want to discover and discern TRUTH.

With the onset of "open-source" innovations into our culture and the digital world, such as Wikipedia and Linux, society has the ability to create and manipulate ideas to their desire. How can we, as students and teachers, young and elderly, distinguish between fact and fiction? Historians use historical method basics, various forms of criticisms (higher, lower, internal, external), similar to the Scientific Method, to decipher the authenticity of oral and literary tradition; however, how do we know whether the initial interpretation in itself is not corrupted or skewed? Sir Winston Churchill stated, "History is written by the victor." If so, if one lives and the other passes, does the perspective of the living eclipse that of the deceased? Does it then become what we know as historical truth?

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    Debra Smith 200+

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    Jun 1 2012: I have a tendency to believe things because I believe that I would never distort the world fpr anpther person by lying about somehting that I had studied extensively. Realizing this about myself makes me read widely and I try to read at least two books on any topic to see where the experts disagree and where they overlap.
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    Bozena Zgrzywa

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    May 30 2012: As a teacher of history I can tell - similarly like prof. Norman Davies said - "there are so many historias as many historians". Every explorer creates a kind of the own history : )
    Of course some facts are confirmed in many kinds of historical sources and this is the only one method to approach to the truth. But a lot of history - like we know - are comments. And we have to read them cautiously, compare different informations .
    Many times - in my opinion - we can say not about TRUTH ("Truth. What is the truth?") but about telling or writing the truth.
    Trying to find the truth is the obligation of every scientist .
    But scientific truth it's not the most important in human life. I, you and we all learn to recognize truth in human relations all our life : )
    So .... trying and discovering is the essence of life : )
    And on the end - don't worry about limited education of your grandparents. Limited was only their formal education. They could know more life than we : )

  • Random Chance 30+

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    May 28 2012: What is true for you?

    Discover it for yourself.....................You need experience...................Experience is of supreme value in life.

    Good judgment comes from experience........................Experience comes from bad judgment.

    Do so with an open mind.

    The mind creates the abyss.........................The heart must cross this.

    What do you believe in? Trust it. Test it. And don't worry about it.
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    edward long 100+

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    May 24 2012: I once knew a man who read that powered hang-gliding was so simple and intuitive that any average person could do it. On his first attempt his craft fell from the sky at an acceleration rate of 32 feet-per-second, per-second. He was killed. The article he read was not true but he believed it was true.
    Reverse the order in your quest for truth, you must first Discern truth, only then will you have Discovered it. The Truth will set you free! Thanks Mr. Manalel.

  • Rhona Pavis 50+

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    May 23 2012: The more you express truth, the better you get at discerning truth in others. It uses everything you are and have, e.g., sight, sound, feeling, thought. It's like lifetime muscle that grows stronger with use.....like intuition.

  • Alison Gray

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    May 23 2012: History is not unlike every other form of documentation,,,,highly " interpretational ".

    The Scientific Method is often flawed by a rhetoric swayed by economic pressure.
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    Peter Law 30+

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    May 23 2012: Someone once said that if you can't explain your idea to your granny, then it's unlikely to be a good idea. We are often in awe of people, older, richer, better educated, & more famous than ourselves, & tend to believe they 'know better'. There was a time when 'Common sense' prevailed, & that was the initial benchmark. Today we are losing that a bit, but it has served me well, & I thoroughly recommend it. I something feels iffy, then it may well be. if it claims to be true, run it past your Granny.

    :-)

    • Alison Gray

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      May 23 2012: There is nothing common about "common sense" ;)
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        Peter Law 30+

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        May 23 2012: I agree; more's the pity.

        :-)
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          Shermin Manalel

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          May 24 2012: Alison, I don't fully understand your statement about The Scientific Method. The basis for the method: formulate a question, conjure a hypothesis, create prediction(s), test your hypothesis and analyze the outcome. Can you elaborate when you say it is "flawed rhetoric swayed by economic pressure"?

          Peter, being a first-generation U.S. citizen and having my grandparents overseas, I haven't really had the luxury of "running an idea past my Granny". My parents were limited by what they could teach me because of their education and, as most of us have had to do, I had to learn through continual observation of my surroundings and formal education. I have grown somewhat cynical because culture and society seem to take most things for face-value when they don't have the proper knowledge of a topic or issue. Being my elder, your pity for my question is understandable, but I cannot believe that you believe every embellishment in the tabloids, exaggeration by news media, or distortion of educational resources?

          Thanks for your response thus far! :-)
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