50% of all marriages end in divorce, 1 out of every 10 people is homosexual, 40% of Americans attend church every week, "3 out of 4 Dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum." All of these statements are statistics that have been regularly declared as fact for most of my life and at least 3 of them are not accurate! Statistics it seems can be manipulated pretty creatively to back up just about any position or viewpoint that the individual or group wants to portray as the truth. By the way, I think the only accurate study shown above is the one about sugarless gum! DUH!
As a believer in Jesus Christ, I am passionate for the truth as it pertains to God, life, culture, the family and the church. I receive emails from well meaning Christians all the time that are inaccurate and full of mythology about the government, celebrities, dead atheists, corporations and Christian leaders. Some of these are bald-faced lies made up by some atheist computer geek with too much time on his hands and a desire to make followers of Jesus look foolish! AT LEAST I THINK THEY ARE!? Whenever I receive these forwards, I quickly jump over to www.truthorfiction.com and check out the veracity of the claims made. It would be good if we all did the same.
Anyway, I digress. What bothers me even more is the use of statistics that have been long ago debunked to prove points that strengthen a political position or movement. Several examples of what I mean are given in my opening paragraph and are regularly used to strengthen the agenda of groups trying to gain cultural acceptance or show the failure of certain institutions. So, do 50% of all marriages end in divorce, are 1 in 10 people homosexual, and do 40% of Americans regularly attend church? Well, the truth on these issues is fairly difficult to determine, but based upon far more accurate and realistic long-term studies done, the numbers are significantly lower in all three categories. That's good news for marriage, but bad news for the church and the homosexual community.
To find out more about these issues, please follow any of the three links below to get a clearer picture of the truth. Remember, when it comes to statistics, be skeptical and do your homework. They could be right, and they could be "LIES, LIES, LIES, YEA!"
CHURCH ATTENDANCE STUDY
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE STATISTICS
1 IN 10 PEOPLE IS HOMOSEXUAL?
IMHO - I certainly know exactly what you mean... though I am not sure that I completely trust truthorfiction.com to set me straight about it all. The audacity that people have to put things out there about people individually or as a group that are completely false is something that I will never understand. They seem to have the idea that it is not only their right, but there calling. Somehow they feel that they are making our culture better with their deceit. Like real life and truth needs to be embellished to make it worth living. For me personally, life is a little to dramatic and a little truthful calm is something that I welcome. It is unfortunate that some cannot see that when you make your own 'truth' to support your cause it makes that cause itself disingenuous. A 'fact' based on lies is undermined from it's conception and therefore cannot stand the test of time. That is one of the greatest things about Christianity - no matter how many times it is 'investigated' the foundation of truth that is Jesus Christ cannot be shaken. What an awesome thing! But I digress, thanks for the post Pastor, I am with you in the frustration that the rumor mill in our country brings...and even more so in the people who accept these 'facts' without investigating for themselves before passing it along!
ReplyDelete67% of all stats are untrue ;-)
ReplyDeleteThough I do enjoy reading stats, you are absolutely right that numbers are easily manipulated. Good post.
And did you know that since 1965, over half of all marriages have ended in either death or divorce? Really! I read it on the Internet!
ReplyDelete