People know many things, and half of them are wrong.

So I have been reading a new book by Orson Scott Card. The book is called "Hidden Empire" it is a sequel to his Empire book. Empire was an amazing book about the possibility of another civil war in America. The book brought up a lot of good points that shows how we could very easier head in that direction.

In reading Hidden Empire, Card gives very insightful messages before each chapter. These messages come from the thoughts of the current President in the book. One of these passages really stuck out to me.

"People know many things, and half of them are wrong. If only we knew which half, we'd have reason to be proud of our intelligence.
   What is knowledge? A belief that is shared by all the respectable people in a community, whether there is any real evidence for it or not.
   What is faith? A belief we hold so strongly that we act as if it is true, even though we know there are many who do not believe it.
   What is opinion? A belief that we expet other people to argue with.
   What is scientific fact? An oxymoron. Science does not deal in facts. It deals in hypotheses, which are never fully and finally correct."

Card's writing normally floors me with how crisp and intelligent it is, but this just take the cake. Since this blog is all about things that make us think, I thought this would be the perfect venue for it.