Teach a man to fish

 How about teaching humankind to think?

 

It is said if you give a man a fish he eats for a day. But, if you teach him how to fish, he feeds himself and his family for a lifetime. Can this good advice help us on life’s journey in more ways than feeding ourselves?

 

When studying climate change, the physics of global warming is relatively easy to understand. Conversely, it is a challenge, to understand how we have been misled, and continue to be misled, by concocted nonsense. I am not alone. There are whole departments in top notch universities devoted to countering devious misinformation.

 

It is unfortunate the climate science community has not found an antidote for the virus of gullibility since it has reached epidemic proportions. In addition to the fallacies about climate change other conspiracies race around the globe unimpeded by logic. Some believe Covid is spread by 5G towers, hydroxychloroquine cures COVID-19, racism is scientific, despite multiple recounts and sixty failed lawsuits some believe the election was a fraud, others imagine nanoparticles in vaccines, and an unknown entity called QAnon is credited with knowing all.  

 

The QAnon conspiracy cult would have you believe Lady Gaga, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, and Tom Hanks are members of a satanic, cannibalistic child sex-abuse organization and Queen Elizabeth, George W Bush, and Barack Obama are alien lizard shape shifters living within human skins. 

 

If this continues, we are on a path from which we will not return. Can Americans change course and come back to truth and reason? If not, we will not have to wait for the unchallenged climate crisis to bring us the endgame.

 

In my lifetime I have met many interesting people. One friend became a successful lawyer and then a judge. She was a patient listener, was slow to speak, and was able to see different sides in a conversation. When she chose to speak her logical mind shined. One time I commented on her wisdom. Did she, I asked, have anything she could attribute her practical and even keeled sensibility too?

She credited a learned cognitive process to the teaching staff at the K-12 school she attended. The teachers and staff of her school practiced a way of teaching and reasoning called “critical thinking.”

Critical thinking is not an easy habit to acquire. It means restraining our initial impulses to go with our emotions. We must admit to ourselves we can be duped. We must patiently ask questions of others, and ourselves, before forming an opinion or casting a judgement. 

 

To think critically we must understand how our brains have evolved. Often visual inputs, perceived patterns, and our own mental shortcuts can trick us. These deficiencies combined with common biases, tribal instincts, and emotional needs make us easy targets for manipulators. If we know our weaknesses, we know how to guard against exploiters. 

 

Critical thinking is like a protective vaccine. We can listen to misleading information, but our immune system of well-tuned reasoning will fight off the disease of invading lies.

 

Learning who is a reputable source versus who is an unreliable source also takes time to learn. It is one of the building blocks of critical thinking. There are genuine experts and there are phonies.

Many of these fakes are skilled at misleading us using what is called, “logical fallacies”.  A logical fallacy is a false statement often delivered with conviction.  Because these arguments do not rely on fact, misuse evidence, and twist language, these claims can distort an issue and make us draw false conclusions. By spotting these sketchy arguments we gain confidence in our ability to reason.

 

The skill at spotting shoddy reasoning is best taught early. Kids pick up on these techniques rapidly which builds confidence in their ability to navigate life. 

 

For us adults, we must be even more determined and practice critical thinking skills diligently.

In summary, the process of critical thinking is straightforward. For any issue each of us needs to do the following.  First, identify the main issue based on what you know. Beware, you may have already started to form a faulty opinion if your original source of information was misleading. At this point one must be careful. It is easy to jump to an incorrect conclusion. Second, research the issue by gathering information from reputable sources.  Third, debate the issue within your own mind or, better yet, discuss it with others. A friend may volunteer to play the devil’s advocate encouraging open-mindedness.    

 

The goal of critical thinking is to make more correct decisions than wrong and then to commit to delivering truth to others in a manner they will appreciate.

Hand a person a fact and they gain knowledge. Teach a person to think well and they will fill their minds and their families with truth throughout their lifetime.

 

Although many science magazines are devoting articles to critical thinking, I give credit for much of this article to journalist and author of eight books on science and reason, Guy P Harrison. His recent Skeptical Inquirer article, “How to Repair the American Mind, Solving America’s Cognitive Crisis” was especially insightful.

 

MIT Press has a book titled: “Critical Thinking” by Jonathan Haber

 

And a lighthearted view by John Cook: “Cranky Uncle vs Climate Change”