crazy horse > The point here is critical thinking
agree 100%. The problem seems to be that sheker, like a virus, has 100 opportunities to attack and only one needs to work to get inside the person’s mind and heart. Some fall for some Kennedy, others for a radio personalities, etc. Maybe our way is to hold tight by whatever EMES is out there. It is generally difference between Yiddishkeit and science. Torah starts with known truths and then we use logical and other tools to extend this truth to new problems. Science generally goes towards truth and looking back consists of a lot of sheker.
So, in the vaccine example, there are some simple truths that can be evaluated post factum. They may not always answer today’s question, but helps to see back what is correct. some ideas:
– excess death statistics, reliable for many countries. Funeral houses do not pad numbers. They show how many extra people passed away, subtract drugs, altzheimers and you get your stats. For more research: subdivide by age, county, vaccination levels, and you have your reliable statistics and answers to people who say “covid is flu”, etc
– total number of people in ICUs. These numbers do not depend on how people test, what takes them to hospitals. They show how many extra people are in critical condition at this point of time.
if you think there are problems wit these numbers, let me know.
maybe there are other reliable statistics if we think more about them. These should be the first line of discussion, if people want to make their minds straight. I don’t see hope in discussing various claims quoted around. When presented with a counter-argument, most of them do not reply like R Yohanan, they just go to another claim.