Bonnie Kristian - Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community

David French

I f youre in the journalism business, theres a question youve heard a thousand times: How do I know whats true? We live in a nation awash in speech yet lacking in knowledge. We live in a nation full of citizens who claim to distrust institutions yet seem to place almost blind faith in those institutions and individuals who reaffirm their worldview.

It is not uncommon to hear someone declare with confidence that others cannot and must not believe the latest report in the New York Times . And whats the proof? A fact check they found on a fringe outlet on Facebook.

Does that mean that the Times is always right, and the fringe outlet is always wrong? Of course not. But its an example that illustrates a larger truth. We not only dont know whats real, we dont even know how to discover what reality is.

We live in an age of earned distrust. There is no question that key institutions have too often failed in their obligation to report the truth, even if one charitably allows for the fact that it is often impossible to discern the full dimensions of complex events in real time. Were always operating with varying degrees of partial knowledge, and the fog of warthe confusion that accompanies crisiscan be very real indeed.

But we also live in an age of manufactured distrust. Partisan news sources amplify and exaggerate the failures of the other sideeven as they ignore, minimize, and rationalize their own obvious flaws. There is much money to be made and much fame to be gained by telling partisans exactly what they want to hear and inoculating them against external critique.

This is the cultural and political backdrop that renders this book so vitally important. Its critical to understand not just what is true but also how we discern truth. Its imperative to see Americas knowledge crisis as having implications that extend far beyond politics.

In many ways Americas knowledge crisis is also a relationship crisis. Our inability to agree on even the most basic facts can destroy friendships and fracture families. Creating communities around conspiracy theories can provide people with a sense of meaning and fellowship they can find nowhere else. How can fact checks be enough to pull a person out of the cause that provides them with a mission and a purpose?

Americas knowledge crisis is also a faith crisis. Pastors and parishioners alike speak of painful divisions that are so often rooted in a complete failure to understand or believe a basic set of common facts. That failure invariably leads to friction, to a sense that we share the pew with people who are deeply deluded. How long can churches remain intact when divisions are that profound?

Read Bonnies book to discern the causes of the crisis. Read her book to understand its effects. And read it to understand the role you can play in solving one of the most pressing issues of our time. To quote The X-Files , one of my favorite television shows from the 1990s, The truth is out there. Its up to us to find it, share it, and solve the knowledge problem that threatens to tear this nation apart.