I recently saw this news report, in which computer software is capable of realistically replacing images of one speaker with another:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/experts-warn-of-digitally-altered-video-becoming-weaponized/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6a&linkId=49098070
I felt like I could tell that Tarkin (from Rogue One) was clearly computer graphics,
but I have a harder time recognizing these images as fakes.
Because our senses can be so easily fooled, truth is going to need to be actively mined by everyone.It's getting to the point where you can't just have an opinion that sounds nice, or feel comfortable. We're going to need to be proactive, assuming that our opinions are being manipulated, because people are using the best of technology and psychology to control what we agree with and fight against.
I'm not some doomsday-preaching, nihilist weirdo. I'm advocating for less gut reactions, less defensiveness of the thoughts that SEEM to come to us naturally, and more actively constructing what we believe and support. We need to SEEK truth, rather than comfortably sitting on what feels true. Feelings can help guide us, but feelings alone cannot be the basis of our conclusions. We need to accept that some things we hold to be true are actually false, and have been planted in our minds by manipulative, ill-willed forces. We must accept that we don't see the whole truth, and that our small piece of the pie will not feel comfortably complete, but it is better to hold onto that than to hold wild falsehoods that feel comfortable.
For those who feel that I am, as a religious individual, advocating "not seeking the Spirit," you are wrong. The "Spirit of Truth" known as the "Holy Ghost" does not teach us the truth of all things - this seems backwards, given the scripture that, out of context, plainly says "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." But the "all things" referred to are all things relating to God and spirituality. It is not all things scientific or all things political, or all things related to breakfast cereals. It's almost demeaning to God to believe that he has some sort of obligation to tell you what you should eat in the morning, unless there's some grander significance to that choice. The same is true with many issues where we ourselves are responsible for understanding and deciding, and where the divinely appointed purpose is for us to take responsibility for the outcomes of our own personal decisions.
In a similar vein, scientific truth, political truth, economic truth, spiritual truth, and so forth, do not overlap entirely with regard to how they are gained and how they are applied. Truth, overall, may be one whole, but that's not how we have access to it.
Some might argue the spiritual point that "all things are first spiritual, then physical" or that "the temporal is spiritual," and while that may be true, it doesn't apply so directly in this case. When you come to a math problem, you can't ask the Spirit to solve it for you, you must do the math yourself. To have God solve a math problem for you (or other complicated problems that require expertise and effort) is utterly lazy, sign-seeking, entitled miracle-demanding-when-work-is-enough, and frankly evil; the days are coming where that spiritually entitled attitude is going to be the downfall of many otherwise good people. We must put in the effort to find answers, not sit around hoping that the feelings we have come from God, as opposed to the many, many sources that would imitate truth, when in fact they have their own, powerful, potentially evil (or at the very least selfish and manipulative) agendas.
It is more important than ever to have a correct view of our spirituality, as well as how we know non-spiritual vs. spiritual truths, so "that we henceforth be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and their cunning and craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
Because our senses can be so easily fooled, truth is going to need to be actively mined by everyone.It's getting to the point where you can't just have an opinion that sounds nice, or feel comfortable. We're going to need to be proactive, assuming that our opinions are being manipulated, because people are using the best of technology and psychology to control what we agree with and fight against.
I'm not some doomsday-preaching, nihilist weirdo. I'm advocating for less gut reactions, less defensiveness of the thoughts that SEEM to come to us naturally, and more actively constructing what we believe and support. We need to SEEK truth, rather than comfortably sitting on what feels true. Feelings can help guide us, but feelings alone cannot be the basis of our conclusions. We need to accept that some things we hold to be true are actually false, and have been planted in our minds by manipulative, ill-willed forces. We must accept that we don't see the whole truth, and that our small piece of the pie will not feel comfortably complete, but it is better to hold onto that than to hold wild falsehoods that feel comfortable.
For those who feel that I am, as a religious individual, advocating "not seeking the Spirit," you are wrong. The "Spirit of Truth" known as the "Holy Ghost" does not teach us the truth of all things - this seems backwards, given the scripture that, out of context, plainly says "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." But the "all things" referred to are all things relating to God and spirituality. It is not all things scientific or all things political, or all things related to breakfast cereals. It's almost demeaning to God to believe that he has some sort of obligation to tell you what you should eat in the morning, unless there's some grander significance to that choice. The same is true with many issues where we ourselves are responsible for understanding and deciding, and where the divinely appointed purpose is for us to take responsibility for the outcomes of our own personal decisions.
In a similar vein, scientific truth, political truth, economic truth, spiritual truth, and so forth, do not overlap entirely with regard to how they are gained and how they are applied. Truth, overall, may be one whole, but that's not how we have access to it.
Some might argue the spiritual point that "all things are first spiritual, then physical" or that "the temporal is spiritual," and while that may be true, it doesn't apply so directly in this case. When you come to a math problem, you can't ask the Spirit to solve it for you, you must do the math yourself. To have God solve a math problem for you (or other complicated problems that require expertise and effort) is utterly lazy, sign-seeking, entitled miracle-demanding-when-work-is-enough, and frankly evil; the days are coming where that spiritually entitled attitude is going to be the downfall of many otherwise good people. We must put in the effort to find answers, not sit around hoping that the feelings we have come from God, as opposed to the many, many sources that would imitate truth, when in fact they have their own, powerful, potentially evil (or at the very least selfish and manipulative) agendas.
It is more important than ever to have a correct view of our spirituality, as well as how we know non-spiritual vs. spiritual truths, so "that we henceforth be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and their cunning and craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive."
