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The Search Engine That Could

pastorourrock

How many times a day do we go to Google for the information we believe we need? For the answers to the questions that stump us? For the off-the-wall, out-in-left-field data that doesn’t live in our brains on a daily basis? Do we ever go an entire day without saying it or hearing it said: “Just Google it!”?

We’ve grown too accustomed to the convenience. The ease. The speed. The vast wealth of presumed knowledge that’s available to us. Once upon a time, we conducted research in a library. Or maybe we asked a teacher or some other expert in the field of our investigation. Well-resourced home libraries were stocked with a set of encyclopedias on their shelves. But now, we immediately turn to the search engine that could give us what we want, providing gratification almost instantly for our inquiring minds.

But do we believe everything we read or watch or listen to? Is Google immune to misinformation or falsification of fact? Is everything presented free from bias? Can we always trust our go-to search engine to lead us in reliable directions and never go off the rails? Could our favorite search engine fail us?

It’s a fundamental issue in our lives. Trusting what we hear. Believing what we’re told. Accepting the words we read, the words spoken to us, the words flashing across our screens, the words we want to hear. What or who is a reliable source we believe we can trust? What or who is an authority in our minds? The once-perfunctory courtroom procedure of swearing to tell the truth with one hand on a Bible seemed to imply there was a certain power in that book or that practice or that place to compel people not to lie. But if that is truly the case, why are there laws against perjury?

Discernment is one of the most challenging of all essential human activities. Challenging because it requires sifting and sorting through the multitude of voices that speak to us in a multitude of ways every day to listen carefully for the resonance of truth. Essential because enormous potential harm awaits the gullible, the naive, the unquestioning among us. Human because that’s who we are and how we’re made. We are the creatures of natural rather than artificial intelligence. We are the creatures with the extraordinary capabilities of trusting, believing, and loving. We are the creatures who communicate, understand, process, and use information. Tremendous responsibility rests on our shoulders for just how far we will go under the steam of the search engine that could one day be our undoing.

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172 South Main St. Hillsville, VA 24343

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