What?
When it comes to discussing Scripture, politics, amazing products or any other topic for that matter, most of the time the discussion contains about 10% facts and about 90% opinion. Obviously the mix varies and sometimes you have more facts and other times you have more opinions.
So to discover which are facts and which are mere opinions (or interpretations of those facts), we have six questions.
You can use these questions to separate the fiction (opinions or interpretations) from the facts.
Six Honest Serving Men
Who, what, where, how, why and when.
Please note that.
This post is also laid out to give you a deeper understanding of how to use these six questions.
#How Exactly Do You Apply These Six Questions?
An example of a fact: How was this written?"Factual Answer, " it was written by typing buttons on a keyboard."
An example of a suspected opinion:
Peter says, "vanilla ice cream is the best. That is their opinion, their preference. Is it a fact that all the other ice cream is inferior? Obviously not, especially to those who love Chocolate Ice cream or any other flavor, who could claim their flavor is the best.
The same goes for religion, almost everyone claims their religion is the correct and only one. Since there are so many different religions, like different flavors of ice cream, it is very hard to get an unbiased opinion.
And then it is still that person's opinion, not a fact. For example, you might think an atheist has no religion so let's ask him which religion is best... Then (s)he gives his/her opinion that may differ from another Atheist's opinion...
So how do you apply this? When someone makes a statement or argument you check the facts, by asking the six questions you until you get an answer for most or all of them.
For example: Do you know where they saw/hear/experienced it? How did it happen etc. Which one of the six questions' answer is missing.
How?
For example: Peter said, "the world is flat". or he asks Paul, "did you know the earth is flat?" or a version of that.
Then Paul asked, "how do you know that?"
Peter, "The Bible says so", (now Paul could just believe that or he could ask the next question)
Paul, "Where exactly does the bible say that?"
Peter,
Paul, "How does that prove the shape of anything?" or
Where?
Forms: Where did it happen? Where did you see/hear/feel/experienced that?
An example of a fact: Where was this written?"Factual Answer, it was written here on steemit and you can read it here.
An example of a suspected opinion:
Peter says, "The Bible says that the earth is round".
So Paul tests it with, "Where exactly do you see that?" or "Where exactly does it say that?"
Peter says, "look here in
When?
An example of a fact: When was this written?"Factual Answer, before the posting date and time that you can see somewhere around this article.
An example of a suspected opinion:
Frantically Peter warns everybody, "Look out for the plague it already killed millions"
Paul, "When did it do that?"
Compare "it killed them in 1918" vs "it started 2 weeks ago in China"
Obviously, the plague that killed people in 1918 is less of a concern now than the plague that is going on now.
How many people died in these 2 weeks?
"Less than the amount of people that would die in the same time from flu." vs "It killed more people than the #1 cause of death" Obviously, the alleged plague that killed a few people is less of a concern than the plague that is killing more people than the #1 cause of death now.
Who?
An example of a fact: "Who wrote this?" JB Trust.
An example of a suspected opinion:
Frantically Peter warns everybody, "Look out for the plague it already killed millions" (Is this a fact or his opinion or someone else's opinion?)
So Paul tests it with, "Who said that?" Compare "I saw that on the Cartoon News Network." vs "My father who is a doctor told me this."
"What kind of doctor is your father?"
Compare "He is a quack GP that usually comes up with "theories" and stories outside of his field of study" VS "He is a Medical doctor who specializes in Virology."
Example 2:
Peter says, "THIS is how you should do your taxes" (Is this a fact or his opinion or someone else's opinion?)
So paul test it with, "Who said that?" Compare "I saw that on the Cartoon News Network." vs "My father who is a doctor told me this is how I do my taxes" vs "My father who is a lawyer who also holds an accounting degree told me this is how I do my taxes