People Never Check

I find it interesting that in today's society where information is freely available at their fingertips that people rarely check out the facts of anything. Worse if they do find out the truth and their peers haven;t they don;t bother to contradict or correct them.

Global warming is one classic example. There is plenty of data available that shows without any doubt that the Earth is not behaving as predicted by the models. People are still however allowed to make outrageous claims and predictions that are simply not matched by the science or the observations. Instead there are a group of cowards who know better but sit in silence.

Then there are other example like the use of the statement "God helps those who help themselves." If you asked most people they would tell you that it comes from the Bible. The rest of them simply use it without knowing the origins.

It takes about 30 seconds to find the real origin, a Greek mythology story involving a cart stuck in the mud and Hercules. The actual quote is closer to "The Gods help those who help themselves."

People will categorically state that this comes from the Bible without ever bothering to check. Is this ego? Arrogance? Stupidity? Mostly it is probably laziness both physical and intellectual. Perhaps I am just one of those who have to know but I often look something up and check multiple sources before I use declarative statements. The Internet makes it so easy now.