Facts, Faith, and Opinion

Lawyers will tell you that there are no facts until a judge says so. Until then, all you have is evidence which, if accepted as valid, becomes the foundation for the court’s “findings of fact”.

Clients often are shocked when they tell you their story and you keep pushing back, asking for support, dates, times, documents and witnesses. “Wait a minute!” they will say, “I thought you were on my side! Don’t you believe me?”

“Yes,” you answer, “I do, but I’m not the court. We need to figure out how to get the jury to believe you, too. You’ve got to give me something to work with.”

Any lawyer is an idiot who proceeds to trial on the sole basis that their client is a nice guy. If the other guy has better evidence, the other guy is going to win, nice or not. You need tight, clear, unambiguous evidence in your corner. “Cogent evidence”, we call it.

So, for a legally trained mind, it’s hard to take seriously such utterances as:

“It’s a fact that life begins at conception.”

“It’s a fact that the nation’s budget is just like the family budget.”

“It’s a fact that climate change is a hoax.”

“It’s a fact that God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”

“It’s a fact that capital punishment is simply wrong.”

“It’s a fact that government is not the solution, government is the problem.”

These aren’t facts, they’re factoids, opinions. Often dearly held, passionately believed, but nevertheless not subject to unanswerable proof, one way or another. Whether you hold such opinions makes you no less or no more of a good person. It’s when you insist that I must also believe as you do that the wheels fall off.

About all such things we can, and should, debate openly, honestly, and without rancour. Unfortunately, most of us hold strong opinions about matters of this sort, and when confronted, our crocodile brains go into action and we’re ready to break fellowship, to maim and to kill the infidel.

Especially in the weird and scary world in which we now find ourselves, all of us need to back off on stridently held opinions, respect the right of others to different views, and work all the harder to understand what the real facts are, like them or not.