“How do we figure out what’s true?” That’s the question the BYU-Idaho Forum speaker tried to answer in his presentation called, “Learning from Science; Learning from Faith.”
Don Sleight is the CEO of AgReserves Inc., which oversees the investment farms and ranches affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The main goal of his talk was to help the audience understand the importance of becoming well informed and having the ability to figure out what is true.
“I want people to say, ‘Maybe I have to be an informed skeptic,’” he said in an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio.
He said most of the information that is shown in the media is not based on facts and it can be very difficult at times to know what to believe. As he explained, we need to have the chance to get ahold of a lot of informational resources and increase our awareness of what is going on.
In his presentation, he explained that often, our view of reality is based on how long we’ve been alive. He also talked about the one-sided nature of information.
“I can pick a news network that reflects my world view and never have to listen to an alternative viewpoint, but it doesn’t mean that it’s the truth,” he said.
He told BYU-Idaho Radio there’s a way to combat this idea of one-sided information.
“As long as you realize you might start with a lot of material that’s not completely true - in fact, I don’t think we deal with a lot of absolute truths in the world today, we deal with approximations - and we sort of keep looking for the most approximation we can find,” he said.
That is what the scientific method is all about, trying to find the facts and how we can think about different topics in better ways. This not only applies to science, but also in our careers, he said.
“If you want to get paid, be a good decision maker, learn to make good decisions, and if you can string a lot of good decisions you become very valuable to your employer,” he said.
His takeaway for the audience was for people to follow the prophet and to follow Jesus Christ.
“I invite each of us to use science when it’s the best tool for making decisions and use faith when it’s the best tool,” he said.