Thinking Critically Prevents Death From Alligators

In response to this week’s question I think that not only is there a moral imperative to think critically but that we also don’t use our critical thinking skills enough. Throughout the examples shown in class, there is a clear idea that “maybe if they had thought that through, they wouldn’t be in such a mess”. Using critical thinking skills is beneficial for society and also for the health and safety of each human being. I find it slightly ridiculous but also quite sad that the life of a man could have been saved if he had only read and obeyed a sign that warned against swimming with alligators. Instead of reading it and thinking “maybe I shouldn’t go swimming with something that could kill me”, he jumped right on in for a swim and died a horrible death and traumatized many people. If he had been thinking critically, he could have avoided death. He really shouldn’t have died, he should have felt obliged to obey that rule for his own safety!

Another example of an event which should be avoided by thinking critically is believing Stephen Harper. In History class, we did a blog post about Syrian refugees in Canada and I came across an article which explained that Stephen Harper had not been correct when he stated that “Canada was first in accepting refugees” when in fact Canada was tied for 41st. If some people took what Harper said as fact, they could end up completely disregarding the issue of Syrian refugees because they could think that we are doing enough already. It is important that we clearly think through what is said to us in order to determine if it makes sense. The internet has made it so easy to determine if “facts” are true or not and still we have people believing every word out of politicians mouths when they are not obliged to tell the truth and they could be lying for their own gain.

Therefore, we do have a moral imperative to think critically for the sake of ourselves and our society. Thinking critically will prevent lies from being spread and could even save a life. Although it is sometimes easier to accept the truth from one source, it is important to fact check with other sources to prevent these lies from being spread.