Truth or the Consequences of Internet Truth

So this idea has been cooking in my brain for a while. I've dedicated those brain cells that never were burned up by smoking, drinking and taking drugs to the question of validity of truth on the internet.

So here's the question/issue. In the years leading up to blogs and podcasts, we as a society got information from reference books and news outlets such as newspapers, radio and TV. We assumed that the maority of the information given by these outlets was true information, and most of the info was pretty close to truth. With the boom of the internet, with blogs and podcasts and sites such as cnn.com, foxnews.com we see the information that I glean coming more from online. So can the information that blogs/podcasts provide be taken as truth? In the beginning of the blogosphere, blogs were for providing an additional way of publishing ones opinion. Some major newsworthy thing events happened, had blogs were used to post very quick fact tidbits of what was going on (again with no ability to check for validity). This also was enhanced by the internet becoming even more mobile, where blogs could be posted "at the scene" from a cellular phone or other wireless device such as a Blackberry. Again no ability to check whether the blog post is "valid".

Let's take a step back and look at Paul Junior (there is no Paul Junior really). So Paul Junior (PJ) is 9 years old and is looking online about the names of God. In PJ's search he finds some very informative christian sites talking about the Biblical names of God. This is great information for what PJ is looking for. What PJ also finds is a blog talking about the similarities between the names of God in the Bible and the names in the Qu'ran which leads PJ to the thinking that maybe the Bible and Qu'ran are pretty much the same... His search also lead PJ to a blog talking about the Biblical names of God but adds more to it... The idea here is that in his search, PJ may get good info he might get some really bad info he might even get what looks like good info that really leads PJ down some bad paths. The problem is, what does PJ believe? He's a 9 year old and might believe everything he reads... What if PJ is a 65 year old that's new to the internet and blogging and really believes everything he reads on TV let alone on the internet?

The beginning of the answer of this question starts with the Bible, because it is the Truth. It's the beginning of Truth and the End of Truth. Every piece of information we get in a day needs to be filtered through our worldview (which hopefully is a biblical worldview) to help us discern what the truth is. It seems easy to say this here and now while I'm typing it, but that type of discernment is pretty difficult to do as an adult, let alone the 9 year old.

So this post is more like a alfred hitchcock in that there really is no conlusion to it. This is just something I am contemplating. If you see me with a funny look on my face, I'm probably thinking about that.