If, as some recent public-opinion polls have suggested, there is increasing distrust of established institutions, we can view the trend constructively. In some degree this distrust may indicate increased alertness, as opposed to complacency. And surely it can help us recognize the need to develop more perceptive and dependable discriminations —a deeper understanding and expression of what the Bible calls righteous judgment.
During political campaigns or any time of social change this recognition is especially urgent. Without a sound spiritual basis for separating truth from error, the credible from the deceptive, fear and distrust will only increase, and awareness of the problem merely heighten a sense of confusion and disillusionment.
Within the narrow range of the physical sciences objectivity can exemplify the discipline and honesty necessary to a systematic increase in knowledge. But in such areas as the human personality and complex social interactions it is evident that objectivity becomes a very slippery concept. We must have a better basis than this for determining what is true.
