These days the groupthink appears to be that facts are the enemy of belief, reason the enemy of perception. And the distinction between "real" and "fake" news is delivered by fiat from a place on high (which is not, of course, heaven).

So when people believe that "fake news" is fake because they have been told it is, the definition of "news" is smudged beyond recognition. And it falsifies the meaning of "fake" — which is itself genuinely ironic.

Last month, National Public Radio ran a story documenting the expanding list of things which Donald Trump has deemed "fake." Reporter Tamara Keith said, "The range of things Trump is declaring fake is growing, too. Last month he tweeted about 'fake books,' 'the fake dossier,' 'fake CNN,' and he added a new claim — that Google search results are 'RIGGED' to mostly show only negative stories about him."

And while Trump labels and dismisses that which he perceives as "fake" (and hopes that his base does, too), he advances speculations of his own: that he and Kim Jong Un "fell in love," perhaps owing to "the beautiful letters" Kim wrote to him; that maybe "rogue killers" were responsible for the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; and that "it is a very scary time for young men in America, where you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of" (by which he did not mean the shooting of unarmed black men).

This shilly-shallying between fact and fiction has an audience. Maybe it's comforting to have someone tell you what's what so you don't really have to think about what to believe.

However, wanting to believe something because it fits a pre-set worldview is not the same as being educated by the facts readily at hand. And getting educated does take a little effort.

So when someone says that Planned Parenthood supports the aborting of Jewish and African-American fetuses, a little research would lay that lie to rest.

When someone says Brent Kavanaugh's life is ruined, logic would attest that a seat on the Supreme Court is a less perilous (and more lucrative) outcome than death threats and public mockery, which were meted out to Christine Blasey Ford.

When someone says Mother Earth is only "going through a cycle," a cursory read on climate change makes clear that the preponderance of scientists think that global warming is human-caused.

Yet even that little bit of digging for real substance can seem onerous. "Perception is reality," goes the cliche. So why bother to look beyond what you already affirm to be true? And the high-tech/low-tech platforms of Facebook and newspaper letter-to-the-editor pages are easy purveyors of the disinformation of committed believers (who quite often don't give a fig about grammar, just saying).

Perhaps it always does come down to a question of belief. And belief is, at some level, always a choice. Which raises the bigger question: How do we arrive at what we choose to believe? Thinking about that is a lot of work, too.

As a pastor, I am rooted in the belief business, which also means I am a professional skeptic. I think passive acceptance of packaged platitudes is lazy. Blind faith is tawdry. Just as we are required to punch the literal or figurative clock at our jobs, we are expected to use our noggins to figure things out.

The medieval theologian Peter Abelard sets a worthy agenda: "The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth."

I think perception is the enemy of understanding, unquestioning belief is the enemy of facts. And I put my store in the hope that what is really real is the enemy of what is really fake.
