Truth or Fiction?

I find these days that with the every increasing availability of information there is so much knowledge out there right at our finger tips that the question of discerning whether it is fact or fiction becomes the real difference between simple knowledge and true wisdom.

Take the recent Presidential election in the United States between Obama and Romney; during the whole campaign we heard endless tidbits of information about their lives, opinions and believes and their own counter information telling you what the real story and real truth is. Then you had the media and other sources of information countering them yet again, unveiling what the REAL Real truth and facts are. And it continues in a never ending circle.

So how do you figure out what is truth and what is fiction? And more importantly, who gets to decide what information should even be shared and debated. I say this simply because even my spell check on this blog and my Microsoft Word knows the correct spelling of Obama and Romney, but for me to spell my own last name, Sweetnam, it marks it as an error. So someone has enough control over the information on the internet to make sure my spell check is up to date with the important information.

What exactly is my point? Is it just another conspiracy?

Perhaps a little, however in my book "The Gift", one of the important points I felt the need to address is  the issue of what information we as people are hearing and listening to; and whether the source of that information is trustworthy or not.

The main character, "Malachai", continually sees demons speaking to people, whispering in their ears, directing them towards trouble and even possessing people to control them while influencing others. The book itself may be a work of fiction, but does it mean that every thought and word written within it are just a work of fiction as well? Absolutely not. In fact much of what The Gift is about is based on truth, however, in order to make it more acceptable to be read and understood, it needed to be put as fiction. So I, as the author, had to control the information written within the book to make it more appealing to the audience I wish to read it.

Naturally this is nothing unusual or uncommon. Every writer does it. Whether for books, poems, advertising, plays, movies, news programs, Presidential speeches, campaign slamming or even blogging; everyone who writes has a certain opinion, perspective and audience they take into account when they write. The result is the controlling of information in order to gain a desired result by their audience.

So the real questions should be, who is controlling the larger tidbits of information; what is their desired result; and is it truth, fiction or a little of both?

I hear many Christians talk about the end of the world and the battle in the last days before our total destruction. And even though they have much information and research backing up this belief, I have also heard much information and research that says the earth won't be destroyed. So much of what is being said is interpreted by each individual's personal beliefs.

I myself believe that we are very much in the midst of a spiritual war and that this battle is heating up once again to an intense war in the spiritual realm all of which will heavily impact us. However, my caution is with the information that is being spread these days and by whom.

If Malachai's ability is to see the demons influences on others and ultimately their control over people and information; and we as spiritual beings are in the midst of an intense spiritual war, then who or what is influencing those who control the information being spread to the mass populations and what do they want;  is it trustworthy?

There is an old quote that states, "He who controls the information, has the power." This has reigned true throughout the years. What would happen though if all of us could see the spiritual realm like Malachai does and actually see the spirits both good and evil, that are influencing everyone around the world. My personal belief is that those spirits would lose a lot of power because they could no longer work in secret and could be held accountable for what they are really saying and doing. We would each be able to make more informed decisions because we would be able to see what information is actually true and what is being twisted to simply look like truth.

Perhaps this is what Midnight, the main demon in The Gift, is really trying to fight; the thought that Malachai might just discover what these demons really want and then convince others to learn the truth just the same. Then they would lose the control and power.