Editorial January 15, 1979 Issue

Who told you?

Naomi Price

"Could you prove it in a court of law?" This was a lawyer's question to his young daughter when she brought home stories that were mere hearsay. Even while she was still in kindergarten he taught her the importance of truth and justice. She learned to think carefully before accepting and repeating anything she heard. Who said so? What grounds are there for the statement? Can the allegation be proved? Such questions became normal to ask whenever rumors were circulating.

This kind of intelligent analysis of hearsay is as old as the first book of the Bible and constitutes valuable protection. To accept falsehood is an outrage against truth and a danger to the one who believes it. Wisdom has always dictated watchfulness and alert handling of unconfirmed rumor.

In the third chapter of Genesis we are told of a hypothetical conversation, between the Lord God and the first mortal man, in which God calls upon Adam to question the source of his belief in evil and physicality.

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