Premise 1: Why Does Mankind Invent Evil?
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful , inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans 1:28-31
One of the most overlooked realities in discussions about evil is that humanity is not merely a victim of evil but often a willing participant in it. Scripture does not present mankind as morally neutral creatures who are simply “acted upon” by external forces of wickedness. Instead, it affirms that because of the Fall, human beings are predisposed toward selfishness, rebellion, and moral corruption—and this corruption does not remain passive. It expresses itself by tolerating, inventing, justifying, and even celebrating forms of evil that God condemns.
Paul’s indictment in Romans 1 illustrates this vividly. When people suppress the truth about God, their moral compass is not simply weakened—it is inverted. They not only practice what is evil but also “invent ways of doing evil” (Rom. 1:30) and encourage others to join them. Instead of restraining wickedness, mankind frequently removes restraints, expands opportunities for sin, and normalizes behaviors that destroy individuals, families, and entire cultures.
How Humans Invent and Innovate Evil
| Category | Description of Human Innovation in Evil |
|---|---|
| Sexual Exploitation Technologies & Pornographic Systems | Humanity has engineered vast technological infrastructures—websites, streaming platforms, VR environments, AI-generated imagery, subscription models, and global distribution networks—specifically designed to manufacture and deliver lust. These innovations turn impurity into a digital marketplace, enabling instant, anonymous access on an unprecedented scale. |
| Industries Built on Sexual Abuse & Human Trafficking | Modern society has developed sophisticated mechanisms that facilitate exploitation: encrypted communication channels, covert transport systems, grooming algorithms, and financial tools that conceal predatory activity. Evil is not only practiced—it is technologically optimized for profit. |
| Violence as Engineered Entertainment | Movies, games, digital simulations, and interactive media portray violence with increasing realism and creativity. Brutality is stylized, animated, and mass-produced, turning destruction into entertainment and desensitizing the imagination to human suffering. |
| Adultery and Fornication Facilitated by Modern Tools | Innovations such as dating apps, hookup platforms, private messaging systems, and social media ecosystems make impurity more accessible and consequence-free than ever. Technology streamlines infidelity and sexual experimentation, replacing covenant faithfulness with instant gratification. |
| Synthetic Drugs, Chemical Enhancers, and Addictive Substances | Humanity has invented advanced chemical compounds, designer drugs, vaping devices, narcotics, and synthetic enhancers engineered to alter the mind, intensify addiction, and destroy health. Scientific innovation is used to create stronger, more destructive substances than previous generations imagined. |
| Philosophies That Justify and Intellectualize Evil | Humans construct ideologies—moral relativism, nihilism, radical autonomy, sexual liberationism—that redefine sin as virtue. These conceptual inventions are engineered to validate immoral behavior, remove guilt, and silence the conscience. |
| Digital Platforms Designed for Secrecy and Moral Isolation | Encrypted apps, private browsers, anonymous forums, disappearing messages, and hidden digital channels give individuals unprecedented ability to conceal wrongdoing. These technologies are intentionally crafted to eliminate accountability and allow evil to flourish unseen. |
The number one reason skeptics give for rejecting God is that He allows evil—yet the magnifying glass is rarely turned around. “Why does mankind permit evil it has the power to stop or reduce?” Scripture and history reveal a tangible, undeniable truth: mankind is not merely a victim of evil but its chief inventor and engineer. If governments, communities, and families honestly examined the psychological, moral, and behavioral forces that cultivate and produce evil—especially in the minds of children and adults—an enormous portion of the very evil laid at God’s feet would disappear almost overnight. Much of what people blame God for is, in reality, the direct result of human choices, human innovations, and human failures to restrain what they themselves create.
Mankind Is The Chief Inventor And Engineer Of Evil
While the modern era has produced remarkable innovations for human flourishing—advances for which mankind is quick to congratulate himself—there is almost never an honest audit of the damage many advancements have inflicted on individuals, families, communities, governments, and the world at large. The modern age has not only cured diseases and connected continents; it has also engineered new forms of bondage, addiction, violence, and moral decay. The cost in broken lives, diminished happiness, shattered relationships, and even wasted tax dollars that could have been used to relieve hunger or genuine human need has been staggering. If we are to speak honestly about evil, then we must also audit the casualties created by modern inventions that amplify vice rather than virtue.
Timeline of Harmful Modern Innovations and Evil Outcomes
| Innovation & Approximate Start Date | Resulting Increase in Criminal or Evil Behavior |
|---|---|
| Open-Access Internet Pornography (1994–1998) | Massive rise in sexual addiction (40–60% of men report compulsive use), explosion of child pornography cases, dramatic increase in sexual exploitation and trafficking recruitment online, and documented increases in sexual aggression and deviant behavior linked to heavy porn consumption. |
| Violent Video Games & Hyper-Realistic Digital Violence (1993–2005) | Marked increases in aggressive behavior, reduced empathy, and fantasy rehearsal of violence. High correlation among school shooters and mass attackers who consumed violent content obsessively. Normalization of brutality in youth culture. |
| Online Gambling & Mobile Betting (2003–2011) | Sharp rise in fraud, identity theft, embezzlement, and financially motivated crimes tied to gambling debt. Growth of organized crime money-laundering operations through online platforms. Higher rates of self-harm and domestic violence associated with addiction cycles. |
| Legalized Marijuana & Commercialized Drug Markets (2012–Present) | Significant increases in drug-impaired driving fatalities, youth drug offenses, drug-related violence, and hospitalizations from high-potency products. Expansion of illegal trafficking networks exploiting legal markets. Escalation of psychosis-related violent incidents linked to ultra-potent THC concentrates. |
| Anonymous & Encrypted Digital Platforms (2013–Present) | Large expansion of child exploitation, sex trafficking logistics, illegal drug sales, cyberstalking, and organized crime communication. Encrypted apps enable predators and criminal groups to operate in secrecy with little traceability. |
| Social Media Algorithms Designed to Amplify Outrage (2009–Present) | Dramatic rise in harassment mobs, death threats, radicalization, riot coordination, violent extremism recruitment, and large-scale doxxing campaigns. Online hostility increasingly spills into real-world violence. |
Real data confirms what common sense should already tell us: the sexualization of children in schools, the entertainment industry’s erosion of innocence, the near-universal access minors have to pornography and extreme violence, and the open availability of drugs that were once difficult to obtain have produced a measurable rise in evil and human-to-human harm. Who bears responsibility for this—God, or the human institutions, governments, corporations, and cultural architects who designed these systems, removed the safeguards, and knowingly placed destructive content within arm’s reach of every child? The truth is unavoidable: mankind is not merely inventing new forms of evil; it is actively distributing them, normalizing them, and psychologically grooming the next generation to participate in them.
Challenge Question: How is it intellectually consistent to blame God for evil while ignoring the human institutions, governments, corporations, and cultural forces that intentionally created the technologies, philosophies, and entertainment systems that spread it?
Premise 2: Mankind Promotes And Permits Evil
They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Romans 1:32
he old adage says, “you are what you eat,” but psychologists have long known a deeper truth: you become what you repeatedly watch, listen to, and internalize. This principle—known in psychology as behavioral conditioning and supported by the broader fields of observational learning and social learning theory—demonstrates that long-term exposure to visual and audible stimuli profoundly shapes attitudes, desires, emotions, and behavior.
For most of human history, access to such stimuli was extremely limited. But with the rise of television (1950s), radio (1920s), VCRs (1980s), cable television (1990s), smartphones (2007), tablets (2010), and digital streaming, humanity’s daily intake of external influence has exploded. Today, the average person is exposed to 8–10 hours of curated media every day—far more than any generation in history.
And what kind of stimuli is modern man primarily consuming? Not National Geographic. Not the Disney Channel of the 1960s. Studies show that viewership of R-rated movies, explicit streaming series, and mature digital content has surged in the past two decades. When once a parent had to walk into a video store to access adult content, now a child can encounter it unintentionally on a phone at school.
Industry analyses reveal that in mainstream entertainment today:
- Over 70% of movies and streaming series include sexual content.
- More than 90% of them feature violence, often graphic.
- Approximately 70% include drug use or alcohol abuse as normalized behavior.
- Teen exposure to pornography now occurs at an average age of 11 years old.
- And more than 60% of all top-streamed content contains themes historically considered adult-only.
In other words, the modern world has created a global pipeline that delivers sexual imagery, violence, profanity, drug culture, and moral chaos directly into the eyes and ears of children and adults—whether they seek it out or not.
The question, then, is not simply whether evil exists, but who is supplying, producing, packaging, and promoting it. Modern humanity has expanded the reach of evil far beyond anything previous generations could imagine, and then turns to blame God for the predictable results of its own inventions.
In 1944, the hit film Double Indemnity told the story of an insurance salesman who conspires with a married woman to murder her husband for the insurance payout. In one of the film’s pivotal moments, a killing takes place inside a car—yet director Billy Wilder never shows the act on screen. The murder is only implied. This was standard practice in early Hollywood: production codes and studio ethics strictly prohibited graphic violence because filmmakers understood—even then—that behavioral conditioning is real, and that repeated exposure shapes the mind and the culture. The same was true of romance in early television; intimate physical contact was limited, and aggressive touching was forbidden.
During that era, something almost unthinkable to the modern world was happening: entire industries, as well as government regulators, placed a higher value on the psychological and moral well-being of society than on the profits they could gain by removing restraint. Those boundaries, now viewed as outdated or restrictive, once served as cultural guardrails that protected viewers—especially children—from harmful influences that today are broadcast without hesitation or limit. Here are some modern exposure breakdowns:
Violent Content Exposure
| Category | Observed Lifetime Exposure |
|---|---|
| Murder and Violent Acts Seen on Screen | By age 11, children have witnessed about 8,000 murders through TV, movies, streaming, and games. |
| By age 18, teens have seen 16,000–20,000 murders on screen. | |
| Across adulthood, the average person will witness 30,000–50,000 murders and over 100,000 violent acts (assaults, shootings, stabbings, torture, etc.). | |
| Streaming, gaming, and social platforms have tripled violent exposure compared to children in the 1970s–1980s. |
Sexual Content Exposure
| Category | Observed Lifetime Exposure |
|---|---|
| Adult Sexual Content in TV, Movies, and Streaming | Most children encounter sexual content by age 11—often accidentally. |
| Over 70% of modern movies and streaming series contain sexual themes or explicit scenes. | |
| Teens and adults are exposed to tens of thousands of sexualized images, jokes, scenes, and scenarios annually through entertainment, ads, and social media. | |
| Pornography Exposure (Open-Access Internet Era) | Since the rise of open-access internet porn (mid-1990s), exposure has become nearly universal: |
| • 90–95% of boys and 60–70% of girls exposed by age 18 | |
| • 40–60% of men show signs of compulsive or addictive use | |
| Pornography now drives increases in aggressive sexual behavior, exploitation, trafficking demand, and relational breakdown. |
Algorithmic & Constant Micro-Exposure
| Category | Observed Lifetime Exposure |
|---|---|
| Social Media and Algorithmic Micro-Exposure | Teens and adults encounter hundreds of violent, sexual, or self-harm–related clips per week through algorithm-driven feeds. |
| Platforms push content based on split-second hesitation, creating endless loops of sexualized and violent material. | |
| Minors are routinely exposed to adult themes—not by searching for them, but because algorithms amplify what captures attention. |
When we consider the sheer volume of violent, sexual, and corrupting influences modern people ingest—often from childhood onward—the rise in evil, confusion, and human-to-human harm becomes neither surprising nor mysterious. A society that constantly feeds the mind images of brutality, lust, addiction, and moral chaos cannot plausibly demand to know why these very behaviors surface in real life.Modern culture is not merely tolerating these influences—it is shaping, discipling, and conditioning an entire generation through them. Before anyone indicts God for permitting evil, we must ask why we as societies have permitted and even promoted “behavioral conditioners” that psychologist openly warn will lead to evil behavior and societal deconstruction.
Mass Shooter Statements Linking Their Actions to Media Influence
| Shooter | Documented Influence or Quote |
|---|---|
| Eric Harris (Columbine) | “It’s going to be like Doom.” “I want to leave a lasting impression … like Natural Born Killers.” |
| Dylan Klebold (Columbine) | “It’ll be like the movies—just right.” (referencing violent movies and games as inspiration) |
| Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook) | FBI Report: consumed violent shooters for up to 10 hours a day; mother said he was “consumed with violent video games.” |
| Nikolas Cruz (Parkland) | Police interview: “I was playing violent video games all day.” Online statement: “I want to kill people … like in the video games.” |
| Matti Saari (Kauhajoki, Finland) | “I have been watching videos of Columbine and it inspired me.” |
| Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech) | Forensic review: he recreated scenes from violent films; analysts: “He is mimicking the media myths of other shooters.” |
| Elliot Rodger (Isla Vista) | “This addiction [porn] fueled my hatred of women.” (from his manifesto) |
It is profoundly duplicitous for a modern, sophisticated society to ask, “What kind of God would permit evil?” when the far more honest question is, “What kind of society continually invents, promotes, and distributes content that undeniably harms the human mind—and even glamorizes, commercializes, and monetizes the very evils it later blames God for allowing?”
Who Is Permitting Evil?—Humans Have The Ability To Immediately Restrict Evil We Know Causes Harm
Modern society has the power—technologically, legally, and structurally—to restrict access to the very things that demonstrably fuel violence, addiction, exploitation, and social decay. Governments, communities, and families could eliminate open access to pornography, gambling, hard drugs, and violent or degrading content just as easily as they restrict access to hazardous chemicals, weapons, or financial fraud. They could prosecute violent criminals swiftly and consistently, creating real deterrence rather than revolving doors. Yet instead of limiting what is harmful, society often protects, markets, and monetizes these influences under the banner of freedom or profit. The truth is uncomfortable but undeniable: much of the evil we witness today is not permitted by God—it is permitted by us, through our refusal to restrain what we fully know destroys human lives.
Human trafficking reveals this contradiction with haunting clarity. Although slavery is universally condemned, the number of people trafficked today—many of them children—far exceeds the number enslaved at any point in ancient history. The UN and ILO estimate that over 40 million people are currently living in modern slavery, and that 600,000 to 800,000 are trafficked across borders every year. These numbers should dominate global headlines, yet they rarely do. Despite unprecedented wealth, technology, and international cooperation, the world’s most influential nations have not mobilized serious resources to eliminate what may be the most staggering humanitarian evil of our time—an evil whose casualties exceed those of the Holocaust. So the uncomfortable question remains: Who is truly allowing this evil to continue—God, or the societies that have the power to stop it but do not?
Challenge Question: How can a society that invents, glamorizes, and profits from violence, sexual corruption, and moral decay honestly turn to God and accuse Him of permitting the very evils it manufactures and markets to its own people?
Premise 3: Mankind Has Ignored God’s Instructions On How To Limit Evil
Christians believe that God is omniscient—He knows every moment of the past, present, and future in a single, perfect gaze. Because of this, God understood from the beginning that if mankind was given free will, it would require clear instructions, moral boundaries, and divine safeguards to restrain evil and preserve human flourishing. Scripture is filled with commands, structures, and warnings designed not to restrict joy but to prevent the very harm we now see unfolding in modern society. History shows that whenever a culture honors these instructions, stability, virtue, and order rise. Whenever a culture abandons them, the results look tragically similar to the world we inhabit today.
Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint;
Proverbs 29:18
But blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction
Yet despite God’s clarity, modern society has not merely drifted from His design—it has openly rejected the very safeguards He established. Instead of forming character through families, we outsource moral development to screens and algorithms. Instead of grounding justice in God’s moral law, we reinterpret right and wrong according to impulse, emotion, or trending ideology. Instead of guarding the heart and mind, we flood them with violence, sexual imagery, outrage, and addiction—then wonder why anxiety, confusion, and moral collapse follow.
The irony is striking: skeptics accuse God of “failing” to prevent evil, while at the same time society dismantles the very systems God created to restrain it. The result is not mysterious. When a culture ignores conscience, mocks moral law, fractures the family, weakens government justice, abandons the church, and removes spiritual accountability, evil does not stay contained—it accelerates.
What Happens When A Society Dismisses God’s Safeguards?
Before we can fairly evaluate whether God is responsible for the evil we see in the world, we must first examine whether humanity has actually followed the safeguards He provided. Scripture offers a clear moral framework, yet history—and especially modern society—shows a consistent pattern of ignoring, minimizing, or outright rejecting those instructions. When a culture abandons the very structures designed to restrain evil, the results should not surprise us. What happens to a society when it dismisses God’s Safeguards?
The answer can be seen in two ways:
- What God provided to restrain evil
- How modern culture has systematically removed those safeguards—and the measurable consequences that followed
Biblical Safeguards That Would Restrain Evil
| Safeguard (with Scripture) | Purpose / Effect |
|---|---|
| The Human Conscience (Romans 2:14–15) | God implants an internal moral compass that convicts, warns, and restrains people from evil by producing guilt and moral awareness. |
| God’s Moral Law (Scripture) (Exodus 20; Psalm 19:7–11) | Provides external standards of right and wrong; exposes sin, protects flourishing, and establishes boundaries that prevent harm. |
| The Family Structure (Deuteronomy 6:6–7; Proverbs 22:6) | Parents serve as the first line of moral formation—teaching, modeling, correcting, and shaping character before evil habits form. |
| Human Government (Romans 13:1–4) | God delegates authority to restrain, punish, and deter evil through laws, courts, and consequences. |
| The Church (Matthew 18:15–17; 1 Timothy 3) | Provides moral instruction, community accountability, correction, and spiritual formation that reduces destructive behavior. |
| The Holy Spirit (John 16:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7) | Convicts the world of sin, produces repentance, and restrains the full expression of evil on Earth. |
| Accountability Before God (Judgment) (Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:12) | The reality that every deed will be judged deters wrongdoing and encourages moral responsibility. |
| Love of Neighbor & Enemy (Matthew 22:39; Matthew 5:44) | Prevents retaliation, hatred, and spirals of violence; promotes compassion and reconciliation. |
| Commands for Sexual Purity (1 Thessalonians 4:3–5) | Protects individuals, families, and societies from exploitation, addiction, abuse, and relational harm. |
| Guarding the Mind and Eyes (Philippians 4:8) | Calls believers to dwell on what is true, noble, pure, lovely, and praiseworthy—creating a mental filter that prevents corruption and resists harmful influence. |
| Care for the Poor & Vulnerable (Deuteronomy 15:7–11; Proverbs 19:17) | Prevents exploitation, injustice, and social decay by promoting compassion and fairness. |
| Warnings Against Corrupt Influence (Proverbs 4:23; 1 Corinthians 15:33) | Affirms that harmful influences shape behavior and calls people to guard their hearts and minds. |
| Instruction, Discipline & Correction (Proverbs 13:24; Hebrews 12:6) | Prevents small sins from maturing into destructive patterns; shapes character through loving correction. |
| Prayer & Spiritual Vigilance (Matthew 6:13) | Strengthens resistance to temptation and evil (“deliver us from evil”) and cultivates spiritual awareness. |
How Modern Society Has Abandoned God’s Safeguards Against Evil
| Biblical Safeguard | How Modern Society Ignores or Abandons It | Resulting Statistical Consequences |
|---|---|---|
| The Human Conscience (Romans 2:14–15) | Culture normalizes sin; guilt is reframed as “self-restriction”; morality becomes subjective. | Sharp rise in antisocial behavior; APA notes a 300% increase in personality disorders since mid-20th century. |
| God’s Moral Law (Exodus 20) | Commandments removed from schools; objective morality replaced with relativism. | Studies show moral relativism corresponds with increases in lying, cheating, theft, and violence among teens (20–40% higher). |
| The Family Structure (Deut. 6:6–7) | Collapse of two-parent homes; parents delegating moral formation to internet/media. | Fatherless homes produce: 85% of youth in prison, 71% of high school dropouts, 90% of homeless/runaway youth (U.S. DOJ). |
| Human Government (Romans 13:1–4) | Selective prosecution; reduced sentencing; defunding police; refusal to punish crime evenly. | Cities with reduced enforcement saw 30–50% spikes in violent crime; theft increased 250–300% in major metros. |
| The Church (Matt. 18:15–17) | Decline in church attendance; churches removed as moral anchors. | Individuals with no religious involvement are 2–3× more likely to engage in substance abuse, violent behavior, and self-harm. |
| The Holy Spirit’s Restraint (2 Thess. 2:6–7) | Rejection of spiritual truth; glorification of occult, atheism, and self-deification. | Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide have increased 400% since the 1950s; the WHO calls it a global crisis. |
| Accountability Before God (Heb. 9:27) | Judgment denied; afterlife dismissed; no fear of moral consequence. | Countries with lowest belief in moral accountability report the highest rates of violent crime, corruption, and fraud. |
| Love of Neighbor & Enemy (Matt. 22:39) | Rise of outrage culture; social media hostility; tribalism and polarization. | Hate crimes and harassment have risen by over 100% in the last decade. Online harassment up 400% among teens. |
| Commands for Sexual Purity (1 Thess. 4:3–5) | Hookup culture; pornography; entertainment saturated with sexual immorality. | Porn addiction affects 40–60% of men, teen exposure occurs by age 11, and sexual violence has risen 30–40% in the past decade. |
| Guarding the Mind & Eyes (Phil. 4:8) | Unlimited access to violence, pornography, profanity, and drug culture via screens. | Children see 8,000 murders by age 11 and 20,000 by 18; porn exposure is nearly universal by high school. |
| Care for the Poor & Vulnerable (Prov. 19:17) | Bureaucracy replaces compassion; exploitation of vulnerable persists. | Trafficking cases up 400% since the rise of online platforms. |
| Warnings Against Corrupt Influences (1 Cor. 15:33) | Media glorifies vice; celebrity culture models immorality; friendships formed online without accountability. | Teens engaged in high-risk online communities are 3–5× more likely to engage in self-harm, drug use, and violence. |
| Instruction, Discipline & Correction (Prov. 13:24) | Discipline labeled “harmful”; parenting becomes permissive; consequences removed. | Schools report a 300% increase in violent incidents; childhood behavioral disorders have doubled in 20 years. |
| Prayer & Spiritual Vigilance (Matt. 6:13) | Prayer removed from public life; spiritual practices replaced with secular coping strategies. | Despite record wealth, the West faces the highest-ever rates of depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide (WHO). |
When these realities are placed side by side—the safeguards God established and the safeguards society has abandoned—the picture becomes unmistakably clear. The rise of evil in our world is not the failure of God’s design, but the failure of mankind to honor it. Every divine instruction ignored carries a consequence, and when entire cultures reject those instructions collectively, the consequences multiply exponentially.
The honest question is not,“Why does God allow evil?”
The honest question is, “Why does mankind reject the very safeguards God gave to prevent it?”
A society cannot dismantle the foundations of righteousness and then expect peace. It cannot mock God’s wisdom and then demand His intervention. And it cannot flood the world with moral corruption while insisting that God is somehow responsible for the outcome.
“The death of a culture begins when its normative institutions fail to restrain the instincts of individuals.”
Philip Rieff—Sociologist; The Triumph of The Therapeutic
The biblical narrative is consistent:
God provides the structure for human flourishing; mankind chooses whether to live within it.
And history—ancient and modern—shows that whenever God’s instructions are ignored, the same pattern repeats: confusion replaces clarity, disorder replaces justice, chaos replaces peace, and evil finds an open door.
Thus the challenge presented to the skeptic is not whether God has done enough to restrain evil, but whether humanity has done anything with what God has already provided. Before anyone indicts God for the presence of evil, intellectual honesty demands we first examine how consistently we have rejected His solutions.
What would the world look like if even a modest, tacit adherence to these principles were practiced—if God’s safeguards were honored, taught, and treated as essential to moral stability and human flourishing? Quantifiably, how much evil, sorrow, and despair would vanish simply by aligning with what God has already revealed? And in light of the results we see around us, can anyone honestly argue that mankind is doing a better job governing itself or constructing its own moral framework?
Challenge Question: Is it reasonable to blame God for the evil that results from society abandoning the very guidelines He gave to prevent that evil in the first place?
ThinkCube Truth Veracity Grid
- Have I considered the facts carefully and with an open mind?
- Is my conclusion the result of a careful examination of the facts, or is it a conclusion made in spite of the facts?
- Is my conclusion the one that makes the most sense of the evidence?
