Turns out, you can choose your facts, but only in you’re a fool.

I just finished watching a TED talk with Michael Specter about how the denial of the scientific process is resulting in the resurgence of long-gone diseases, shorter life spans, and greater risk.

His point is that there is a difference between skepticism and ignorance, and right now in the world, the latter too often comes disguised as the former.

Last Wednesday, I put up a post about certain books I think are critical for leaders to read. In it, I make the point that numeracy is what separates a civilized society from a band of thugs who bark opinions at one another. And last Thursday, I wrote about intuition.

The recurring theme here is more than the need for open-mindedness, which is important, but insufficient. Put all these things together and you get a sense for how important it is to be responsible with free will:

You can accept the facts or reject them.
You can learn the science of making decisions for yourself or you can wing it.
You can assume there is new knowledge to be had or you can wrap yourself in what you already know.

It seems silly to me that people will deny the existence of ghosts while praying to one. It seems hypocritical to me that people with artificially whitened teeth will argue against doctors’ meddling with nature. And it seems arrogant to me that people will assume something to be impossible forever due to their inability to achieve it today.

But most of all, it all seems irresponsible.

There are things we don’t know. There are facts. Not respecting the difference is simply irresponsible. Did you know your head glows? This is a fact. We know it today because we now have equipment that can measure low-level light output, and because someone thought to aim that equipment on a human subject. Yet a year ago, “Does your head glow” would have been a ridiculous question based on known facts. Not so anymore!

I don’t expect us all to agree on the issues. I don’t expect every wacky idea to turn out to be true. I don’t expect Pollyanna. But I do expect human beings to find the strength of character to either admit to the facts or to say, both to themselves and others, “I choose this <alternative explanation> because doing so makes me feel connected and safe. I understand I might be wrong, but the consequences of being wrong don’t seem as significant to me as the consequences of no longer feeling safe.”

That, at least, is a perspective I can respect and work with honest.

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.