The Truth Value of Statements

One of the topics I love to discuss in mathematics classes is the truth value of a statement.  Lately, it seems that people have been creating lots of power point slides to post to Facebook that include statements that are accompanied by some picture.  It is evident that the slides have been created to provide comfort to the one creating them or to someone else.  It's interesting to see the same slides show up in my News Feed multiple times.  The problem, of course, is that the statements on the slides often are fundamentally false.  A statement should not automatically be considered true simply because someone else (possibly famous) made the statement.  In addition, including the statement with a pretty picture or typing it with a creative font does not affect its truth value.  Further, we should not be tempted to accept a statement as true simply because it makes us feel better about something going on in our lives.  There have been occasions when I have wanted to include a comment below a posted slide to let my Facebook friend know that the statement on the slide is false.  So far, I haven't felt comfortable enough to actually go through with typing the comment and then pressing enter.  This post will have to do for now.