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| Aldrin on the Moon |
You may believe the Earth is
flat. Some people still do. You may believe that man never landed on the
Moon. Some people believe that, too. You may believe your religion is the only
true one.
That’s the nice part about
belief. You can believe almost anything:
the world is ending tomorrow, a dead uncle was reborn as a cow; ancient
ancestors needed to be placated; a god likes to be eaten. Some people do.
However, that does not make it
correct.
Take the flat Earth idea for an
example. The Earth is not flat. That was clear to ancient people when there
was an eclipse. The round shadow of the
Earth was visible. It’s obvious today from photos taken by satellites and
astronauts from space. It’s clear from
photos taken of other planets, all of which are round.
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| Kruger |
Paul Kruger, former prime minister
of South Africa, discovered the impact of that fact first hand. In the late 1800s, he was a member of the
Flat Earth Society, which insisted the world was not round. The organization based its arguments on the
Bible, which, in their mind, could not be wrong.
As an important official, Kruger
often made long-distance official visits by boat. On one trip, he chatted with the captain and
asked him about navigation. The captain
explained how he was able to steer the ship using a system based on the
curvature of the Earth.
Sure the Earth was flat, Kruger
asked for a detailed explanation and quickly learned the facts about the
Earth’s dimensions. He also realized
that the captain was right. He then
went to his cabin, got his Bible and heaved it overboard, saying that if the
Earth wasn’t flat, then the book was wrong.
Others preferred to ignore that
inconvenient fact. The Flat Earth
Society still exists.
Humans also landed on the
Moon. That’s clear, even if you prefer
to ignore the Moon rocks with their very different chemical and physical composition. You simply have to look at the little
American flag still on the Moon and visible with a telescope. It didn’t grow there.
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| After the Boston Marathon bombings |
Facts can be hard to accept. They can be very uncomfortable. We all have pet theories and ideas, and facts
can shatter them. They can be like hard
punches to the solar plexus. They can
cause bruised egos and massive hemorrhaging of confidence.
Perhaps most significantly, facts
can really create gaping wounds in any religious body. They can cause some people to kill, such as
the marathon attack in Boston or suicide bombers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They are the reason that a
growing number of people worldwide no longer belong to any organized religion
and have backed away from faith. They
are why age-old religions are fighting so nastily by manufacturing their own
“facts” and trying forcing their own beliefs on everyone else through politics
or violence.
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| Darwin |
The realities of life lead to
terrorism, as believers unable to convince anyone with their words try to fend
off incursions into their faith with murder and mayhem. They would kill everyone that does not
believe before they turn on each other.
Others are more peaceful. They simply deny facts. For example, they refuse to accept the fact
of evolution. To do so, they must ignore
all the advances of scientific research that dates back to the ancient
Greeks. Charles Darwin gets credit for
the theory, but it existed long before him.
Darwin just brilliantly deduced how evolution works – through natural
section.
Today, no evidence has ever been
found to contradict evolution. Moreover,
continued research has supported and expanded on Darwin’s seminal work. We now know that heredity and environment
work together to activate and suppress genes, changing life slowly and, on
occasion, surprisingly rapidly.
Evolution is fact. So is Climate Change, an increasingly
dangerous threat to mankind’s existence.
Most recently, scientists said that summer ice melt in parts of Antarctica is
at its highest level in 1,000 years, “Data
taken from an ice core also shows the summer ice melt has been 10 times more
intense over the past 50 years compared with 600 years ago,” the news report
said.
"It's definitely evidence that the climate and the environment is changing in this part of Antarctica," lead researcher Nerilie Abram said.
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| Communion |
The flood of fresh water into the
world’s oceans doesn’t bode well for islands and shorelines, not to mention
more violent storms and disruptions in farming and food supplies.
That’s the flip side of belief:
ignoring facts doesn’t make them go away.
Facts help us plot a future.
Pretending they don’t exist simply exposes all of us to unnecessary perils. For
example, the advent of AIDS meant that the practice of sharing Catholic
communion cups had to cease. Orthodox
Jews who staunch blood orally after a ritualistic bris now know they may be
spreading hepatitis to the hapless child.
On a larger scale, pretending
Climate Change is not happening simply guarantees nothing is done until the
danger evolves into a disaster.
Believe whatever you want. Just keep that belief separate from the
facts. The two can make a very volatile
mixture.
The Earth is round. Belief won’t flatten it.
Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history. He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.
You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net. He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion. His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.
He can also be followed on Twitter.
You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1
Well said
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