I have come to accept that the world I live in is constantly changing. As a cranky-old-man of seventy-one years, I have seen many of these changes. Some of the changes I believe are for the betterment of mankind, while some seem degrading to the human condition. It does not matter how I judge the world's changing because I must live with it anyway.
I think we can compare the evolution of mankind's civilization to the biological evolution of all living things on our planet. Only the most successful changes will survive and advance into the future. Some societies will become extinct if they cannot adapt to the changing world.
We can not be sure that the recorded history of man is accurate but it does show that we are rapidly gaining knowledge of the Universe in which we live. Gaining knowledge is like a snowball rolling down a hill. The rate of increase is not linear and quickly mushrooms to tremendous size. This has resulted in older individuals losing understanding of the younger generation and creates considerable friction at times.
As small as it may be, we do have a little control over the direction we are traveling as a society. It is all important that we abandon our superstitious fantasies and always seek the truth. Mankind's advancement has been greatly retarded by superstitious beliefs; especially religion.
Early Christianity retarded scientific advancement by approximately 1500 years because they taught that the world would soon come to an end so there was no need to advance man's knowledge.
When faced with any phenomena that defies explanation we must learn to say, "I don't know." Too many people will use superstitious beliefs to provide an answer because they refuse to say, "I don't know." When we devote our time to finding the truth we always have more productive and meaningful lives.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
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