In this lecture I attended, someone actually said that he didn't believe that Pluto wasn't a planet because the Quran didn't say so. Gosh, I thought, you got to roll your eyes in response. Feel free to interpret the Holy Book as liberally as you like and you're one step closer to making it just like Nostradamus's Book of Prophecies.
Sure enough, demoting Pluto to the status of "dwarf planet" didn't sit well with many people. For most people it has nothing to do with (skewed) religious belief, but rather it's the sense of nostalgia, because you've always perceived our solar system as having nine planets. From a perfectly logical point of view, whether Pluto is a planet or not is hardly relevant. I mean, come on, whatever label you put upon it, it would still go about its business, rotating, revolving, evolving.
Let's assume that everything happens around you or within you is the real deal, the truth if you will. And then you have your own first-hand experience on those matters. Or maybe some second-hand, third-hand, and so on account about them, through books, TVs, school lessons. Little by little, whether you realize it or not, you start constructing your own perception of reality. I suppose this is a completely normal process.
Problem arises when reality as you see it doesn't really correspond to the factual truth. Or to be more precise, when you cling tightly to your own perception simply because it's the very thing you have believed your whole life despite the fact that what you believe is not true, or even useful.
Consider this. Thinking that Pluto is a planet might be totally harmless, but thinking that it's necessary to prescribe antibiotics in every case of upper respiratory tract infection is not okay. It seems that in Indonesia every time you got a cough and went to the doctor, he/she would prescribe antibiotics. This is despite experimental finding that therapy with antibiotics in at least ninety percent cases of URT infection is ineffective (Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, Ninth Edition). Meaning, you would come home with less money in your pocket, a useless drug, and bacterial resistance probably lurking in the corner. Yet, why do doctors keep doing so? That's because that's what they were told to do in medical school.
My point is, the truth is the truth, even though no one would believe it, even though people explain it differently from generation to generation, even though our understanding of it changes from time to time. And if people refuse to accept the truth merely because their ego refuses to let go their idea of it, I suggest they look hard at themselves and start learning some lessons on humility.
Note: Please read this piece in the context of natural world only. Religion and philosophy are completely different matters altogether. The little episode I mention in the beginning of this article is just an example about how you can go too far in your (inaccurate) conviction about something.
3 comments:
The "truth" cannot be dictated by four percent of the IAU, which is the total number of scientists who voted on the controversial demotion of Pluto in 2006. Most of those are not planetary scientists but other types of astronomers. Their decision was immediately rejected by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. The point I am trying to make is that a small group of people cannot change reality by a vote, even if they are a group of PhDs. The IAU can vote that the sky is green; that doesn't make it so. Pluto is round and orbits the sun, which many scientists like Stern is sufficient to define it as a planet.
I think you get my point wrong. It's not about Pluto being a planet or not, or about some "facts" being agreed upon by most people (scientists) or not. My point is people's view changes with time, even though the nature itself doesn't.
I do understand what you're trying to say, though. Maybe I just didn't explain my point clear enough.
Interesting Points there.How would it be in the Quran when it was only discovered last century.So it won't be in the Bible either.This is a common example of not being able to handle the truth.And if Doctors Give Antibiotics The pharmaceutical companies Get money and they Donate to the Medical Schools Makes Sence
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