Roger Harty: Be Careful What You Think

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IS it a fair statement to say that the way we think may bring us to conclusions that may not necessarily be true?

I’m going to answer this question with a couple of examples that should really explain the above statement.

For instance many thousands of years ago, man noticed that when you placed wood in water that it floated. As a result of this he came to conclusion that if he made a boat out of wood that it would float.

I am sure he was delighted that his experiment was true (remember neither I nor you were  around!), and that he could now say as a matter of fact that if a boat was made out of wood, it would float.

I have no problem with that. But the whole thing breaks down when he came to the conclusion that because the boat floated and the boat was made out of wood that therefore boats could only be made out of wood and nothing else.

So as a result of what man believed (thought!), for many many thousands of years, boats were only made of wood and it was only recently in the 19th century that man started to make ships out of steel.

Why? You might ask. Because he ‘thought’ that it was impossible for steel to float and therefore it was a useless exercise. Be careful what you think!

The ability for a ship to sail on a sea (stay afloat) is based on the law of displacement of water, not on floatation and thus nearly all ships nowadays are made of steel.

Another classic example of this type of thinking was where man believed that the world was flat. This included the beliefs of the Catholic Church at the time when it really was a most powerful body and anyone who went against them on a subject like this was in fear of excommunication, or even death.

It was in this background and with the help of other scientists like Copernicus, that Galileo stood his ground, showing immense courage against the ‘powers that be’.

He made observations that the earth revolved around the sun and was thus not the centre of the universe and that in fact the earth was not flat but was indeed round.

By the end of his trial, Galileo was forced to recant his own scientific findings as “abjured, cursed and detested,” a renunciation that caused him great personal anguish but which saved him from being burned at the stake.

Up to this time, all exploration of the world was done more or less overland (Marco Polo exploration of China) as man ‘thought’ that if you explored by sea that you would fall off the edge of the world!  Be careful of what you think.

The Catholic Church and mankind were wrong in their thinking and now have come to realise that they owe a great dept of gratitude to the likes of Galileo who had the courage of their convictions in a very perilous time.

To this end after 350 years  The Vatican made an apology of sorts when Pope John Paul ll on October 31, 1992, finally admitted that Galileo was right and thus was posed to rectify one of their most famous wrongs.

Why do I say ‘Apology of sorts’ – Simply because they (The Vatican) stated that Galileo was right but they never admitted that they were ‘Wrong’

So…Be careful what you think !

• Next week I am going to write about —  If I were you I wouldn’t start from here