Thursday, April 1, 2010

I Want to Believe

    Every day we go through life experiencing some degree of uncertainty. Whether that be going to work that day or deciding if we are going to have either the sushi or the calamari for lunch, life is filled with insecurity. So with uncertainty surrounding us every day, it's only natural that we look for things that are always certain, things that have been proven to bring some type of order to our chaotic lives. However there are many people today who believe in things that haven't or cannot be proven: Big Foot, the Loch Nest Monster, aliens, even the existence of God. However the question then arises in why? Why would someone believe in something that might possibly never be proven by science and society? Though many would be quick to dismiss such things, people chose to believe in them because of the possibility that they are true, though the lack of evidence.


 

    We tend to think of modern science today as something that has validity to it. Physics, Chemistry, Anatomy, things that have been proven and refined, proven and refined, over and over again through time to produce what we know today. However it hasn't always been that way. It was once believed that the Earth was the center of the universe until a man by the name of Nicholas Copernicus was able to prove that it was indeed that the Earth revolved around the sun. The reason that I mention it is because at the time, the idea of the sun being the center of the "universe" was foolish and ridiculous and those to think or believe other wise were shunned much like today. We look at people who believe in the Big Foot and aliens as idiotic. However this is the same ignorance that once was present when Copernicus proposed that the sun was the center of the universe. It is mentioned in the book How To Think About Weird Things that though the idea of Big Foot and aliens hasn't been proven "just because a claim hasn't been conclusively proven doesn't meant that it's false." That it is the possibility that I could be true that allows human being to believe that which cannot be proven.

    

    Many find it hard to have this sort of blind faith in anything. That might be the reason why many are turned away from the idea of a God. That it is hard to believe in an all powerful being when there is no way it can ever be proven and inevitably that is what it comes down to, faith. That though it may never be proven, it is the sense in believing in something bigger than themselves. So though we may never know why people believe in things that have not been proven, whether it be because of faith or because of the possibility it may be true, a part of humanity will always believe in the unknown, whether it is logical to do so or not.

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