Questioning Our Fundamental Beliefs

This is how humans are: we question all our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question. ~Orson Scott Card

This idea is one that has lingered in the back of my mind since I was a sophomore in high school and read Card's novel, Speaker of the Dead. You would probably have to read the novel and its prequel to truly appreciate that quote.

The idea is that while we question a lot of things, there are some things that are never questioned by anyone because no one can imagine a world in which they are not true.

Below I will detail some beliefs or ways of life that go largely unquestioned. What if we are limited by our current perspectives and could develop more, individually and as a species?

What made humanity decide that the North Pole was indeed the North Pole and not the South Pole? Why is Australia in the Southern Hemisphere and not the Northern Hemisphere? The idea of a North and South Pole makes sense because those are the magnetic poles of the Earth, but who is to say which is North and which is South? It is the Western tradition that makes us believe that the North is north and the South is South.The Chinese had the opposite orientation, but it was the West who mapped the world.

So maybe looking at a map with South-North orientation won't give you any insights, but this is just one example of a Western Concept that has come to dominate the mainstream. Making sure to realize that there are always multiple ways of looking at the same thing will help to ensure that we don't take things for granted.

As anyone who has studied history knows, people once thought that the Earth was the center of the universe and that everything revolved around the Earth. When it was suggested that this was not the case the establishment fell into disarray, with the Catholic Church claiming heresy and nearly banning Copernicus' ideas. The whole idea that the Earth was not the center of the universe caused mass confusion. Now even grade school students know that the Earth and the planets revolve around the Sun, an idea we call heliocentrism.

This discovery could just be seen as an advancement of science, but imagine how you would feel if in an instant everything you thought you knew about something was proven wrong. Would you believe it? Would you know what to do?

Now here I'm going to go on a limb with this belief.

Everyone knows that humans are the only sentient species on Earth. I know this as much as everyone else. But what would happen if it was discovered that there was another sentient species on the planet. Wouldn't that cause a huge rift throughout the world? People refusing to believe it even though there are indisputable facts right in front of them?

What if you were told that someone who lived thousands of years ago was still alive? That would be impossible right? You wouldn't believe it, even if you saw them. There is no way right? Everyone dies right? Think about it. Would you believe it, even when presented with DNA evidence and other irrefutable data. This idea was also explored in a low budget movie I recently watched called The Man From Earth. It can be found in a Netflix instant queue so there is no need to buy it. If you want to read the plot synopsis check it out on IMDB here.

In the East there never was an idea of a "week", or 7 days being a particular unit of time. It is the Western fascination with the number 7 that made the week. So would there be a different unit of the week, like 8 days, if the West had not dominated? These are questions we must ask ourselves if we are truly to be wise and not limited by our perceptions.

It's intuitive; the most direct way from Point A to Point B is a straight line. You learn this in basic geometry and probably figured it out through experience before you even got into school.

The reason why this makes sense is because travelling any other way would increase the physical distance traveled. Figure 1 illustrates this concept, with the black line being the most direct route between Point A and Point B.

Looking at this diagram it's obvious even without the measurements that the shortest route possible between Point A to Point B is the straight black line, but why? Because the distance traveled when going in a straight line is the shortest possible distance.

Currently, to get from one point to another people must travel through the entire expanse of space between two objects, but what if that distance could be circumvented? If more people attempted to figure out a way of circumventing the vast distances of space, rather than trying to find ways to traverse though them faster, we may be able to travel to the far reaches of the universe, a feat that is all but impossible when attempting actually pass throughhere and there.

Is it possible? It doesn't seem to fit with our current understanding of the universe, but maybe that is because we have limited ourselves to thinking that in order to reach Point B from Point A we must travel the distance between. If more people started looking into the idea of wormholes or alternate methods of travel, a revolutionary solution may be discovered.

What can it hurt to try? It seems just as likely as traveling at the speed of light, but we try to accomplish that.

What if we are limited by our own mind? What if we have believed for thousands of years that we have limitations, when really the only limitations we have are of our own creation? If we believe something strongly enough it becomes our reality. This has been shown in many studies of patients that believed they were someone they were not.

Is it possible that we could unlock untold abilities if we just stopped believing that we couldn't? Let me give an example from popular culture. In The Matrix Neo has doubts that he can actually jump the large gap between the buildings. It is only when he completely rids himself of doubt and becomes fully confident that he is able to do so.

How can you explain people picking up trucks when their loved ones are trapped? How do you explain people that are emotionally connected sometimes being able to sense that their loved one is in danger? You can only dismiss so many of those claims as false or coincidence. It is when we aren't thinking about doing something that we can perform marvelous feats. You think that the mother was thinking about how impossible it would be to lift the semi off her child? No, she just did it because she had to.

Why can't we teach ourselves to access that strength and brain power? We know that it is possible to do all those things because we have heard countless stories and accounts, but it has been so ingrained in us over thousands of years that we cannot do these things that we have come to believe it. If you call a kid a freak for his whole life he is going to believe that he is one. That doesn't make it true.