05-08-2017, 06:30 AM
There was no science involved, to my knowledge...ever. It just "was".
That's how it was for most of human history. Before 500, or 700 years ago, there was no such thing as science in the way we know it today. People told stories to explain the events they saw around them. The stories personified natural occurrences, or anthropomorphized the actions of animals. Humans prefer an explanation for our place in the world, and have it make sense. Otherwise, let's admit it, life can be grim at times. Hawaiian culture told of our prehistory, when out of a great darkness, a void, came the earth, sky, stars, and sea. Everything had a meaning and a purpose, including Pele.
This is true for every culture, every nation, each small tribe who referred to themselves as "The People" as many of them did, describing the other tribes around them in lesser terms. Native Americans were surrounded by spirits, people in India had and have a multitude of gods and goddesses. Not that long ago Europeans believed in fire breathing dragons.
Even today, there are mysteries all around us that remain difficult to understand, even with science and rational explanation. For instance, how many of us really know what a computer server is, or does? What if you weren't exactly sure and I told you that someone had a personal, private e-mail server, and in my description I used the words "possibly illegal" or "hacker" or "breach." That sounds terrible doesn't it? As threatening to our well being as a fire breathing dragon might have been to our ancestors 800 years ago. A lot of people held that fear, and probably millions of them voted against a candidate in the last election even though they still couldn't to this day, describe what a computer server is or how it functions, or what it might do that would turn their world upside down.
We're still humans to this day. We continue telling stories that explain where we're going, where we are, and where we came from. A volcano is real, Pele is just as real for many, with a far better justification for her existence than can be made for some of the stuff we believe in.
Beyond this shore, there be dragons. Of that you can be sure.
If I know what I shall find, I do not want to find it. Uncertainty is the salt of life. - biochemist Erwin Chargaff
That's how it was for most of human history. Before 500, or 700 years ago, there was no such thing as science in the way we know it today. People told stories to explain the events they saw around them. The stories personified natural occurrences, or anthropomorphized the actions of animals. Humans prefer an explanation for our place in the world, and have it make sense. Otherwise, let's admit it, life can be grim at times. Hawaiian culture told of our prehistory, when out of a great darkness, a void, came the earth, sky, stars, and sea. Everything had a meaning and a purpose, including Pele.
This is true for every culture, every nation, each small tribe who referred to themselves as "The People" as many of them did, describing the other tribes around them in lesser terms. Native Americans were surrounded by spirits, people in India had and have a multitude of gods and goddesses. Not that long ago Europeans believed in fire breathing dragons.
Even today, there are mysteries all around us that remain difficult to understand, even with science and rational explanation. For instance, how many of us really know what a computer server is, or does? What if you weren't exactly sure and I told you that someone had a personal, private e-mail server, and in my description I used the words "possibly illegal" or "hacker" or "breach." That sounds terrible doesn't it? As threatening to our well being as a fire breathing dragon might have been to our ancestors 800 years ago. A lot of people held that fear, and probably millions of them voted against a candidate in the last election even though they still couldn't to this day, describe what a computer server is or how it functions, or what it might do that would turn their world upside down.
We're still humans to this day. We continue telling stories that explain where we're going, where we are, and where we came from. A volcano is real, Pele is just as real for many, with a far better justification for her existence than can be made for some of the stuff we believe in.
Beyond this shore, there be dragons. Of that you can be sure.
If I know what I shall find, I do not want to find it. Uncertainty is the salt of life. - biochemist Erwin Chargaff
“We do this thing not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.”