The Power of Doubt (Summer Assignment Post 2)
For as long as our brains have been capable, people have been pondering their place in the tapestry of human history. Who am I, where am I, are we alone, how long have we been here, and more controversially, where did I come from? Thinking about what is beyond ourselves is an essential part of what it means to be human. And while these kinds of existential thoughts are quite unique to humans, they are not new.
These questions that we wrestle with today are the same questions that gave birth to some of the most abstract philosophical writings of the Ancient Greeks. Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato wrote about humanity and the essential elements that make us humans; about life forces that are unchanging and unmoving that develop and drive human society. Even the Mesopotamians, long before the Greeks, were trying to explain their existence. Early Babylonian tablets, written almost four thousand years ago, talked of a cosmic battle between Marduk and Tiamat. Marduk vanquishes Tiamat and in gruesome fashion, creates the heavens, earth and humanity from her flesh. They wanted an answer to humanity's questions.
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| Marduk defeats Tiamat, creating order |
We will study cultures including the Mesopotamians, the Shang, the Indus River Valley, the Olmec and Egyptians as we look at the "beginning" of world history. Each one of these cultures has a unique take on how the story of us begins. But this story has a prologue; and, it is important to discuss the prologue of humanity and the role that doubt plays in in studying that history.
First, let me be clear about one thing. It is not my job to tell you what to believe about our existence. The theories about how we came to be on planet earth are as diverse as the universe itself. It is up to you to sift through the "answers" to find your truth. While some claim to have definitively answered the question (see video if you are interested), others are still searching. The following video is one man's theory...As I was reading a book called A Canticle for Leibowitz, I came across a quote that I thought was really important in the process of discovering "the prologue of history."
"Because a doubt is not a denial. Doubt is a powerful tool and it should be applied to history."
I felt that this quote is extremely important to us as we discover history whether it is recorded, or speculated. Doubt gives us a lens that urges us to dig deeper to find the truth.
So what are your thoughts? (Feel free to answer one, two, or all of the questions)
~How do you believe that our world came into existence (Creationism, Big Bang, Evolution etc...)?
~Why do humans feel the need to discover our origins?
~Do you feel that doubt is an important tool for all historians? Why or Why not?
I believe in the Big Bang theory, as well as evolution. With an open mind, I believe in the possibility of a higher power behind it all, but I've never felt a strong connection to any such power.
ReplyDeleteI think that humans long to discover our origins because we are a race of storytellers. We want not only to recount, but also romanticize our story as a species. Stories give us hope, inspiration, and sage themes. Thus artists create their own profound tales, and scientists, philosophers and the religious faithful work to build the ultimate tale.
We often perceive doubt as an uncomfortable burden, and sometimes it may simply be that. But on a grand scale, doubt works as a check on our race's rapid learning, causing us to look back, verify what we've discovered, and launch new investigations accordingly. Without doubt, we could end up heading unyieldingly in the wrong direction until our extinction.
I believe in a big mix of all of them. I believe in evolution AND the big bang, but I'm also Christian so I believe personally a higher power facilitated these events.
ReplyDeleteThe human desire to know where we come from stems from, I would wager, the same reason you are interested in your own family timeline; where you come from says something about who you are. If there's purpose where we come from, we have a sort of "more meaningful" existence. If our existence doesn't come from anything "meaningful", well, what purpose do we even have? That's the mentality of the human race.
Doubt is absolutely vital for historians. Without doubt, there can be no certainty. Bearing this in mind, we must look at history with a little doubt. It was once said that "History is determined by the victors". We must do our best to determine what really happened, throughout history.
I think there are a lot of people who would agree with your theory. It is sort of like "intelligent design."
DeleteAnd yes, we are fascinated by our own family history which causes us to keep searching beyond our own families...
Very insightful!
I believe in Creation 100%. The way I see it, the Big Bang Theory and Evolution don't exactly answer all my questions; such as, if they existed, where is the evolution in creatures today on earth? If we evolved from monkeys, where are those who are in the in between stages? I believe that there is a God and that when He spoke the world into existence, it was there. It took six days for God to create the world and a seventh day for rest. To me more questions are answered through Creation than other theories.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that doubt is that important for historians. If people doubt that an event that actually happened really happened, then who's to say it actually happened? It could be a legend or myth. I think that historians should have actual facts and evidence available to prove that what they say happened in the past, really did happen.
Great response, thanks for sharing Chaslyn!
DeleteI do believe in evolution, definitely micro-evolution, but I don't see necessarily definitive proof of macro-evolution, and the same can be said for Creationism and the Big Bang. However, I do think that it would be possible for any of those things, just that we need to further ourselves as a species before we can truly say "this is where we came from, this is how we came to be".
ReplyDeleteHumans want, crave, to know our origins because we have a need for answers, for something to comfort us in the unknown. Look at the Dark Ages, Christianity had a huge revival because people wanted something to comfort them in the "dark" world they lived in, they could go to church and pray to God that they wouldn't be say, slaughtered by barbarians, or that their crops would grow this season. Humans are uncomfortable with the fact that they don't know the answer to where we came from, so we create stories, ideas that comfort us, but aren't necessarily proof of where we came from. These ideas and stories are like a safety blanket until we can find the true answer of our origins, whatever that may be.
Doubt is essential for all humans, not just historians. I like the follow the idea that "to question is to doubt", and if we have no doubt about something then that means we've answered all the questions and there's nothing more to learn. Humanity is very concerned about learning all that they can, and I love to learn, but if we ever gained all the possible knowledge, there would be nothing left to ask, nothing left to ponder other than "did we get it all correct?". If we don't have doubt, there is no reason for us to keep questioning and learning, sharing ideas, brainstorming, maybe even finding answers to questions we didn't even know we had. In short, Doubt is essential for human development. Now that's just my opinion.
It is my belief that we were created, I just don't feel the other answers make sense, or seem absolutely logical really. It's hard to believe everything just lined up perfectly for us to exist, I read somewhere that the possibility of the Big Bang was much less than a percent. So it's hard for me to believe that happened and not an all powerful God made us.
ReplyDeleteI think humans want to know our origins because it scares us, we aren't comfortable with this huge unknown about our own species. We are scared of what the answer could be, because if we answer where we came from, we know what happens after death. And I think people want to know that there's something after death, and are afraid there isn't.
And doubt is very important. It helps sift through the false info, and get to what's real. If we took everything at face value, then we'd have a lot of conflicting information. And history itself would likely be different if people just took what others said as fact.
1. I believe that our world came into existence by the Big Bang theory. I also believe in evolution and according to the video evolution is kind of a part of the Big Bang theory. I really enjoy chemistry and the Big Bang theory includes so much chemistry and interests me.
ReplyDelete2. I think humans feel the need to discover our origins because we like to know things, especially things about ourselves. Also people like to know they have a reason to exist and knowing their past helps them with that.
3. I believe doubt is an important tool for all historians because doubt causes people to find things out. If they don't have doubt they won't be willing to look back in history and discover new things.
1. I believe our world came into existence by the big bang theory because to me it seems most logical. Other ideas are more skeptical but I do believe things like evolution and creationism came into effect years after that.
ReplyDelete2.Human need to know their origins because the idea of starting off like a monkey may leave questions in their head like, why am I a black monkey and him a white. And groups like NOI have had more bizarre ideas than that. and that just gives people more curiosity to find out where they actually came from.
3. I think doubt is an important tool for most historians because it gives them a reason to search for better answers.
I think that the human need to find meaning in the origins of life stems from the even more basic need to be loved. Finding purpose in the beginning makes us feel special. As though we're more than just insignificant. Having a beginning makes us feel important enough to be worth love. A significant beginning is the promise of a worthwhile future.
ReplyDeleteI believe that our universe was created by the big bang and that humankind came about from a vast expansion of evolution. I think humans have a longing to know where they came from because we hope it would give us some sort of reason to be alive. To give us a meaning of life in sorts. Doubt is, without a doubt(hehe), very important to history. History is written by the victors right? So we need to doubt many things in order to fully uncover the right truth.
ReplyDelete