The Propagandizing of the American Public: The Cult of Science And if Galileo were alive today, he'd still be condemned ... or refused funding.
It is Constitutionally illegal for the United States Government to propagandize the public. While I believe they do this anyway, that is not the point of this piece. The truth is, the government does not need to propagandize the American public. They have science and the media .
In true American tradition the cult of science continues in propagandizing the American people.
Somestate unequivocally that scientists had proven that all crop circles were man made by “pranksters”. This is flatly untrue. The huge majority of so-called crop circles are unexplained, having been created in a matter of hours, with the stems of the plant life being disrupted at the cellular level. One of the latest circles appeared in North Korea. Now, Americans, how could “pranksters” do something as intricate as a crop circle in a country where you can be shot for relatively minimal offenses, let alone a nation that is vastly difficult for our own officials to enter? People need to research the entire story before they decide that scientists have said something that no scientist has proven. Period. And no scientist has ever proven that all crop circles were made by hoaxers. Science, like drug addicts and alcoholics, find denial a great way of ignoring something.
But scientists are a cult you can’t rely upon. Since the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, scientists have fallen all over themselves saying the crystal skulls that exist in the world are “fake”. If one actually reads what these smock-jockeys are saying, you find that they are saying they could not have been made in the time period the are claimed to be from. That says nothing. That says what people have been asserting for decades: These things are a genuine unknown. That doesn’t mean they’re “fake”. That just means the fragile egos of the scientific priesthood can’t figure it out. Neither can any of us. So get therapy, and shut the hell up and go find a cure for something or we’ll stop our taxes from paying for your whining.
By far my favorite pseudo-discovery of science was this past year, when scientists asserted they had discovered “another universe”. If you think about this, it’s hilarious if only on a semantic level. Any idiot knows that the word “universe” means everything, everywhere. You can’t have more than one EVERYTHING. Parallel universes may exist in the same physical space, but they are part of everything, even then. No, what these childish oracles are really saying is this: “We’re saying we discovered a whole other universe because we’re rather embarrassed that we have been saying for years that we have been able to quantify, map and assert that our universe is finite.” In other words, its all a diversion from the fact that THEY WERE WRONG AND THE UNIVERSE IS MUCH BIGGER THAN THESE SHALLOW LINEAR THINKING PRIMATES THOUGHT.
People like these are terrified that there may be someone somewhere else smarter than they are. They are exactly like the hierarchy of the Vatican, or any religion. If they are seen as inferior, their fragile self-images will shatter their power on Earth. They are terrified of the so-called paranormal because it doesn’t fit their narrow paradigm of reality…or the constraints of their grant funding.
What really is going on here is that reality is far larger than we know. There is no such thing as the supernatural or the paranormal simply because these phenomena exist as part of a larger part of reality that, for some reason, seems to be bleeding more and more into our perceptions. And for countless thousands of years humans have reported all manner of apparition or being, with little or no qualms expressed by their peers until, that is, a bunch of dead German philosophers a few hundred years ago convinced us that our intellect was more important than our intuition, or our very souls. So we have paid the price by becoming soul-blind, forever divorced from our ability to entertain a much larger, more vital reality.
Some things just are. And because one chooses not to believe in a certain thing does not confer non-existence upon it. I don't know why people can't get that through their head.
As early as last summer scientists announced that they had proven that parallel universes exist. My understanding, though admittedly limited, is that this new discovery allows for the existence of parallel worlds in which every conceivable possibility plays out. This concept was long held as solely within the purview of science fiction. Yet here it is. Where do the so-called unreasonable phenomena start and where do they stop? Who judges it or those who perceive it? Certainly not reporters.
A village magistrate in a European country during World War II was told by an eye witness about the atrocities committed by the Nazis in the concentration camps. The magistrate simply could not believe the witness. Understand, he did not think he was lying. He just could not allow himself to believe it. I think many do this regularly in their blindness to the rich, teeming reality around us, seeking comfort in the ridicule, shunning the cold chill of their insignificance in the shadow of great wonder. Sadly, scientists do this regularly, depriving real investigation into the real final frontiers.
To simply dismiss the unknown because you haven’t personally experienced it is an arrogance that is both pathetic and poignant at the same time. As an example, ask yourself this: how many credible, sane eyewitnesses does it take to convict someone of murder in this country? One? Two? Hundreds of thousands of people have seen UFO’s, the majority of whom were sane, credible and some were trained observers. Yet this is discarded out of hand. This makes no sense. None. Let me say again: simply because you choose not to believe in something does not confer non-existence upon it. Things just may not depend on your belief to exist. Imagine that. And even if UFO’s are not machines from another world, no scientist would say that there are no unidentified objects seen in the sky, no matter what they were. UFO means: unidentified flying object. It doesn’t mean: Holy crap this is an alien ship. It simply means no one knows what it is.
Wombats exist. I’ve seen pictures and some film. Thousands if not millions of people have seen wombats. But I haven’t. What if I chose not to believe in wombats, simply because I have not experienced one up close? That would just be silly. Damn right.
I suppose the ultimate expression of the supernatural would be God. I’m not going to get into an ontological debate. I will, however, say this: God is to be experienced and seen in the swirl of events that form the tapestry of our lives. A professor of mine in college called it “radical mystery”, which is to say God is that which cannot be defined or comprehended, yet we as human beings must suspend our desire to classify and accept that we cannot know or comprehend what God is. In effect, it is a surrender to the unknown, something we all must do eventually.
Atheists amuse me in that they are the eternal children who never got that train set they wanted for Christmas when they were a kid, so they take it out by not believing in anything. It is a bittersweet blindness that consumes them, one which can create a husk where a man once stood. This optional blindness usually culminates in the definitive statement: “I don’t believe in God”, at which point I reply, “I’d be more concerned about whether God believes in YOU.”
I mean, even Ray Charles could see it when he was alive. What does that make you?
Andrew T.Durham is a graduate of State University at Albany, with a degree in Psychology/Philosophy. In the late 80's to mid 90's he was instrumental in creating ground-breaking outreach/prevention programs, as well as being a highly successful public speaker. A former acupuncturist and clinician (primarily to inner city adolescents), he has also been a consultant to the Massachusetts State Department of Public Health and several non-profit organizations. He is an accomplished musician - proficient in 7 instruments - ,actor and author of 10 plays, 5 of which have been produced. He is currently a consultant for small non-profit agencies and lives in Rochester, NY
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