How could we, as humans, not want to know – and about all manner of things? This innate need is reflected in the unending questions by small children. Very little children will point with one finger (how do they learn to do that?) to something or other of interest to them; later, when they have the words, to ask what it is. Even later, they will want to know why it is so. What is it doing? How did it get there? And so on.
Not all children fit this mould. Indeed, I once had to ask certain teachers of science in a high school why they were not encouraging their students to ask ‘Why is it so.’ Of course, there is a time and place for such questioning, as I discovered to my dismay. Being bored during a chemistry lesson in high school (when we were learning how to make steel), I asked why a dog’s tail was curled upwards!
Some of us will never grow up. We will continue to ask: What’s that? How does it work? In a universe which refuses to allow us ordinary folk to see it as it is, we rely on experts. They observe, measure, calculate, and each conclusions. Then, some will refuse to change their conclusions until any challenger produces convincing evidence to support an alternative view. Once any expert takes such a stance, any hope of coming to grips with reality is somewhat constrained. What is it that leads to such recalcitrance? Ego? Security in stability?
In Egyptology, the pyramids are apparently claimed to be only tombs. And how were the extremely large blocks of stone in the pyramids, and wherever else they are found (eg. Bolivia, Mexico, Peru), manoeuvred and manipulated? By human labour, of course; what wonderful physiques those labourers must have had! And it was all done with stone tools!
In the physical and biological sciences, uniformitarianism still holds sway. So it is reported. All change has therefore to be very, very slow. Then there other blind spots – seemingly by choice. What about the universal flood (sudden and totally disastrous) recounted in myths from all over the world? Or cosmic catastrophes which are known to have occurred? And which might explain the sudden appearance of new viable species of fauna.
As well, do Hindu and other Eastern religious beliefs have to have been originated more recently than the Old Testament? Is it true that ‘black’ people (ie. those in Egypt, Sumer, and all the lands further east populated by other coloured peoples) couldn’t possibly have been ahead of the Athenians in matters philosophical? Interestingly, recently a historian claimed Europe as encompassing Eurasia; that is, to include western Asia; how far east would his Europe extend? Why does he seek to re-define Europe? I find some men of learning more mysterious than the Cosmos.
How on earth are we going to know even the present if we refuse to examine the past with an open mind? How much of what we are taught is tentative conjecture? I include the Big Bang and the theory of evolution in this category. We reject the myths of yesteryear about significant events which are said to have occurred back in time, but hold on to modern myths as sacred. Do we really want to know?
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 