Truth & Purple Undies (standard:non fiction, 6572 words)
Author: PeterFromOZ	Added: Apr 02 2011	Views/Reads: 2454/1698	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Truth & Purple Undies is an autobiographical piece of creative writing.

Truth & Purple Undies 

by Peter E. Williams 

Warning: This may challenge your belief system. Then again it may
reinforce them. 

Beliefs are a funny thing. We believe what we know to be true, or at
least we think we know certain things. But that doesn't necessarily 
make them so. For example, many centuries ago, in the Middle Ages in 
think it was, everyone *knew* that the Earth was flat, and that the Sun 
revolved around the Earth. It was a fact, because everyone knew it. If 
anyone doubted this then they were probably a witch, and we burn 
witches at the stake. You'd believe too, if you knew what was good for 
you. 

But of course, the Flat Earthers' beliefs were based on truisms: that
large parts of the Earth – probably all that they knew of – were indeed 
largely flatish. Certainly there was no denying that there were 
mountains, but it was a flat slab – Earth was. In fact if you sailed 
too far you'd sail clear off the edges of the Earth. Of course the Flat 
Earth Society was disbanded a long time ago, but not until there were 
photos of the Earth taken from the moon. And even then, they were 
argued to be distortions of photography by many die-hard Flat Earthers. 


Of course in our modern society we wouldn't believe such foolish things.
Things without proof. Or would we? For years scientist knew that there 
wasn't a hole in the ozone layer. After all they had taken readings. 
Some of those readings were actually off the scale – erroneous numbers, 
which of course the software ignored because it had been told in it's 
program that *if* they were too large then they must be an error. Then 
one day, one scientist sort of said, “Hang about, what if these number 
aren't actually errors. What would that mean? It would mean there's a 
hole in the ozone layer.” And so a hole in the ozone layer was 
discovered. They didn't actually ever *know* that there wasn't a hole 
in the ozone layer. It's just that they never really considered that 
there *was* a hole. 

Not considering that something is or isn't the case isn't quite the same
as knowing it. It just means that it hasn't be thought about. For 
example, I bet the up until right now you didn't know that I'm wearing 
purple undies. Now that you thought about, I suppose that you consider 
it to be a possibility. You probably didn't think about it because you 
didn't care, or it didn't occur to you. It didn't seem relevant. Now 
that I've said it, you know it – or at least you think you know it. It 
all depends on whether I'm telling the truth. Only I can really say. 
And I'm not telling. Unless of course someone was to rush around here 
right now and demand to see for themselves (to obtain proof). 

Of course some people believe things without any proof at all. Religion
is a classic example. No-one can prove to you one way or the other 
whether the Big Cheese really exists or not. Call him whatever you 
like: God, Krishna, Buddha ... whatever. It's a matter of faith. Sure 
there's the Bible or the Koran or The Book or Mormon or whatever. But 
then some will say that they're just stories. But others will say “Why 
would anyone write them if they weren't true. Or at least the people 
who wrote them believed in what they were writing. After all they were 
written by Prophets with divine inspiration; with an afflatus.” 

People's religious beliefs are usually founded in something. Usually
it's a long family and cultural tradition. And all through the good 
times their mum and dad, or whoever, had those beliefs and we all went 
along to church or the temple as the case may be, and had those beliefs 
drummed in to them and reinforced. And the message was always the same: 
do the right things and it'll be OK in the end. HE likes you when 
you've behaving yourself and believing in HIM. 

Of course if you were some kind of ruling King (back in the Middle Ages)
or something then I suppose that inventing a religion would be just the 
ticket for keeping the peasants in line. I'm sure that at some time in 
history The Church of England was invented. I picked that one because 
it's my religion – well officially. Whether I actually subscribe to 
what they preach is another thing. 



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