I often hear about mythological beliefs. Here are a few.
Myth: No one has ever left the atmosphere. Folks think Lunar landings, space stations, man orbiting the earth, and more, are fake. The fact that I worked on the space shuttle while working at Boeing doesn't prove anything to them. People say, "Just because you worked on a machine doesn't mean it went into space."
People ask, "How can the flag be waving on the moon if there's no atmosphere?" They don't know the flag has internal contoured rods making it look as though it's waving. Some of these folks think it's all Hollywood.
Myth: Aliens have invaded the earth. This myth started out as a religious belief several thousand years before Jesus was born. Someday I'll write a book about that. Orson Welles' famous radio broadcast in 1938 titled, "War of the Worlds," greatly expanded this theory, and the event in Roswell, N.M., in 1947 further propagated the myth. That story is too long for this article, but briefly stated: the craft or balloon was American. However, the Government accepted the "alien" story to cover up its secret operation. It's no longer secret, but the myth has found a home in the minds of millions of people.
Myth: UFOs are seen regularly. This is a tough one because there is no proof. It may be true that people are seeing something, and individuals have given lengthy reports of what they call experiences. But no photos have been taken, parts of crashed vehicles have been proven to be man-made, and we have no recordings of aliens talking. But the letters "UFO" is true because, indeed, whatever people saw has been unidentified.
Myth: UFO was seen refueling at the sun. One report is that a spacecraft might have been seen refueling with solar plasma near the sun. This one is filled with pure speculation: How does anyone know it was a spacecraft? How would anyone know it was refueling? What makes someone think the 2 million degree F radioactive gases of a thermonuclear explosion can be used as a fuel?
Now, a little closer to home.
Myth: The earth is flat. The basic rationale for a Christian is in the Bible. Scripture such as Job 37:2-3 sounds as though the earth is flat. "Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth."
Of course, the phrase "corners of the earth" means world-wide, but that doesn't hold water for "flat-earthers." They believe that pictures of the earth's curvature taken from the space station, from the moon, and from jets flying at high altitude are fake.
However, people in ancient times knew the earth is round. The Greeks knew it in 300 BC. Bartholomew Columbus, the brother of Christopher Columbus, was a cartographer, and both of them taught that the earth was round.
The myth is still popular, and thousands of people around the world have joined flat-earth societies. Of course, some have joined for the fun of it, but many are serious.
Myth: Evolution. Some folks think the concept of evolution (sometimes referred to as Darwinian Evolution) started with Charles Darwin in the 1830s. But it can be traced back to Anaximander of Miletus, a Greek philosopher around 575 BC, who thought all living organisms originated in water. But the concept of evolution is non-scientific and has a scientific flaw. It is based on the idea that organic life evolved from inorganic minerals dissolved in water. But that is not possible and reveals that the entire evolutionary school of thought has no scientific or practical foundation. However, it qualifies as a religion, and should be treated as such.
Myth: The Nebraska Man. A tooth was found by a farmer in 1922. It was sent to scientists who already believed in the evolutionary concept, and they readily agreed that it belonged to an anthropoid ape which, they decided, inhabited the Americas eons ago. The Nebraska Man was created by forming a figure that might use this tooth. Although in 1927 they realized it was the tooth of a pig, the evolutionary-minded teaching profession continued using the Nebraska Man as an evolutionary tool for years.
But today, people who can verify that the evolutionary concept is neither true nor science, are often considered as conspiracy-theorists.
I'm out of space. I'll be back next week.
S. Eugene Linzey is author, speaker, and mentor. Send comments and questions to [email protected]. Visit his web site at www.genelinzey.com. The opinions expressed are those of the author.