History
I have been wondering why all this while we have been trusting
historians. How can I be so sure that the events reported by history
have actually happened.
Contrast this with science. In science, things are stateless with
respect to time. There is no 'event' which has 'happened'. Its all just
there in front of you whenever you want it. You can test it whenever you
want. Of course, one can argue whether you can trust your senses in the
first place, but lets not get into that. Lets assume that the whole
world is what you percieve with your senses. But even then history is
just something that is fed into your brain so as to give you a basis on
which you can justify your existence. The worst part is that you are
taught to change your view of looking at the world and your way of
interpreting information from your senses in way that is consistent with
the so called history.
For example, history has taught me that Hitler was cruel and he
massacred a lot of Jews. How can I be sure that it was not a conspiracy
of the victors to justify their acts? Why am I made to believe that
doing a particular thing is cruel and something else is not? How come
Hitler killing Jews is not acceptable and the Americans dropping atom
bombs on Japan is?
I get this sick feeling that my view of the world is not mine at all. It
is what someone wanted me to see. In that sense I'm just a part of one
of the senses of a larger entity, whatever that maybe. Just like every
cell in our body has been crafted to do something in a particular
fashion. For the cell, history is information stored in the DNA.
Sigh. I'm just a cell in a larger than life scheme of things.
historians. How can I be so sure that the events reported by history
have actually happened.
Contrast this with science. In science, things are stateless with
respect to time. There is no 'event' which has 'happened'. Its all just
there in front of you whenever you want it. You can test it whenever you
want. Of course, one can argue whether you can trust your senses in the
first place, but lets not get into that. Lets assume that the whole
world is what you percieve with your senses. But even then history is
just something that is fed into your brain so as to give you a basis on
which you can justify your existence. The worst part is that you are
taught to change your view of looking at the world and your way of
interpreting information from your senses in way that is consistent with
the so called history.
For example, history has taught me that Hitler was cruel and he
massacred a lot of Jews. How can I be sure that it was not a conspiracy
of the victors to justify their acts? Why am I made to believe that
doing a particular thing is cruel and something else is not? How come
Hitler killing Jews is not acceptable and the Americans dropping atom
bombs on Japan is?
I get this sick feeling that my view of the world is not mine at all. It
is what someone wanted me to see. In that sense I'm just a part of one
of the senses of a larger entity, whatever that maybe. Just like every
cell in our body has been crafted to do something in a particular
fashion. For the cell, history is information stored in the DNA.
Sigh. I'm just a cell in a larger than life scheme of things.
Comments
You might love reading the much hyped 'Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown' which beautifully shows how Catholic Church must have curbed some of the secrets pertaining to Jesus' life.
BTW, I strongly suspect that you must have already read that book and it has inspired you to write this very post.