Ricky Gervais, a popular British comedian and actor, once said on a talk show that if you took every holy book ever written and hid or destroyed them, then took every science book ever written and destroyed them, in a thousand years time those science books would be back exactly the same, because the tests would always turn out the same.
I disagree. What Gervais claimed is nothing but an idea. A theory. Most of it’s true, except he excludes the very possibility that if you hid or destroyed all scientific books or documents, then in a thousand years new scientific books and documents would be made… that have completely different results.
I’m not saying that Gervais is wrong, because he very much could be right. I am simply saying that his statement was an assumption based on personal bias.
If you took every holy book ever written and hid or destroyed them, then took every science book ever written and destroyed them, in a thousand years time those religions would be forgotten and new ones would be formed, and those scientific books would be back but with different results.
One might say that I am assuming that the scientific books don’t show the same results, and you’d be right. If I assumed they would show the same results then it would only be equally fair to assume that all the current religions would reappear as well.
Scientific “facts” aren’t static; they’re shaped by the context and limitations of the time. Take, for instance, the geocentric model, which placed Earth at the center of the universe. For centuries, using the best available methods, astronomers firmly believed everything revolved around Earth. It wasn’t until new observations and evolving methods emerged that the heliocentric model gained acceptance, completely overturning what was once considered an undeniable fact. This example underscores that scientific truth is often a product of then-current knowledge and tools, which means that if scientific knowledge were wiped out, there’s no guarantee future generations would rediscover the same conclusions we hold as “facts” today.
Those who believe in things such as ‘The Big Bang Theory’ often give religious people a hard timing for ‘believing only what they told’ as if they don’t do the same thing. Any belief is just as possible as anything else, and therefore we should remain neutral of all beliefs, or avoid every one of them.
