Challenging Orthodoxy

This is a report I worked on about a year ago. Suprisingly I still find it interesting. It should give people an idea of where my opinions stand, though I do not think of them as opinions, but fact.

Luke Burgess
EH – 240
Prof. Daniel Schenker
Final Essay on
Challenging Orthodoxy

The Importance of Perspective

Martin Luther, Nanak, Li Zhi, John Milton, Nicolas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler all made efforts to show truth to others while correcting the falsities in the set way people lived. Even today the concepts these men have taught us are still used. Because, today having methods for changing the way things are run is a agreed necessity. This is clearly stated one way or another in every work expressed by these authors. The authors show that because of the stuck narrow point of view of men, concepts they create are always suitable for critique by another point of view.

The Catholic Church did not have an easily changeable or upgradeable system during the time of Martin Luther. Though they allowed people to follow in the footsteps of St. Frances, Jesus and other Idols they still did not give the needed freedom to all the people. Instead, they used the fear of Hell as a means to get them to do what the church wanted. Explaining the new point of view he received by simply reading the bible Martin Luther said, "Because I am man and not God, I am not able to shield my books with any other protection than that which my Lord Jesus Christ himself offered for his teaching." This quote shows that his point of view would be universal if people would only read and agree with the words of Jesus.

Nanak clearly tries to explain the problem of attempting to collect all Truth or all points of view. After expressing difficulties in learning truth and knowledge Nanak says, "How then shall we know the Truth?" Clearly he knows all truth is impossible to achieve at this point in time. At the same time, he is recognizing that many people do not know Truth. In this way he is showing that the people he is correcting are not wrong but simply have less truth known to them as he does.

Li Zhi shows people that the opportunity to change must be available in the system of religion that they have. Children always receive change in their mind just as every good system should be open to change. Li Zhi concluded his work with "If the medicine worked for the disease in question, that doesn't mean we should cling fast to it - we certainly shouldn't right away make it the perfect doctrine for thousands of generations!" This explains what Li Zhi knew about correctly running systems. That is, man's perspective of things alters over time and systems of government and religion must be set up to be open to these new perspectives.

The new religious systems being set up after the growth of Protestant Churches had many errors as well. However the disagreement of the Protestant sects was overwhelmed by a dislike for the strict rules of the previous system. John Milton not only recognized the problems, but also found a solution known as freedom of speech and expression. Milton said that "[i]f it be desired to know the immediate cause of all this free writing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned a truer than your own mild and free and human government." John Milton is clearly a man attempting to understand any new perspective a man may have. This freedom can be used to inspire new perspectives on the truth that can ultimately lead mankind that much closer to the Ultimate Truth we are seeking after.

Nicolas Copernicus was a simple monk in the Catholic Church who simply observed the truth and had to share it with others. Like Luther he to was distressed that people would willing blind themselves to a perspective that clearly shows more truth. Copernicus explains that he “dared to publish [his] studies after devoting so much effort to working them out” that clearly all should understand. This shows the beginning of the need for a scientific community, because even after explaining in detail why his perspective is true people still do not believe Copernicus is telling the truth.

Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler are members of a scientific community that could not ignore perspectives on the truth that were clearly proving the current leaders concepts were entirely wrong. The scientific conclusions they drew were due to careful observation and thorough calculation. They did not have to conduct any interpretation of words in a book, rather simply observe reality and express to each other what they saw. Both Galileo and Kepler were eager to read each other’s points of view. Galileo said he has an “eager desire to read [Kepler’s] book” making it clear he has great interest in Kepler’s work. Kepler asks Galileo to “answer [him] with a very long letter” expressing his desire to hear more of Galileo’s opinion. People may disagree with what reality is but they cannot disagree with what they see from a particular point of view. This is the embodiment of the importance to perspective, clearly perspective can be altered over time and all people should be prepared for newly learned perspectives.

There is no doubt that the systems in existence long ago were flawed and the new systems after them were still flawed. However as humankind has matured new systems open to alteration have been formed. The biggest minds behind the Internet and Google have admitted the key to a successful system is not a perfect system, but an easily changeable and upgradeable system. Not to mention that our own systems of governing are set up with the ability of change. The real question is how these alterations in the system will take place, not if they should take place.