Collective Wisdom Ain't

Collective wisdom is no kind of wisdom. A look at the major breakthroughs in thought throughout history shows that defying collective wisdom often leads to the purest creative solutions to the questions that are pondered. The history of science and technology particularly is a progression of one case study after another that shows how new advancements rely on stepping outside of what is at the time considered by many people to be an obvious fact.

Consider the case of Ptolemy. He developed a beautifully detailed and well reasoned model of the universe in which the Earth stood at the center. To account for the motion of the heavenly bodies, Ptolemy reasoned that they sat upon fixed spheres which rotated around the Earth. Since he realized that stars, planets and comets all seemed to have different trajectories, he reasoned that there were in fact several of these spheres.

The most important thing about Ptolemy's model is that it worked. He had the evidence in front of him and constructed a model based on that evidence. Because Ptolemy's model explained things so well, it became widely accepted. This model, along with the remarkably detailed records that he kept regarding the motion of the stars and planets, proved to be useful for navigation and astronomy for centuries to follow.

Although people periodically hypothesized that the Earth might actually be orbiting the Sun, Ptolemy's model remained the commonly accepted view of the cosmos for fourteen centuries! It was not until Copernicus arrived on the scene that a heliocentric theory gained traction. Prior to that time, people were largely complacent to accept the collective wisdom of others.

Let's face it: we all have a tendency to be lazy thinkers. That in and of itself is not a bad thing. Lazy thinking helps us get through the day. At some point, you can button your shirt in the morning without any deliberate thought. And imagine what the world would be like if everybody had to discover everything by themselves, without relying on the knowledge and wisdom of others. Fortunately, we don't have to understand how computers work, we just have to know how to use them. We don't have to know the entire written works of physics and astronomy to enjoy watching the sun set. We can use the wisdom of our predecessors to leapfrog to our own discoveries.

But when we become too complacent about our thinking, we run the risk of preventing further progress and prevent increasing the quality of our knowledge. When we accept assumptions as fact solely because everybody agrees with the idea, we have something that is cause for suspicion.

This is not to suggest that all collective wisdom is wrong. Sometimes things are widely accepted as true because they actually are. People would generally agree that leaping off of a cliff is detrimental to your health. Most people agree that you should not eat rat poison. It would certainly not be wise to defy conventional thinking and leap off of a cliff or to feast on a box of rat poison "just to double check".

The key is to ensure that you are always thinking. Challenge your assumptions. When you accept something as true, accept it because you have thought about it and found it to be true -- not merely because somebody told you that "everybody knows" it is true.

Also At Babblermouth:
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This Sentence Has Over 100 Errors

One of the classic arguments against the reliability of scripture is that there are tens of thousands of errors in the texts. You see, there are many ancient copies of the books of the New Testament. However, there are several errors among them, and many copies don't completely match any of the other copies. Some are spelling errors, others are syntax errors. Some are paraphrases rather than direct copies. And so, the argument goes, there is no way to know what the original scripture is supposed to be. Such an overwhelming number of errors, as some assert, casts suspicion over what exactly constitutes the true teaching of the religion -- or indeed the very legitimacy of such a religion.

Sounds convincing, doesn't it?

Well, don't throw your Bible away just yet. Here we have a situation where the facts as they are presented are technically accurate -- there are indeed many discrepancies among the thousands of New Testament texts that exist. However, the conclusion presented (that there is no way to reliably know what the original text says) is false!

Perhaps a little experiment will demonstrate just how important accuracy among several transcriptions matters with regard to understanding what the original source says?

I will write a single sentence incorrectly 100 times. No sentence will match any other sentence, and no sentence will completely match the correct sentence. In fact, I will not write the correct sentence even once. My challenge to you is this: read each of the sentences and see if you can honestly claim it is "impossible" to know what the correct sentence is. Hint: It won't require 100 sentences...you will likely determine the correct sentence after only the first few lines!

1. When looking for the truth, look carefully.


2. Wen searching for the truth, look carefully.


3. When searching for truth, look carefully.


4. When searching for the truth, look closely.


5. When searching for the the truth, look carefully.


6. When surching for the truth, look carefully.


7. When searching for a truth, look carefully.


8. When searching for the facts, look carefully.


9. When searching for the truth, watch carefully.


10. When for searching the truth, look carefully.


11. Look carefully when searching for the truth.


12. When searching for teh truth, look carefully.


13. When searching for the truth, watch carefully.


14. When searching for the truth, investigate carefully.


15. When seeking the truth, look carefully.


16. When you are searching for the truth, look carefully.


17. When searching for the trueth, look carefully.


18. When searching for the truth, look intently.


19. When searching for the truth, luke carefully.


20. When searching for the truth, look carelessly.


21. When searching out the truth, look carefully.


22. Whoever searches for the truth looks carefully.


23. When searching for the truth, please look carefully.


24. When searching for the truth, look carefuly.


25. When "searching" for the truth, look carefully.


26. When searching for fact, look carefully.


27. When searching for the truth, look with care.


28. When investigating the truth, look carefully.


29. When researching the truth, look carefully.


30. When searching for the trooth, look carefully.


31. When searching for the truth, investigate carefully.


32. When searching for the truth, research carefully.


33. Look carefully to find the truth.


34. When searching for the reality, look carefully.


35. When searching for the truth, look karefully.


36. When searching for the truth, look carefully


37. When sEarching for the truth, look carefully.


38. Women searching for the truth, look carefully.


39. When something for the truth, look carefully.


40. When searching fo the truth, look carefully.


41. When searching for truth, look carefully.


42. When for the truth, look carefully.


43. Searching for the truth, look carefully.


44. When searching for the, look carefully.


45. When searching for the truth, carefully.


46. When searching for the truth, look.


47. Whe searching for the truth, look carefully.


48. When searchin for the truth, look carefully.


49. When searching for th truth, look carefully.


50. When searching for the trut, look carefully.


51. When searching for the truth, loo carefully.


52. When searching for the truth, look carefull.


53. When searching for the truth, look diligently.


54. When searching for the truth, look patiently.


55. When searching for the truth, look fervently.


56. When searching for the truth, observe carefully.


57. When searching for the truth, scrutinize carefully.


58. When searching for the truth, look carefully.


59. When when searching for the truth, look carefully.


60. When searching searching for the truth, look carefully.


61. When searching for for the truth, look carefully.


62. When searching for the truth truth, look carefully.


63. When searching for the truth, look look carefully.


64. When searching for the truth, look carefully carefully.


65. Whon searching for the truth, look carefully.


66. When soarching for the truth, look carefully.


67. When searching for tho truth, look carefully.


68. When searching for the truth, look carofully.


69. When searching for the truth, look carefully.


70. When searching for the truth: look carefully.


71. When searching for the truth? look carefully.


72. When searching for the truth (look carefully).


73. Who's searching for the truth, look carefully.


74. Where searching for the truth, look carefully.


75. This sentence is totally in left field!


76. When searching for the fish, look carefully.


77. When searching for the truth, look lively.


78. When searching from the truth, look carefully.


79. When searching for the truth, look care


80. When searching for the honesty, look carefully.


81. For when searching the truth, look carefully.


82. When the searching for truth, look carefully.


83. Are you still reading this?!


84. When searching for the proof, look carefully.


85. W.en searching for the truth, look carefully.


86. When sea.ching for the truth, look carefully.


87. When searching fo. the truth, look carefully.


88. When searching for .he truth, look carefully.


89. When searching for the tru.h, look carefully.


90. When searching for the truth, lo.k carefully.


91. When searching for the truth, look ca.efully.


92. Wehn searching for the truth, look carefully.


93. When snihcraeg for the truth, look carefully.


94. When searching for the tturh, look carefully.


95. When searching for the truth, look clluferay.


96. When hiding the truth, look carefully.


97. When searching for the lie, look carefully.


98. When searching for the truth, close your eyes.


99. When reaching for the truth, look carefully.


100. when searching for the truth, look carefully.

Surprising, isn't it? How many lines did you read before the correct form of the sentence became obvious? As you can see in this demonstration, it would have been almost impossible to determine with any degree of certainty what the actual sentence is meant to be if there were only two or three of these sentences. But when there are a hundred, it becomes an elementary exercise to discern the real meaning. In the case of the texts of the New Testament, there are several hundred copies of parts of the New Testament, and thousands of copies of other parts!

The conclusion, then, as you can clearly see, is this: in light of the sheer number of copies of the New Testament that are available, the errors amongst them can be seen at worst as a trivial nuisance -- and utterly incapable of clouding their true message.

Also At Babblermouth:
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