It's true. When I was young, about 11 years old, I looked in my school library for some science fiction books to read (it was a fetish of mine at the time). Little did I know that I would stumble upon one of the greatest examples of science fiction in the world...
I read a book about aliens. I've read many science fiction books before then, so I was familiar with the concept behind extraterrestrial life. But I was surprised to learn that these aliens are visiting earth and there is a massive worldwide government conspiracy to prevent the people from knowing this! I was shocked, it sounded amazing and insane, so I looked some more, and bob's your uncle. There was an entire shelf of such books, so I read and read until the certainty was imprinted into my brain that we were being visited! There were thousands of different confirmed sightings: Roswell in particular. I once watched a documentary about Roswell, and after I finished it I challenged my own mother to disprove my belief. She told me about how most of the sightings could be explained by natural means, and those that could not I had no real reason to call alien spacecraft. I reasoned:
1: My mother is a scientist (she teaches Botany and Evolutionary Biology at a college).
2: Scientists are in on the conspiracy.
3: My mother is a government stooge [This is probably the most horrid thing I have ever said to my mother (which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it)].
Feeling that I had been victorious, I went to interrogate my step-father. He, however, refused to answer to any of my accusations, and he did something very unexpected. He gave me a book. It was called Metamagical Themas. Quite catchy.
So I read this book. This was the first scientific book I had read. I cannot describe the elation I received after gleaning the meaning of the book. It was about the mind. Patterns, text, creativity, AI and philosophy. It was amazing. And while I read this book, it mentioned, briefly and sporadically, a concept called logic. So I read more about this mysterious concept, and discovered it was a method to determine truth and the most desirable of responses to a situation. It appeared that logic was tied to science, so I had an idea. I would prove that Extraterrestrial Visitation was real and expose the conspiracy using science and logic! But then, I read other articles. About the sheer improbability of my beliefs, about how the Roswell stories were later exaggerated, etc. At first I refused to read them. But then, I read one. Just one. And then I read another. And another. Until eventually I was at a point were my belief in visitation was shaking to its foundations. So in one final pulse of rebellion I confronted my step-father, and told him everything that I thought was true. He listened, and when I stopped talking, he said "I know that it would be amazing and wonderful if everything you just said was true, but I can't make the leap of faith that you have." And then my breath turned to dust. I realized he was right, this was just a leap of faith, I have no real reason to believe in it.
So I stopped. And now, like a pioneer flower growing in the ashes of an erupted volcano, I was a rational person. Now I am 15. In hindsight, I relish this part of my childhood, as I know what it really feels like to have a fundamental part of my understanding of the world swept from beneath my feet.
Comments, concerns, criticism, candy?
I read a book about aliens. I've read many science fiction books before then, so I was familiar with the concept behind extraterrestrial life. But I was surprised to learn that these aliens are visiting earth and there is a massive worldwide government conspiracy to prevent the people from knowing this! I was shocked, it sounded amazing and insane, so I looked some more, and bob's your uncle. There was an entire shelf of such books, so I read and read until the certainty was imprinted into my brain that we were being visited! There were thousands of different confirmed sightings: Roswell in particular. I once watched a documentary about Roswell, and after I finished it I challenged my own mother to disprove my belief. She told me about how most of the sightings could be explained by natural means, and those that could not I had no real reason to call alien spacecraft. I reasoned:
1: My mother is a scientist (she teaches Botany and Evolutionary Biology at a college).
2: Scientists are in on the conspiracy.
3: My mother is a government stooge [This is probably the most horrid thing I have ever said to my mother (which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it)].
Feeling that I had been victorious, I went to interrogate my step-father. He, however, refused to answer to any of my accusations, and he did something very unexpected. He gave me a book. It was called Metamagical Themas. Quite catchy.
So I read this book. This was the first scientific book I had read. I cannot describe the elation I received after gleaning the meaning of the book. It was about the mind. Patterns, text, creativity, AI and philosophy. It was amazing. And while I read this book, it mentioned, briefly and sporadically, a concept called logic. So I read more about this mysterious concept, and discovered it was a method to determine truth and the most desirable of responses to a situation. It appeared that logic was tied to science, so I had an idea. I would prove that Extraterrestrial Visitation was real and expose the conspiracy using science and logic! But then, I read other articles. About the sheer improbability of my beliefs, about how the Roswell stories were later exaggerated, etc. At first I refused to read them. But then, I read one. Just one. And then I read another. And another. Until eventually I was at a point were my belief in visitation was shaking to its foundations. So in one final pulse of rebellion I confronted my step-father, and told him everything that I thought was true. He listened, and when I stopped talking, he said "I know that it would be amazing and wonderful if everything you just said was true, but I can't make the leap of faith that you have." And then my breath turned to dust. I realized he was right, this was just a leap of faith, I have no real reason to believe in it.
So I stopped. And now, like a pioneer flower growing in the ashes of an erupted volcano, I was a rational person. Now I am 15. In hindsight, I relish this part of my childhood, as I know what it really feels like to have a fundamental part of my understanding of the world swept from beneath my feet.
Comments, concerns, criticism, candy?
