If there is one philosophy that I hold more important than some others, it has to be belief. Not in the way I or another practice a belief in something, but rather in regard to each individual's right to believe what they will. Although, on occasion, I have not been extended the same courtesy, I would never begrudge how or what another believes. The path in life is hard enough, why make it harder by ridiculing another over where their faith has led them on it? While some hold disdain or even disgust over other's beliefs, I am actually pleased when someone finds a way to live their life that makes them content. We should all be so lucky.
With that being stated, my fellow Observers, there are, as with all things in this existence, exceptions to every philosophy that cannot be ignored. No matter how solid a foundation a particular way of thinking has, some bozo is bound to come along with jackhammer of delusional thinking and insist on chipping away at rational thought. Now, it's one thing to believe in god, the devil, heaven and hell. I was raised Catholic so I'll even give you purgatory if you want to make an argument for it. It's another story entirely to unconditionally believe that modern science could, in fact, create a means for unleashing a supernatural evil that will bring Armageddon upon us all. That's Heaven's Gate, put on your striped blue sweatpants, lay down in your bunk with a sheet over your head, after you take these pills, 'cause the mother ship is coming to take you home....NUTS! But again....I'm not begrudging.
At the end of this month the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known more commonly as CERN, will continue their research on the Higgs Boson, known by some as the God Particle, that the institute discovered a few years ago. Since it's discovery in CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a seventeen mile long particle accelerator that collides atoms at close to the speed of light, The Higgs Boson has become an essential part of numerous hypothesis that has allowed scientists to begin to understand the building blocks of the universe as well as our own existence. Most would believe that this discovery would be fascinating, wouldn't you think? I mean, possibly unlocking the mystery of creation or simply answer how our species came to be, if some choose to be obtuse. Regardless of what some choose, it's a pretty groundbreaking discovery, if you ask me. It opens the mind to possibilities we never thought of before and according to some, my loyal reader, it also opens the door to hell on earth. I'm not talking figuratively (more's the pity) no, no, no, no, no, some people genuinely believe that when CERN fires up their atomic roller coaster in the next couple of weeks they will inadvertently open a portal to another dimension that will allow the forces of darkness to reign upon us.Unfortunately this is nothing new when it comes to scientific discoveries. So much so, that CERN has created a specific FAQ page on their website to handle outlandish theories that abound called "Surreal FAQs" . From being accused of their logo resembling 666, having a lawsuit filed against them in order to stop them from running LHC experiments due to the possibility of triggering a black hole that would suck up the earth, allegations that the LHC would draw an asteroid into a collision course with our planet, Raelians citing that CERN was killing tiny life forms that reside in the particles they are smashing together (they also believe life on this planet is an alien ant farm) all the way to CERN's location being labeled as "The 6th Seal" on Google maps, CERN has endured enough unfounded beliefs to last them until doomsday actually occurs. I'd like to point out that all these instances only involve CERN.
You can jump off an even higher unfathomable precipice of crazy if you really want to take your beliefs to new, mad as a March hare, heights. For example, a couple of years ago I-Phone users, who decided to ask Siri when the apocalypse was coming, freaked out all over social medal when they claimed to believe that Siri had determined it would be July 27th 2014. Ummmm.....we're still here ..aren't we? I guess Siri doesn't know everything after all.
Then there is the belief Public Policy Polling unearthed that 13% of Christian fundamentalist polled are positive that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ and are looking for evidence of his secret Sharia plan. And all this time I thought it was Donald Trump.
We also, as parents, have a responsibility to our children to keep them away from J.K. Rowling. She is trying to lure them into Satanism, after all. According to what some evangelical leaders believe, demons can posses your body if you read any Harry Potter book. Well, those Dementors can be quite convincing, so I can see how these bible jockeys could get confused.
Oh, and don't douse yourself with ice water for ALS or anything else for that matter. A poular social media belief states that the ALS bucket challenge had people baptizing themselves into Lucifer's Infernal Doom Army. There may be something to this one as my son did it and I often hear things coming from his room at night that are hard to explain.
Have you noticed how much brighter the moon seems lately? That's because the technology is so much better these days. If you believe, as some do, that the moon does not exist, your probably not surprised. It turns out that those romantic strolls you took in the moonlight were all for naught because it really wasn't there. It's just an elaborate holographic program designed to screw with us. No wonder so many believe we never landed on the moon. It's hard to land a spaceship on something that isn't there.
Not only do some believe that Elvis faked his own death to escape the burden of public life, recent polls have shown that none other than Michael Jackson has joined him in the underground bunker he built below Graceland. Not to be outdone by the "King" or the "King of Pop", Paul McCartney is believed to have been killed in a car crash in the late 60's and was replaced by a very convincing look alike. No wonder why Jacko had to die. After all those crappy songs they did together that we had to suffer through for years, he found out the truth about Paul.
Finally, one belief that keeps me up nights waiting for the sun to rise is those who believe that very same life giving star.... is orbiting the earth. I find it ridiculous and incomprehensible in this day and age that anyone could believe.... actually believe that the earth is geocentric. Oh, and in case your not up on your earth science facts... our planet is hollow as well. Yep, hollow as Palmer chocolate rabbit at Easter. I'll bet a years salary that these people won't get on a boat because they're afraid they'll fall off the edge. Most who believe that Ptolemy got it right do so because the bible tells them so and Jesus loves them this they know. Several scriptures claim that god has "fixed the earth" and it is "immovable and firm". Most theology experts have interpreted this as a description of the planets longevity but geocentric buffs ain't buying that modern day nonsense. I guess they don't believe in satellites or, oh yeah, the change of seasons either. Those things are just non-believer trivial crazy talk and should be dismissed as such as far as they're concerned. The earth revolves around the sun?!?!?!.....Pfffttt.....Crazy!
Our individual belief can define who we are and also, when made publicly known, can be handy information for some of us to have in order to know exactly who to stay away from at a community event or even in our local grocery aisle. As I stated earlier, I would never deny anyone believing in anything they want. It is their right and if you don't mind, care or for that matter want to be avoided like small pox on any given afternoon at any given public place around the town you live in, by all means post, like, tweet, make buttons, flyers, print t-shirts and bumper stickers showing your pride in being bats in the belfry, sleeping upside down crazy for all the world to see. Any of the aforementioned beliefs will fit you better than a hand tailored bubble wrap suit. For those of us that are rooted in a less outrageous frame of mind, we have to ask ourselves a few simple questions when presented with a philosophy or belief before we put stock in it, line our windows with aluminum foil and drink the Kool-Aid. The most important being whether or not what we choose to believe will, in it's practice, harm ourselves or others. On the other end of the spectrum, the least of our worries should be what other people think. What we put our faith into is of such a personal nature, we mustn't allow how others perceive our choice to cloud our judgment of it. I wouldn't walk around wearing a hat made out of a monkey's bladder because a three headed goat god asks it of me as a show of devotion to the church of bananas, but that's my choice. If someone else wishes to seek out a haberdasher that specializes in primate oriented fashion, who am I to say anything? However, if your leap of faith requires you to make others jump along side you, you may want to pack your bags and leave Jonestown. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I have to turn on the moon.
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