Exactly how the universe began has been a great mystery to scientists since the dawn of Astronomy. The popular belief is that the universe was created by the Big Bang. It is actually called the Big Bang Theory. It is a theory. But how do you and me, the knowers, actually know what happened 15,000 billion years ago. Sure, we’ve read articles in science newsletters that scientists are hearing echoes of what was considered to be a large explosion. What if the sounds were on an exploding star, what if the data being picked up by the computers is not sound but some interference from a neutron star emitting radio waves? Has anyone travelled back in time 15,000 billion years and taken videos of what happened? There is no solid proof to back this belief, only theories and ideologies.
Were you born? You would say “yes, of course.” I would reply, “How do you know?” do you have any pictures of your birth, any videos perhaps? Sure, you’ll say I have baby pictures of my self. Yes, baby photos but not photos of your birth. You could have been put into this world without being born. What if we were in a situation similar to that in the movie ‘The Matrix?’ Where our minds are programmed to perceive what we are perceiving now? The minds of your parents could have been programmed with the memories of conception. Your mother’s mind could have been programmed with the pain of you birth giving. The fact is that there is no solid evidence, no videos of the actual birth process; only beliefs.
Aliens, extra-terrestrials, UFOs; whatever you wish to call them; the question is: “Do they exist?” there have been many claims by people that they have had some encounter with aliens. However 99% of UFO sightings have been clearly identified as weather balloons, military aircraft, or the moon in the clouds. Bout now, you’ll probably ask, “what about the other 1%?” There are many objects in the earth’s atmosphere such as meteors, satellites, clouds…. There is also the possibility that the 1% of the people could have been suffering from paranoia, this caused him to perceive the simplest of objects as a visitor from outer space. You could say that there have been pictures of alien spacecraft or aliens themselves. These pictures are not in good detail and for that matter; they can be generated on the computer then printed on photographic paper. We would not know whether the photo is genuine or not, we were not there when the photo was taken. We, you and me, the knowers have no solid proof on the existence of aliens.
People also believe that aliens do not exist. But they do not know for sure. Why don’t they think aliens exist, fear? If so, then they are letting personal feelings get in the way of the persuasion of knowledge. Anyway, the fact of the matter is that there is no solid evidence that aliens don’t exist. Has anyone travelled to all the 300 billion stars in the universe and checked for life on some of the orbiting planets? Just because no proof has been found of their existence, this doesn’t mean that they do not exist. Just because aliens haven’t contacted us, it doesn’t mean that they do not exist. We need solid proof to satisfy ourselves that aliens do not exist, not mere speculation. “Absence of proof does not mean proof of absence.” – Anonymous.
So in conclusion we observe that for a few popular beliefs we have not found any solid evidence to back up the belief, the theory. Therefore the claim “A belief is what we accept as truth” (J. W. Apps) is a claim that I cannot defend for that same reason. For a belief to be accepted as truth it must be proven scientifically, observed and recorded (pictures or videos) or proven logically. We have seen from the examples above that there has not been any authentic evidence to back up what people believe. Therefore there is no reason as to why the claims should not be classified as untrue.
By Imran Meghji IB1
Word count: 947
The dictionary I used was “The Universal Dictionary” published by Psychology Publishing CO. LTD Marple, Cheshire. I also used the “Collins Paperback Thesaurus, Major New Edition” published by Harper Collins Publishers in 1995.
