Flat Earth

I was at first amused and then totally dumbfounded that a professional basketball player stated his belief that the earth is flat.  His position, he claims, is self-confirming, “Just look at it.  It’s in front of your eyes.  The earth is flat,” stated Kyrie Irving, an all-star point guard from the Cleveland Cavaliers earning $17.6 million dollars in 2016.  Irving attended Duke University, a prestigious private college, but dropped out after his freshman year to play professional basketball.  Clearly, he needed 3 more years at Duke.

Irving comes from a position that underlies much of today’s headlines:  I believe it, therefore it is true.  Rarely have we seen such an anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-math philosophy represented in key figures in our country.  I love the Neil deGrasse Tyson T-shirt that says, “Science is not a Liberal Conspiracy.”  At this point in our history too many people believe that statement to be false.

There are facts.  Alternative facts are either lies or expressions of belief that run contrary to logic and science.  I get it that Trump, et. al., hate that Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes.  That does not alter that fact.  Claiming that the fact must be wrong and that there must be millions of people who voted fraudulently is a wish, a belief and not a fact.  I get it that Trump, et. al., hate that he now holds the lowest percentage of support of any person entering the Presidency.  Claiming that the numbers are flawed does not change that fact.  I get it that Trump, et. al., hates the press and are spending a lot of energy characterizing the press as the enemy or the opposition party.  It is the duty of the press in a democracy to challenge falsehoods and seek the truth.  If I lie and I get challenged by the press that does not mean the press is my enemy any more than if a doctor diagnoses the flu and prescribes a shot.  There may be pain for the lie tellers and the exaggerators and the folks who are anchored to belief not fact.  But such pain is a step toward wellness.

The earth is not flat.  The earth is more than 6,000 years old.  Evolution is real, intelligent design is not.  The current rapid warming of the earth is due to carbon emissions by human beings, particularly fossil fuels.  Pipelines leak and cause environmental damage.  Charter schools do not help children, they help private entrepreneurs.  Vouchers do not help children, they help the wealthy parents of children.  Anti-abortion legislation and court rulings are not about being pro-life as much as they are about implementing the religious belief of some as the law of the land.  Increased accessibility to firearms and silencers and assault rifles increases the number of deaths due to firearms.  Welfare fraud in the US occurs in less than 1% recipients. Eliminating the oversight of Wall Street that was put in place after the 2008 debacle is just crazy as we know what the bankers and hedge fund folks will do.   Blocking the immigration of 7 countries to keep America safe is a religious, anti-Muslim effort as no one from those 7 countries has ever committed a felony in the US.  Barak Obama is not a Muslim and was born in the United States.  And on and on.

When the facts, when the results of scientific inquiry, hypothesis testing, rigorous review disagree with one’s belief systems we all have a choice.  We can accept reality, or argue that my opinion means more than the facts.  It is our arrival at a day that places us in grave danger when individuals are appointed to leadership positions based on their opinions rather than their knowledge and skill.  If the intellectuals, the experts, the scientists reveal the results of their study and you conclude they must somehow be wrong, then the issue is not science, it is you.  Reviewing the qualifications of the Cabinet appointees it is clear they were not selected for their knowledge, wisdom, experience, but their opinions.

The earth is in fact round, or at least roundish.  To publicly state anything else is a falsehood not based on science and should be called out as an ignorant belief similar to thinking thunder is caused by the gods bowling in heaven, or that man and dinosaurs inhabited the earth at the same time.  It is dangerous to believe that which is not true. It is dangerous to continue to believe that which we wish were true but has been proven false.  If we do not honestly engage reality we live a fantasy life that will be destroyed by reality.  Such an approach to life and leadership is grounded in fallacy and is equivalent to the emperor’s new clothes.  That made worse by name calling and persecution of those who dare to point out that the emperor is naked.  Hence the attack on the press.

At the very least we should expect our leaders to speak the truth as it is known to us, not beliefs in conflict with the truth.  We stand on the shoulders of scientists and reap the benefit of their discoveries and applications every day. Failure to do so is the blatant incompetence and deceit of snake oil sales people, all of whom should sacrifice their cell phones, TVs, cars, medicines, etc., as a part of their rejection of the science we know.  Can one truly have it both ways?  Reject the benefits of science while rejecting those truths from science we find uncomfortable?  Opinion is not fact.  To believe an opinion contrary to known facts is a self-branding process which results in wide-spread knowledge that such a person possesses the fool’s brain.  And such a person should never be looked to leadership.

Attacking those who bring you facts harms no one but the attacker.  We hold those members of the church in utter contempt today for their torture and rejection of the notion that the sun is the center of our solar system, a fact which conflicted with their belief.  If you are correct and they are wrong it will become clear in the end.  The only reason to attack those who question one’s statements or opinions is the fear that the truth will be revealed and the fool’s brain lie transparent.  Made worse by a strong avoidance of transparency and an aura of secrecy and conspiracy. 

Mr. Irving, Ms. Conway, Ms. DeVoss, and President Trump, with all due respect, you are wrong and the facts speak differently than what you claim.  At each instance of such nonsense you declare yourselves fools.  The more adults who know the facts the less likely you are to be able to lead.  So, be honest, base your position on our best science and the best we can be as humans, or plan your departure.  Those who see the earth as flat will roll off the earth.  Or at least their basketballs will.