Drink From the Well
Imagine a town with a well in the middle of the town square. Like any other functional well it has a bucket attached to a rope allowing you to pull water out of it. From time to time people will come to the well, throw the bucket down and attempt to pull up a bucket full of water. But doing so is hard work. The bucket, for some reason, isn’t always full and can sometimes be empty, but even so it is always heavy and hard to pull up. Some people don’t like the water from the well. They claim that the water is foul in taste and some are even scared of tasting it. Nonetheless, if the town is to survive they will need the water from the well, and for those who don’t like the taste the water is distilled and put in colourful bottles to make it more palatable, and the people who drink the bottled water sometimes choose to remain ignorant about where the water really comes from.
The well I am talking about is, of course, science. Like pulling water from the well attaining scientific knowledge is always hard work, and the understanding we come across isn’t always the understanding we wanted or even something we find pleasurable. Sometimes we can do science for decades without much to show for it because we don’t know beforehand what we are going to find. Like the well our very existence is ultimately dependent upon our scientific knowledge and it is unquestionably the most influential and powerful idea we have ever come up with, influencing every human being on the planet to one degree or another, and none more than those of us living in modern western societies. We depend upon it, and yet there are those among us who not only will not willingly drink from the well but who do not realize how much of its water they consume every day. They see no reason for people to continue the laborious work of pulling buckets of knowledge out of the dark, and some would in fact pass laws to prevent it.
The truth is that the well really is right there in the centre of our town square and we really do depend upon its water. Our very survival hinges on our ability to understand the universe around us, but the path there is not easy and we may not like everything we find on our way. But I would argue that the water from the well can indeed by both tasteful and sweet, and we sample that sweetness every time we use a computer, fly in a plane or eat a meal. Educating yourself is your responsibility and whether you are able to stare the naked facts in the face or not is up to you and no-one else. Some of the sights you will see may not be what you wanted to see and they may at times be unpleasant. But I promise you that many of the things you’ll learn will be stranger, more wondrous and amazing than you can imagine, and I guarantee that you will be richer for it.
Make sure you know where your water comes from and drink deeply.
The well I am talking about is, of course, science. Like pulling water from the well attaining scientific knowledge is always hard work, and the understanding we come across isn’t always the understanding we wanted or even something we find pleasurable. Sometimes we can do science for decades without much to show for it because we don’t know beforehand what we are going to find. Like the well our very existence is ultimately dependent upon our scientific knowledge and it is unquestionably the most influential and powerful idea we have ever come up with, influencing every human being on the planet to one degree or another, and none more than those of us living in modern western societies. We depend upon it, and yet there are those among us who not only will not willingly drink from the well but who do not realize how much of its water they consume every day. They see no reason for people to continue the laborious work of pulling buckets of knowledge out of the dark, and some would in fact pass laws to prevent it.
The truth is that the well really is right there in the centre of our town square and we really do depend upon its water. Our very survival hinges on our ability to understand the universe around us, but the path there is not easy and we may not like everything we find on our way. But I would argue that the water from the well can indeed by both tasteful and sweet, and we sample that sweetness every time we use a computer, fly in a plane or eat a meal. Educating yourself is your responsibility and whether you are able to stare the naked facts in the face or not is up to you and no-one else. Some of the sights you will see may not be what you wanted to see and they may at times be unpleasant. But I promise you that many of the things you’ll learn will be stranger, more wondrous and amazing than you can imagine, and I guarantee that you will be richer for it.
Make sure you know where your water comes from and drink deeply.