The difficulty of letting go
While talking of evolution, Richard Dawkins lamented that many still consider evolution as a theory and not as a fact. He was surprised that people hung on to ideas that were scientifically proven wrong. Unlike Dawkins, I am not surprised. As I see the reluctance of some of the ‘rational’ and ‘scientific’ minded in letting go of theories in the face of facts, it does not surprise me that the 'believers' are still hanging on to various religious ‘theories’ on the topic. For example, consider how a so called fact based discipline like history hangs on to its ideas in the face of contradicting evidence. A century back, some Europeans ventured into learning Vedas and Sanskrit. They were stricken by the similarity of the language to their own. In the absence of any other fact, they postulated that Aryans invaded India and spread their language and culture in India. This was not founded on much, but we can’t blame those who made this theory because there was no other fact to cont...