"Important truths begin as outrageous, or at least uncomfortable, attacks upon the accepted wisdom of the time.
" From time immemorial, important ”important truths” which have the capacity revolutionalising and bettering the condition of the people are often consider as dross, outrageous, unaccepted, or at least uncomfortable to the society at that time. This has been a major setback to our socioeconomic development, yet we had lived with for ages and our history is fraught with examples.The reasons range from opposition by people who consider these “truths” as heresies and by leaders who are desperate to retain their positions and would not allow anything that could challenge their authority. People tend to oppose “truths” that go against their beliefs which have long been held by them and that probably constitute a major framework of their societal structure.For instance when Galileo, Italian physicist and astronomer, asserted that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa , the common belief , he was vehemently opposed, the act was considered reprehensible, punishable and was charged for “grave suspicion of heresy”.
Galileo was compelled in 1633 to abjure (formally renounce his beliefs) and was sentenced to life imprisonment (swiftly commuted to permanent house arrest). The Dialogue, his book, was ordered to be burned, and the sentence against him was to be read publicly in every university.In addition to opposing important truth base on the ground that it is an heresy, the leaders are also important factor in appealing to people emotion to oppose the “truths”, this is because these “important truths” sometimes challenge their authority, expose the leaders to scrutiny and perhaps to ridicule. For instance, fractions are likely to ensue from effect of the truth on the people, causing rebellion to the leaders, an act that the leader dread to even consider at all.The Authority during Galileo time feared opposition from the people since they might have a aorta of about the principle on which the church is founded. It is worthy of knowing that “important truths” which have once been strongly oppose, considered as outrageous and the perpetrators condemned, soon resurfaced as genuine though after the originators of the themes are long gone.
This is because the society gets more enlightened and often tries to verify the authenticity of the truth which had once been condemned.Some” important truths” have been suppressed at the time they first were asserted because it opposed the beliefs of the populace and were then found consider as dangerous to the society as these truth are capable of causing fractions in and disturbing the peace of the society, but it would be realized that the truths often does the opposite if they are well considered, verified and explored to see how they can be of good use to the society. From a close examination of the historical events, it could be deduced that because many “important truths” were persecuted, many would died without a trace of their existence.This is because the carriers of the “important truth” might fear the vehement opposition and penalty by the society for being heretic. Therefore it would be logical to state that we as a society have killed great minds and lost valuable ideas that could have better shapen the contemporary world.
There cannot be gainsaid that there could be some challenges of some “important truth”, for example; their tendency to cause commotion, the difficulties of their verification and the negation of long held beliefs which probably constitute the structure of the society which account for their opposition. t is however important for us as refined society to be open minded to accept these assertions as statements requiring verification, and allow justice to prevail instead of considering them as outrageous and then rejecting them based on sentimental reasons because their contributions to the society far outweigh the challenges they may initially pose.
