It has been over 120 years since these words were put in print; but they are as true and relevant as this morning’s newspaper. In fact, there may be more truth in this one paragraph than in many full broadsheet newspapers (to say nothing of the tabloids).
“Fontenelle used to say that, if he could only get six philosophers to write in its favour, people could be made to believe that the sun is not the source of light and heat; and I think there is a great deal of truth in the remark. We are told, ‘Well, he is a very learned man, he is a Fellow of Brazenface College, and he has written a book in which he upsets the old dogmas.’ If a learned man writes any nonsense, of course it will have a run; and there is no opinion so insane but, if it has the patronage of so-called scientific men, it will be believed in certain quarters.”
(Charles Spurgeon, https://archive.spurgeon.org/misc/aarm05.php )
A whippersnapper told me the other day that a well-established and proven fact could not be true because “that is what people believed in the 1980s.” He offered no evidence that the fact was not a fact. He simply denied it on the basis of its age.
I suppose that fellow does not believe in gravity because it was described and explained in the 1600s. And he must refuse to ride in a car because cars use wheels, and the wheel was invented longer ago than anyone can document.
Facts never grow old. A truth is true even if we do not like it and even if it has been around for centuries.
Sadly, falsehood just needs a well-known sponsor or two and it spreads like wildfire. Stupidity only needs a few to shout it in the popular media and masses will rush to accept it.
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