The Trap of Conventional Thinking

A malady, from which we all suffer, is being stuck inside the box - and science and technology are no exceptions.  If contemporary cosmological thought says, "The universe is made of omelets" then, as an astronomer, you design instruments to look for traces of an intergalactic egg.  And if you don't find any, no problem... it's due to instrument failure.

Somebody once approached a philosopher and said, "What a bunch of morons people must have been a thousand years ago, who looked up at the sunrise and thought that what they were seeing up there was the sun going around the earth",  to which the philosopher replied, "Yeah, yeah, but what would it look like if the sun were indeed going around the earth?"

The point being, of course, is that it would look exactly the same.  What he was saying was that in any circumstance - despite any and all evidence - you see only what your preconceived paradigm TELLS you you're seeing.  In order to change your mind about ANYTHING, you first have to break out of the box of conventional paradigms.  Which is to say, in order to think differently... you have to think differently.

Whether it's taking care of your health, inventing something new, or following the Lord Jesus Christ, unless you break with convention, all you'll get is what everyone else has gotten.  History is LOADED with examples of people who changed their paradigm and revolutionized the world - Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Jesus of Nazareth, the Apostle Paul, Thomas Edison, Dr. Joel Wallach and the list goes on.  The saying may be trite but it's true: "If you keep on doing what you're doing you're going to keep on getting what you've been getting."

How do we go where no man has gone before, if no man has ever gone there before?  Jesus gave us the keys of the kingdom of heaven and so we have to look to His teaching for guidance.  He said, "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat.  But strait is the gate and narrow the way that leadeth unto life and FEW there be that find it."  The road to success, in any endeavor, is the "road less traveled by".

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost

The only way to have a new paradigm, in my opinion, is to get it from above.  It takes prayer and meditation and trust in God to lead us to that new place - that undiscovered country.  This requires that we take ourselves off the throne and submit to the One who created us - to give Him the glory and honor that He rightfully deserves as the Creator.  We glorify Him for imparting to us the necessary wisdom sufficient to overcome the trap of conventional thinking.

I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. - Proverbs 8:12

(Rob's Notes - 

I would be remiss by not crediting James Burke - brilliant educator, science historian, and producer of such educational programming as Connections and The Day The Universe Changed.  I lifted (almost word for word) his speech from the first show in his series, The Day The Universe Changed.  The first three paragraphs are largely his words.)