Different persons have been sharing versions of a doomsday
scenario for 21 December. They speak about galactic alignment
and planet collision. When challenged, they quote NASA to defend their
declarations. When asked to forward the referred link, they would sheepishly
admit that they were just passing on what they had heard from a ‘reliable’
friend.
Obviously, the ‘reliable’
friend was relying on a source where myth was being flaunted as scientific fact
by wrongly attributing it to trustworthy agencies like NASA. But it is pertinent
to note that even those, who receive the rumour through the internet, do not
visit the cyber space to find that NASA has been consistently debunking all such
doomsday rumours.
Dr Carl Sagan had foreseen
that ‘pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the
siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive.’ Oddly, while we easily
accept the incredulous, we do not pay heed to real imminent problems like
global warming, pollution, etc, as here too, we do not go to source to confirm
reality.
It would be better
if we confirm source before we pass on any data that we have received. Whether
the rumours are of doomsday scenarios or even personal information, we must
always validate the truthfulness of what may seem factual. Otherwise our skill
of reasoning will be doomed!
To BE BETTER at evading the rumour vice...
we must confirm the source in a trice!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
Goa, India.
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