From Fiction To Fact: Pyramids To Vaccines, The History Of Bendy Truths
How do things that are not true become 'common knowledge'? What is the process that takes something that is absolutely and verifiably incorrect, and turns it into a statement that is preceded with the words *"...did you know that [insert false statement here]?
There has been more nonsense and falsehood spread about the great pyramid of Giza, than almost any one subject in human history. From them being built by mysterious aliens to channel even more mysterious energy. To them being built by the ancients to help their alien friends land on earth, and much more in between.
It seems for some reason, certain people cannot deal with the fact that architecture and engineering are not skills we made up in the 20th century. Rather than simply look at the evidence right in front of their faces, they prefer instead to look for obscure meaning and hidden patterns to seek 'the truth'.
The question is; where does it all start? Why can't people apply critical thinking to ascertain that the rumour they heard about the pyramids being ancient spaceships must be total BS because of the lack of any kind of proof whatsoever, plus of course the mountain material evidence that contradicts the rumours.
Chinese Whispers Hanging On The Telephone
In the United States there is a popular children's game called telephone, the same game in the United Kingdom is called Chinese whispers, and no doubt each country has its own version.
The premise of the game is simple, somebody whispers a sentence in your ear, and then you have to relay the message to the next person, which is repeated down the line. The last person in the line says the sentence out loud, which of course, is completely different from the original statement.
What is great about this game is that at first glance, it would appear that you need a suitably complex statement, in order to ensure that the sentence at the end is totally different from the opening line.
However even a statement as simple as yellow lorry, whispered into the ears of ten children can end up with the words mellow lolly. As we can see, a mellow lolly, or even a yellow one, is completely different from a yellow lorry.
If the American vernacular for lorry is used, and instead the kids start off with the words, yellow truck, who knows where the game could end up!
Pyramid Centrism
Right so back to Giza, the latest falsehood I've been introduced to, is that the great pyramids are at the EXACT centre of the earth.
I use bold caps there, because the word is important and is used in this fable quite a bit.
If you go to a website (I really don't advise you to) called Ancient Code, there is an article there entitled;
The Great Pyramid of Giza is located at the exact center of Earth’s landmass
The first paragraph reads like this:
Many people consider the great Pyramid of Giza to be one of the oldest, greatest and most perfect, and scientific ‘monuments’ on te (sic.) face of the Earth, created thousands of years ago. However, many people are unaware that the Great Pyramid isnt (sic.) only an architectural and engineering marvel, it is a geographical one too: It is located at the exact intersection of the LONGEST LINE OF LATITUDE and the LONGEST LINE OF LONGITUDE.
So here we are starting to get clues how stuff like this is spread around like thick manure on a freshly ploughed field.
The writer clearly does not understand that lines of longitude on the earth are all the same length. Or the fact that the widest line of latitude is at the equator, where the earth bulges out in the middle.
So this shows us three things, the author has no idea as to what lines of latitude and longitude are. The author has read this information somewhere and misinterpreted it. Finally, because it's on a website that is fairly well designed and presented, other people will read and share the author's ignorance.
We know the second statement is true, because this centre of the earth myth is very popular. Lots of people have asked questions about it on places like Reddit, Quora, and Yahoo Answers.
For the most part people who ask the question are set straight, the great pyramids are not at the centre of earth's landmass. However because there are so many people who use these sites and also believe this myth, some users will walk away thinking the myth is true.
Anatomy Of A Fairy Tale
In 1864, a renowned Scottish astronomer, Charles Piazzi Smyth, claimed in his book that the exact centre of earth's landmass was situated at the coordinates of, 30°00′N 31°00′E, which happens to be the exact location of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Twenty years later Yale professor Frederick Barnard claimed in his book that the perfect location of the Great Pyramid must have been done on purpose, and thus the rumour was born.
However in 1973 physicist Andrew Woods, decided to use a very powerful computer to calculate the exact centre of earth's landmass, and found that it was in fact a thousand kilometres north of Giza in Turkey.
Thirty years later in 2003, even better more powerful computers calculated the centre to an even greater degree of accuracy, tweaking the original results slightly.
A few years later in 2007 an American academic and theologian, Susan Wise Bauer, pointed out that if a Mercator map was used then Egypt could claim to be at the centre of all earth's landmass.
However these kind of maps were not available for many thousands of years after the pyramids were built. More to the point, Smyth was not using such a map when he made his original claims about Giza, and so there ends the story.
Or so it should . . .
Bendy Facts
Believing the pyramids are ancient stone spaceships or at the centre of the earth are fairly harmless beliefs. However we see the same Chinese whispers type effect with issues that are far more important.
For instance in the area of vaccination.
In 1998 the discredited British doctor Andrew Wakefield published a research paper that claimed there was a link between the MMR (measles mumps rubella) vaccine and autism in children.
Despite many efforts and meta analyses researchers from around the world, in many different organisations, could not reproduce his results. In fact the Royal Free Hospital in North London, approached him and requested that he take part in a controlled study with them, to prove the claims made in his 1998 Lancet paper.
He refused and was subsequently asked to leave the hospital.
Wakefield was eventually disgraced and struck off (banned from practising medicine ever again), after it turned out that he was being funded by a firm that was a rival to the one that supplied, among others, the UK government with the MMR vaccine.
Wakefield's motivation for spreading a complete and utter lie, was for money, for which he sparked the biggest media hoax in modern history.
Yet today people are still repeating his lies.
For anyone who cares to research, his claims are easily refuted. However it seems that anecdotal evidence has completely eclipsed what should be an open and shut case of medical fraud.
Of course vaccinations are not 100% safe, nothing is. Peanuts for instance are safe for the majority of people on the planet, yet some will die if they eat them. So the point is not that there have been deaths due to vaccinations. The point is that out of the hundreds of millions of people who have received a vaccination in the last fifty years, a comparative handful may have died because of them.
This undeniable fact, makes vaccines the single most important and effective treatment for the prevention of disease, that humankind has ever produced.
However thanks to the discredited liar and fraudster Andrew Wakefield, that efficacy is under serious threat.
By simply going to his Wikipedia page and looking at how many medical organisations around the world have discredited him, it is clear to see that he is not a man to be trusted.
Unfortunately though, people will continue to clutch at straws trying to prove claims that have been disproved time and time again. In much the same way fans of various alien and ancient hidden civilisation theories, try and try again to prove that the pyramids are magical and not what they appear to be.
The only difference is, believing that aliens don't have sat nav and need pyramids to tell them where to land, won't effect the safety of any children. Believing in Wakefield, may just prove to be fatal.
'There is now no respectable body of opinion [in the world] which supports (Dr Wakefield's) hypothesis, that MMR vaccine and autism/enterocolitis are causally linked'.
- Mr Justice Mitting
Sources:
AS WITH ANY CRYPTOGEE ARTICLE I AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ON MY POST. HOWEVER I DO REALISE THAT VACCINATIONS IS A HOT TOPIC FOR A LOT OF YOU AND SEEMS TO TRIGGER EXTREME REACTIONS WITHIN PEOPLE. THEREFORE I WOULD REQUEST THAT YOU KEEP THINGS CIVIL IF YOU WANT TO ADDRESS THE VACCINATION ISSUE.
I WOULD ALSO ASK YOU TO REMEMBER THAT ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE CANNOT COMPETE WITH THE HUNDREDS OF STUDIES THAT HAVE BEEN DONE SINCE WAKEFIELD FIRST MADE HIS FALSE CLAIMS. ALSO REMEMBER THAT SAYING THINGS LIKE; BIG PHARMA IS CORRUPT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE EVIDENCE OF ANY KIND.
OTHER THAN THAT PLEASE LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS ON BENDY FACTS, MYTHS AND LEGENDS, BELOW!
Title image: Benjamin Elliott on Unsplash
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The Great Pyramid at Giza is a power plant.
We would know that, accept for all the "Bendy Truths" they teach people in "science class".
Did you know that other pyramids around the world have encoded in their shape, size and placement exactly where the Great Pyramid at Giza is?
Did the science classes teach you that granite is a semi-conductor?
This used to be common knowledge, as electrical engineers went out rock hunting with electrical fingers to find naturally occurring diodes and transistors. Now that we can make them from doped silicone, we have forgotten about these old days.
Of course there are tons of signs that someone with much more mechanical and machining know how was here on earth. Could be humans, could be aliens, could be gods for all we know. There are a lot of things that shouldn't exist. Man currently has just enough engineering know how to tell just how much engineering is missing between what we can do today and what was done over 5000 years ago.
Fortunately things like the electric universe model are gaining more traction, and so the "settled science" is being questioned.
And, antarctica is about to break out into the main stream. Where we will be shown pyramids that make the great one at Giza look small and dinky. Where we will see ancient technologies that will rock our world. And hopefully we will learn a lot about the path of man through time.
I look forward to all this enlightening knowledge. Hope I'm not waiting too long!
Cg
Thank goodness there are some pro-science people on here. I am definitely upvoting, resteeming and following you. My latest blog entry was about how censored I feel on here. There is so much pseudoscience here.
Thanks for noticing!
I felt the same when I joined and I dared to point out some glaring inaccuracies in certain pseudoscientific 'theories' and lost a lot of followers, and got into a lot of arguments.
However sometimes you just have to do your bit, we are the foot soldiers in the ongoing war of bullshit. If we just let it slide, they win. Before you know it, homeopathy is being paid for by the NHS (yes! this actually happened). That's National Health Service if you're not from the UK by the way.
Anyways, good to hook up with a fellow critical thinker, have followed you back and look forward to further interactions! :-)
Cg
I'm not in the UK, but I know about homeopathy being on the NHS. I listen to a lot of skeptical podcasts.
It's a difficult situation when it's some of the people you know personally and care about.
I hope to do more on the subject via DTube videos and so forth.
Well I am sure we NEVER have any bendy facts on Steemit!!! LOL NEVER!