I'm reading a biography of 17th century priest/scientist Athanasius Kircher, A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change by John Glassie, ©2012.
The book is written in kind of a condescending tone, "Ha ha, let's all laugh at the buffoon who got everything wrong," but I don't think that's entirely fair.
Father Kircher was a brilliant, inquisitive man whose observations of the world didn't match what he had been taught was true. Instead of changing his mind, he changed his data.
How many of us are completely innocent of that sin? How many of us are committing that sin as he was: without even being aware of it?
...the pressure of society is always great ... in fact, it is only a modern notion that one owes to himself, the right to confront authority as payment in the debt that we owe to one another....
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