Newton Bigelow

Image by pareeerica, used under a CC license.

Many people believe in appealing to hidden forces as a mechanism for achieving change. I think that belief is mistaken and unhealthy.

Here are some reasons why:

1. It creates an excellent opportunity for unscrupulous people to separate believers from their money. There used to be a TV preacher who would offer “healings” to folks who sent a couple hundred bucks. After the money was received, he’d invite the senders to put their hands on the television and absorb his healing power through the airwaves. Many lucrative variations on this scam exist right now.

2. It devalues the efforts of people who put in real work to change the world. Changes happens because a lot of people spend a lot of time going to meetings, writing letters, making phone calls and knocking on doors. Telling those people that you can get the same results by lighting candles and wishing hard is the same as spitting in their faces.

3. It doesn’t work. Sorry, but the time for taking angels, demons, aliens and the tooth fairy seriously is over. We understand a lot about the way the world works now. Not all of it by any means, but enough to be sure that notions of the supernatural are just outmoded explanations for physical phenomena.

Everyone has the right to their own opinions. I believe that. But as the man said, not their own facts. The past eight years have shown what happens when you pretend the world is how you would like it to be rather than how it is. The results have been disastrous.

I’m saying, let’s not do that anymore.