Sometimes you see or read something that really catches your attention or makes you think. There is a quote on page 87 of Inside The Earth – The Second Tunnel that caught my attention and made me think. The quote from the book is spoken by Dr. Xien about questioning the new info about the possibility of an empty or hollow inner earth versus the tradition teaching of a solid earth. The quote goes as follows, “I see that you maintain the doubts you had two days ago, but all you have to do is to give up dogmatic thinking. We don’t deny the results the scientists obtain, but there is a very important difference with regard to the nuances of how to interpret them.”
This made me think of the doubts I have when presented with new information that goes against something I have learned and accepted as truth. It used to be that I didn’t even want to consider something different if I strongly believed something, or I did not want to look at something differently or from a different angle. “All you have to do is give up dogmatic thinking” is what the quote said. It made me wonder about how much I am missing by sticking to dogmatic thinking.
So, what is dogmatic thinking? Dogmatic is defined by Merriam/Webster dictionary as “characterized by or given to the expression of opinions very strongly or positively as if they were facts.” Dogmatic thinking is contemplating things according to a set of rules or facts or buying into the idea that your set of beliefs, social codes, or ideas are indisputable fact. It can be religious dogma, scientific dogma, educational dogma, and corporate dogma. One problem with dogmatic thinking is that it ignores possibilities that fall outside these facts or violate the rules.
The idea of sticking to dogmatic ideas and not considering things from different views seems to me to be extremely limiting given how much we don’t know about the universe, the Earth, God, or even ourselves. How will we ever learn or understand more if we don’t ask the questions, challenge the status quo? This is exactly what this book is asking us to do; open our minds, challenge our beliefs, consider something that pushes on the dogmatic ideas that have been taught to us. Pondering and contemplating new ideas helps us grow and expands us in ways we don’t even realize at first. So, let go of dogmatic thinking, open up to new possibilities and explore Inside The Earth with us.
-Co-host Tryna Cooper
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