Several years ago I learned a fascinating piece of information about seeing. Even if you already know this, it’s still fun.
Mechanically speaking, our eyes see everything upside down.
According to an article I found on Mental Floss, “That’s because the process of refraction through a convex lens causes the image to be flipped, so when the image hits your retina, it’s completely inverted.”
The article goes on to say that this was proved by Réné Descartes in the 17th century. We’ve known for 400 years that the images on retinas are inverted, and then turned right-side up by the brain. It may be that the brains of babies don’t figure this out for a few days.
I know some people whose brains have never figured it out. You probably do, too.
I’ll get back to that in a minute, but one other fun part of this whole thing should be noted first. If you put “inversion goggles” on, you will initially see everything upside down. Given some time — perhaps as little as a day or as much as a few days — and your brain will flip the images. All will be well again.
Remove the inversion goggles, though, and the world will once again be upside down.
Don’t worry. Your brain will re-adapt.
Turning the world upside down
Over the last few years the term “disruptor” has been used a lot. It was popularized in our era by Clayton Christensen, a man I admired a lot.
He was a professor of business at Harvard. He was also an entrepreneur and author, and his most famous book was titled The Innovator’s Dilemma. It was there that he introduced “disruption” to the world. But of course he didn’t invent that. Jesus did.
At least the followers of Jesus were accused of being disruptors. Paul and Silas, on a missionary journey, stopped in Thessalonica. Their practice was to go into the local synagogue and discuss the Old Testament scriptures. According to the book of Acts in the Bible, “on three Sabbath days [Paul] reasoned with them.” Some Jews and many Greeks were persuaded that Jesus was the Christ.
But some Jewish leaders “were jealous, and taking some wicked men from the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason.” They were looking for Paul and Silas, but didn’t find them.
So “they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.””
Now that is disruption.
Can you think of anything like that happening today? Hamas (in Hebrew the word means “violence”) attacked Israel because they think Israel turned the world upside down.
Just like those Jewish leaders in Thessalonica, Hamas sees the world their way. As a group, there is no reasoning with them.
Jewish authorities once tried to wipe out Jesus and his followers. Today radical Palestinians are trying to wipe out all Jews. Paul and Silas didn’t want to kill anyone — they wanted to give eternal life to everyone.
Meanwhile, in America
The strategy of “taking some wicked men from the rabble and forming a mob” is still quite popular today. We saw it used by pro-Palestinians in New York City and other places on October 8. No doubt those mobs were already formed ahead of time, anticipating a pro-Israel response from America.
There is one question each of us must ask ourselves in situations like Israel, and even Ukraine. Those wars may or may not impact us directly, but we can see them.
The question is, “Which way is up?”
Without some kind of solid moral foundation, every person can easily be convinced to wear inversion goggles.
Those in the “inversion goggles business” want you to see the world the way they see the world. It makes them right-side up, and it makes you fall in line with their belief.
Hamas wants you to see that they deserve to destroy all of Israel and all of America. (Did you know that part?) That is upside down.
Some in the trans community want you to see that children who don’t yet know right from wrong still somehow know more about their future than their parents ever will. Upside down.
Some pro-choice advocates want you to see that those who are pro-life hate women. That is also upside down.
A few days ago, Bill Maher, host of Real Time on HBO, had this to say about abortion.
“I scold the Left when they say, ‘Oh, you know what? They just hate women, people who are pro-life,'” he continued. “They don’t hate women. They just made that up. They think it’s murder, and it kind of is. I’m just OK with that. I am. I mean, there’s 8 billion people in the world. I’m sorry, we won’t miss you. That’s my position on that.”
He sees fairly clearly that killing a child is “kind of” murder. But he also sees that circumstances make those murders OK. That view is upside down.
My truth?
“My truth” is another term for inversion goggles. The true world doesn’t work for me, so I put on my “turn it upside down” spectacles and see it the way I want to see it.
This is not new.
Or don’t you know that many slaveholders in 18th and 19th century America sincerely believed what they were doing was right?
Slavery was “their truth” in exactly the same way children who say they are animals (“furrys”) claim that is “their truth.”
In fact we need only look back in history to see the immense damage that has been done to the world by “my truth.” Take the attacks of September 11, 2001, on America, for instance. “My truth” is always an opinion and in danger of being upside down.
The truth is always right-side up. Act on it: Love God. Love others. Do good.
And if you’re wearing inversion goggles, just take them off. You’ll see better soon.
An Upside-down World
Several years ago I learned a fascinating piece of information about seeing. Even if you already know this, it’s still fun.
Mechanically speaking, our eyes see everything upside down.
According to an article I found on Mental Floss, “That’s because the process of refraction through a convex lens causes the image to be flipped, so when the image hits your retina, it’s completely inverted.”
The article goes on to say that this was proved by Réné Descartes in the 17th century. We’ve known for 400 years that the images on retinas are inverted, and then turned right-side up by the brain. It may be that the brains of babies don’t figure this out for a few days.
I know some people whose brains have never figured it out. You probably do, too.
I’ll get back to that in a minute, but one other fun part of this whole thing should be noted first. If you put “inversion goggles” on, you will initially see everything upside down. Given some time — perhaps as little as a day or as much as a few days — and your brain will flip the images. All will be well again.
Remove the inversion goggles, though, and the world will once again be upside down.
Don’t worry. Your brain will re-adapt.
Turning the world upside down
Over the last few years the term “disruptor” has been used a lot. It was popularized in our era by Clayton Christensen, a man I admired a lot.
He was a professor of business at Harvard. He was also an entrepreneur and author, and his most famous book was titled The Innovator’s Dilemma. It was there that he introduced “disruption” to the world. But of course he didn’t invent that. Jesus did.
At least the followers of Jesus were accused of being disruptors. Paul and Silas, on a missionary journey, stopped in Thessalonica. Their practice was to go into the local synagogue and discuss the Old Testament scriptures. According to the book of Acts in the Bible, “on three Sabbath days [Paul] reasoned with them.” Some Jews and many Greeks were persuaded that Jesus was the Christ.
But some Jewish leaders “were jealous, and taking some wicked men from the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason.” They were looking for Paul and Silas, but didn’t find them.
So “they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.””
Now that is disruption.
Can you think of anything like that happening today? Hamas (in Hebrew the word means “violence”) attacked Israel because they think Israel turned the world upside down.
Just like those Jewish leaders in Thessalonica, Hamas sees the world their way. As a group, there is no reasoning with them.
Jewish authorities once tried to wipe out Jesus and his followers. Today radical Palestinians are trying to wipe out all Jews. Paul and Silas didn’t want to kill anyone — they wanted to give eternal life to everyone.
Meanwhile, in America
The strategy of “taking some wicked men from the rabble and forming a mob” is still quite popular today. We saw it used by pro-Palestinians in New York City and other places on October 8. No doubt those mobs were already formed ahead of time, anticipating a pro-Israel response from America.
There is one question each of us must ask ourselves in situations like Israel, and even Ukraine. Those wars may or may not impact us directly, but we can see them.
The question is, “Which way is up?”
Without some kind of solid moral foundation, every person can easily be convinced to wear inversion goggles.
Those in the “inversion goggles business” want you to see the world the way they see the world. It makes them right-side up, and it makes you fall in line with their belief.
Hamas wants you to see that they deserve to destroy all of Israel and all of America. (Did you know that part?) That is upside down.
Some in the trans community want you to see that children who don’t yet know right from wrong still somehow know more about their future than their parents ever will. Upside down.
Some pro-choice advocates want you to see that those who are pro-life hate women. That is also upside down.
A few days ago, Bill Maher, host of Real Time on HBO, had this to say about abortion.
He sees fairly clearly that killing a child is “kind of” murder. But he also sees that circumstances make those murders OK. That view is upside down.
My truth?
“My truth” is another term for inversion goggles. The true world doesn’t work for me, so I put on my “turn it upside down” spectacles and see it the way I want to see it.
This is not new.
Or don’t you know that many slaveholders in 18th and 19th century America sincerely believed what they were doing was right?
Slavery was “their truth” in exactly the same way children who say they are animals (“furrys”) claim that is “their truth.”
In fact we need only look back in history to see the immense damage that has been done to the world by “my truth.” Take the attacks of September 11, 2001, on America, for instance. “My truth” is always an opinion and in danger of being upside down.
The truth is always right-side up. Act on it: Love God. Love others. Do good.
And if you’re wearing inversion goggles, just take them off. You’ll see better soon.
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