Column Chronicles: Thinking strange things is stranger than you think

Thinking strange things is stranger than you think

Frank Cotolo
September 22, 2016

We all have to be careful wat we think. People think strange things and no one knows where these strange things originate. Some times thinking strange things can make strange things happen and when strange things happen some times it is not always good for those who think strange things.

Once, for instance, everyone thought the Earth was flat. Today that seems stupid but back when people were stupid about such things it was fairly normal to believe it - even without evidence.

Another time, people thought that some women were witches, evil beings that cast spells upon people and worked for the devil. They thought this so strongly that they tied up certain women they thought were witches and burned them to death. You have to wonder if the people who burned women they thought were witches to death also thought the world was flat.

When we don't know something we usually make something up and think about it until we think we are sure about it. This is because we want to think that we know things and if we think about them long enough and think what we think is true then we feel better.

Sometimes we think we feel better just because we think we feel better when in fact we don't feel well at all but we don't want to think we feel anything but well. That is not a strange thing but maybe, if you think about it, that is a strange thing. If you don't feel well, after all, why would you think that thinking about feeling well will make you feel well?

If we think about what is real we may have to face things that we don't want to face and we think that not thinking about those things will go away if we don't think about them but thinking doesn't have that kind of power. If you are unfortunate enough to be standing beheath a falling piano, thinking you are not in its direct path won't save you from the horror of it falling on you and probably killing you.

However, the most important thing about all of this is to be sure you do not think something for the sake of thinking it or that you believe just anything that a lot of people think because it means you don't have to think about it any longer. Thinking, in itself, is not a process that always results in anything, no less something good.

A famous philosopher named Descarte once said, "I think, therefore I am." He was thinking that because he was able to think that it proved he existed. But not everything exists because it thinks. Rocks don't think. Parking meters don't think. Police uniforms don't think. Bacon while sizzling doesn't think. Yet, all of those things exist.

As this essay on thinking strange things comes to an end, I hope that you will understand that thinking strange things can be good or bad, depending upon what you think.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.