Unbelievable!!!

[Memory Bliss]

I mentioned to my work colleague today that I had risen early to capture some videos of Saturn (he said I was crazy to do so). Anyway, he said his girlfriend lives in the countryside, and is blessed with dark skies, which gives an amazing view at night. I said something along the lines of “yeah I bet it is spectacular seeing all those distant suns which we miss in light polluted towns”.

He sort of gave me a blank look and blinked a few times before saying “suns?”.

My reply was “yes, suns, stars!”

To which he replied “stars ain't suns, that's impossible there is only one sun and that's ours”

I was gob-smacked. For someone to reach his late 40's and not understand the basics of the universal is unbelievable!

I asked him what he thought they were? “well they are planets and moons” was his reply.

I argued with him for about 10mins about it, but he was adamant he was right, because no one has ever visited these 'stars'.

My closing line was “I suppose you think the earth is flat too”.

Are people that naïve about the universal? I'm still gob-smacked!

[foundaplanet]

Nothing much surprises me anymore. He'll probably think that the rover on Mars is a dog.

[The Sailor]

To be honest why should he need know, he lives in his own little bubble and is probably happy. Maybe one day someone will have a converstaion with you and you wil be suprised that you did not realise something he will talk about, me, I am still learning and have a lot to learn.

Jim

[nephilim]

I've given up talking to people like that, its a complete waste of time and only irritates me..........MORONS!!!!! (see )

[crashtestdummy]

people always comment that they wonder if there is intelligent life on other planets and i sometimes wonder how much intelligent life we have on this planet when people seem that badly educated!!

[Memory Bliss]

To be honest why should he need know, he lives in his own little bubble and is probably happy. Maybe one day someone will have a converstaion with you and you wil be suprised that you did not realise something he will talk about, me, I am still learning and have a lot to learn.

Jim

Totally true, we are always learning - to know everything is impossible.

[m12_shakes]

To be honest why should he need know, he lives in his own little bubble and is probably happy. Maybe one day someone will have a converstaion with you and you wil be suprised that you did not realise something he will talk about, me, I am still learning and have a lot to learn.

Jim

Agree with Jim; however the gentleman in question has failed to grasp the most basic of concepts. I'm sure we all learned about the universe, solar system etc when we were in primary school (?).

Regards,

m12

[cotterless45]

I saw a recent survey, when asked 80% of UK population thought the Sun goes around the Earth.

More embarrassing was when I asked my old boss , he replied " well it does".

Leaves, exit right dejected.

Education , so far as the real world goes , might be lacking the basics.

Nick.

[E621Keith]

Well, it's not so unbelievable when there are people who believe Astrology...

[Pig]

I could probably understand someone not knowing the basics of the universe say 40 years ago - but not these days, its almost impossible not to have seen or heard somewhere that stars are suns in various stages of their life cycle

Sent from my GT-P7510

[KJ Dalley]

"An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out." Will Rogers US humorist & showman (1879 - 1935).

I'm not saying that you just found this out, its just that you have to be mindful of the gaps we all have in our knowledge and the distance between those gaps in our selves and other people. Sometimes the gap in knowledge is tiny and only momentarily gives us an advantage. Other times we wonder how certain people make it out of bed alive left to their own devices. Why else would they put signs up on commuter routes where the highest number of footfall passengers pass through each day warning us to "Mind the Gap!". There is a lot of empty space out there...

[laser_jock99]

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”

Albert Einstein

[JamesF]

There is a significant difference however between being ignorant, but open to new ideas and willing to learn or being ignorant and totally closed to any information that is at odds with one's world view.

That said, there are things that I am ignorant of and have every intention of remaining so. Most weekday prime-time television, for a start.

James

[laser_jock99]

Do you think your colleage would believe you if you told him the atoms in his body were made of exploded stars? Or would that be too mind blowing.....

[Memory Bliss]

Do you think your colleage would believe you if you told him the atoms in his body were made of exploded stars? Or would that be too mind blowing.....

Lol. I'm not going to mention anything again to him regarding the universe - it's much safer just discussing 'whats for dinner tonight?'

[Scooot]

We should feel sorry for you colleague; he's not only ignorant, he's unaware he is!

[Qualia]

Borges has a terrific little story about a man called Funes who is panmnemonic: he remembers everything and instead of being a blessing, it becomes his curse. He ends up hiding in a dark room, overwhelmed. Perhaps what Borges wants to say is that we all need to forget, to gloss over, to be ignorant of many things, if we are to function properly as human beings, if we are to know anything of value. Indeed, it does seem we can only know so much, and so to know important things for us, we also need to be ignorant of much else. Perhaps it this will to ignorance which is the foundation of all our knowledge and truths.

[Parus major]

I've found that a large group of people on YouTube and Facebook seem to think there's two sun's in the sky, that the earth's tilt is off and the outer planets are knocked on their sides - and cannot be convinced otherwise.

That's real morons.

[sgazer]

That is quite amazing, but sometimes I think that people knowing about this sort of stuff (or having the slightest interest in it) are actually in the minority. A majority of people live their entire lives oblivious to anything except their own lives, work, sport and celebs.

I know something about everything (almost!), but often I wish I knew about more popular stuff (eg sport/celebs) to help with conversation and more stuff that would make me money! LOL

[Codmate]

It's pretty sad when somebody has missed out on such a basic piece of knowledge.

In this day and age, not knowing the stars are... well stars!.. is certainly akin to thinking the Earth is flat!

I have another example that could be considered even more tragic.

A friend of one of my pupils genuinely thought the moon and the sun were the same object, and that the sun turned into the moon at night.

I thought they were extracting them Michael - but no, they genuinely believed this.

I gave them the date of the next daytime moon

[Cath]

"Ignorance is bliss" .. or so they say.

One of the strangest things I find in the female community (ashamed to say) is that it's often seen as being cool to not know about stuff, and if you reveal that you do know about something then you instanly get looked down upon in some very ugly ways, the mind games are dreadful

The human race is a very strange and hungup beastie indeed lol

[RyanL]

I too have noticed that society in general seems to celebrate ignorance/stupidity more and more.Popular culture is full of z listers who are known for being a bit dim and even quiz shows like the chase will revel in a contestants lack of grey matter!

[foundaplanet]

To be honest why should he need know, he lives in his own little bubble and is probably happy. Maybe one day someone will have a converstaion with you and you wil be suprised that you did not realise something he will talk about, me, I am still learning and have a lot to learn.

Jim

You are right and this is true when it comes to things like not knowing the difference between a C:drive and a D:drive or how to perform heart surgery.

To get to your late forties, probably have a couple of kids, more than likely drive a car and not know what those twinkly things in the sky at night are...

[Pig]

Borges has a terrific little story about a man called Funes who is panmnemonic: he remembers everything and instead of being a blessing, it becomes his curse. He ends up hiding in a dark room, overwhelmed. Perhaps what Borges wants to say is that we all need to forget, to gloss over, to be ignorant of many things, if we are to function properly as human beings, if we are to know anything of value. Indeed, it does seem we can only know so much, and so to know important things for us, we also need to be ignorant of much else. Perhaps it this will to ignorance which is the foundation of all our knowledge and truths.

Yes but its only a story - we,as a species, are not capable of remembering everything thats why we have books to put stories in - His work collegue is either awkward, dumb or just entertaining himself to pass the time away at work

[emadmoussa]

Lol, mate, you're talking about 70% of the population.