Human society is driven forward by those who dare to be crazy in the expedition and exploration of many "mythical" or "impossible" endeavors to advance knowledge, not by myth worshippers and the ‘kurukere kurukere’ religionists. The more a society preserves its myth and surrounds itself with uncountable religious/prayer centres, the more backward it's very likely to become.
I look forward to a day China or Nigeria will invent an aircraft that will take people to heaven as tourists or permanent residents instead of heaven-loving people waiting for long to die before they can enjoy heaven.
He/she who has ever travelled by aeroplane, speed boat, or ship before is also taking a risk almost similar to the Titanic 5 risk which may lead to a journey of no return. Many do pray and fast when they are on a flight but we also know it's mere psychological because prayer or fasting doesn't take off, fly, or land a plane.
Science and technology and enhanced human capacity of pilots do. This is the reason when a pilot in a troubled aircraft announces the air bird is crashing, no matter your faith and emergency prayer session, you must come down and possibly get lost in the sea, forest, mountain or in desert.
Then the question can also be asked, why are they travelling in planes whose safety they can't guarantee? Curiosity by faith or science?
I'm yet to see any airline that includes reading religious scriptures and reciting verses as part of safety precautions or in case of emergency situations, but you can do that on your own if you like. All we hear is how to apply an oxygen bag, fasten the seatbelt, use a parachute and the rest as we look forward not to hear "buburu lati enu Abore" i.e. the pilot, the priest and the lord of flight speak no danger. They ultimately rely on their digital conversation with the plane’s dashboard, if you like, cockpit.
The simple meaning of this is that globally, there's a consensus of superiority or supremacy of science and technology discovered and made useful by those who dared over religion and faith.
I once had a very turbulent night flight from Senegal to Mali. Technology had forewarned the flight captain of the impending serious turbulence and the pilot had adequately informed passengers to get ready but relax for the flight and for this, he would be flying at 47,000ft above sea level – an unusual altitude for a flight like that which is always around 27,000ft - 37,000 ft at non-turbulent flight period. Shortly after the announcement, we entered into "this thing" and the plane started misbehaving as if it was "pilotless".
A very terrible turbulence indeed since I first travelled by plane in 1984. "Ki la o ti se yi si o, Ekiti Kete?" – an evergreen song by Elemure came to my mind. I quickly opened the wine to "wine down" the tension in me while waiting for the "Flight Abore" to pronounce death or safety reassurance from the wind and thunderstorm.
By this time the cabin was already a tense prayer centre of a sort. Almost all passengers had brought out their spiritual weapons of destruction against Mr. Satan, our usual scapegoat enemy. "Satan can't destroy this flight..."
I always think Satan unites people more than God, that day reconfirmed this. As the intense prayer session and meditation were going on, I was patiently waiting for the next announcement by the flight Abore while sipping what could be my "last wine". But Lo and behold, technology spoke through the Abore, pilot: no more turbulence and he informed us we would soon be landing at Bamako in due course. Calmness returned with measured eagerness for the ultimate safe landing
The emergency multi-lingual, multi-racial inter-denominational prayer centre became the flight cabin again as calm returned and everybody kept their spiritual weapons of Satan’s destruction. On a lighter mood, only God knows when human beings are going to successfully destroy or capture Satan, dead or alive. Or we should just leave him/her to be enjoying himself around the globe, especially in very backward countries of pain where gullible citizens always excuse their rogue leaders and blame Satan and enemies for their plight of misgovernance.
Every expedition, discovery or invention starts with curiosity to discover or rediscover something and it always comes with its own risk, fate, cost and opportunity cost. And such an expedition is always taken by those few courageous who dare to advance the world. When they succeed they become successful history and immortal reference points forever like Newton, Galileo, Einstein, Archimedes, Benjamin Franklin, Gregor Mendel, the Wright brothers, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright.
Curiosity as we say is the mother of invention and part of being curious is to attempt or uncover the myth of events and places in order to remove fear and enhance human understanding. Inventors and curious explorers shouldn't be vilified but appreciated in death or alive because they are heroes. Some you described as crazy, stupid, arrogant with knowledge, overbearing, were/are movers of societies to the next phase of humanity. Check them out.
Millions have died foolishly unnoticed and many are still going to die in the backyard of exploitative religious entrepreneurs and religionism. Let's bid those who dared to unearth mysteries or discoverers to have their well-deserved eternal rest.
Adeola Soetan