Is History important for ME? ...

Tuesday, Oct 26, 2019. Let us talk about history and its relationship to my own life. What is my involvement? Is history really important?

It is a good question! I think we should take it serious and try to list the possible answers.

Importance of History …

I live here and today. What do I care about what has been before? What do I care about what could have been, or what will be? I am here now. I am not eternal (at least it is difficult to say something about eternity). So my only concern should be what is now. Reality counts. Nothing else?

But I am not just a cow, eating grass. I am more than some dump animal, not thinking about the past and the future.

Humans have abilities which go beyond those of animals. That does not mean that our abilities would not have some type of reflection in animal life. Animals also act. Animals also feel. Animals also can think to some extend. But all these abilities are much further developed in humans.

And with human abilities comes the interest in history. We have questions. We ask where we came from. Even if we live here and today, there is still the need for more!

Is history important for my life? Is it important above the mere fact that we are interested in history?

But how can you separate our interest from our actions? We need to understand development of things, to think about actions. We want to do. We want to control. We want to plan. The basis of plans is the history of plans.

Learning needs history! We cannot learn something without knowing how it was before. Memory. Even emotions. They are all linked to the past.

The Bible …

The biblical books range far back into the past. They start with history in the Old Testament. They tell the story of creation. They start with history in the New Testament. They tell the story of Jesus, where he came from. The biblical books know that we are curious, and that we need history to determine our position today.

(Roland Potthast)

This is part of the trilogy project “Faith of a Scientist”.