What The X-Files Understood About the Search for Truth

Starting with yesterday’s article by Kelly Connolly at The Atlantic:

What The X-Files Understood About the Search for Truth

“…Beliefs create themselves on The X-Files, which premiered 25 years ago, on September 10, 1993. Mulder (played by David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), partners on a unit dedicated to investigating unexplained phenomena known as X-Files, became sci-fi archetypes: the believer and the skeptic paired up to probe spooky cases.

It seemed like their job was to determine what was real, but more often they looked at what they felt was real, and why, and whether there was a difference.”

“…Mulder and Scully were Schrödinger’s believer and skeptic, setting the molds even as they broke them. The famous poster on Mulder’s office wall wasn’t “I believe” but “I want to believe”—for all his open-mindedness, he couldn’t fathom belief that doesn’t strive for proof. Scully, who still clung to the cross around her neck, was the one who saw believing as a Catholic leap of faith. The partners were symmetrically curious, both drawn to the spaces where facts should be but aren’t….”

“If the personal conflict at work in The X-Files was between belief and skepticism, the global conflict was between connection and alienation—summed up in the way the strange, instant alchemy between Mulder and Scully made them unknowable to the bureau conspirators, whose business was so impersonal they didn’t have names. The most unconscionable monsters in the world of the show weren’t ghouls, but men in suits working deals behind closed doors, trying to maintain their grasp on the power they felt slipping away….”

But the show’s success wasn’t because Mulder’s character fought hard to search for TRUTH while Scully balanced his enthusiasm with reasonable, scientific doubt…

An equally important angle was the constant threat from the great conspiracy by those in power to hide the truth from a public they believed can’t handle the truth.  It hits home because murky myths and in-your-face current events can both re-direct humanity’s future activities depending on what we believe.  Many wars have been fought over disagreements interpreting what we believe God said to our ancestors; with many millions of lives lost – yet the evidence, the proof that God said this, that, or the other thing is questionable.

Today is the anniversary of 2001’s September 11 attack that brought down the World Trade Center in New York.  Was it the result of religious zealotry – a terrorist act carried out by Islamic fundamentalists?  That is the official government version of the truth.  But the scientific evidence – which so many people refuse to take seriously, despite the testimony of thousands of engineers, architects, demolitions experts, and eyewitnesses – suggests a false flag operation by the U.S. Government used to justify wars in the Middle East that still allow greater American power and profit today.

I suspect the chain of events will lead to WWIII involving the Islamic world, the United States, Europe, Russia and China. My opinion on this is in no small part encouraged by my study of Nostradamus prophecies on the subject.  Even Bible prophecy is largely about an end times Apocalypse featuring a war centered on the Middle East which grows and involves persecution of Christians by a “false” religion that beheads its enemies and seeks world domination, especially over Christians and Jews.  Islam seems to fit the bill; their end times Mahdi is described in Islamic prophecy as almost a perfect match for the Christian’s Antichrist.

These sources of prophecy also talk about “a new heaven and a new earth” and how the “Great Mover renews the Ages.”  Nostradamus says it will seem like the Earth has lost its normal gravity.  The Bible says mountains and islands move out of their places and the sky looks as if it is rolled up like a scroll as the Lord shakes the Earth out of its place.  The Qu’ran says there will be great earthquakes and the sun will rise in the West instead of the east.  Every branch of science offers supporting evidence that Earth experiences a cycle of catastrophic pole shifts and that another is due soon.  A part of me wants a long and uneventful life.  Another part of me, the part that has done decades of research and written many books – wants to believe.

Inside all of us is a battle between our skepticism and what we want to believe; The X-Files were a huge success because Mulder and Scully portrayed this very normal, very human mental balancing act and entertained us while doing so.  If threats to humanity and topics of doom and conspiracies to hide them entertain you, commemorate 9/11 by watching some re-runs of The X-Files.  Despite the fact that all books have a biased version of what their authors consider truth, I am biased into recommending reading (especially the books I wrote myself) instead if you seek the truth or want to believe.

If your interest in the topics above overcomes my shameless self-promotion, check them out!  The truth is out there, if you look for it.

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