The Book of Life

pages of wisdom he showed that Mars does not move around the sun in a perfect circle but in an elliptical orbit. He predicted that the orbits of all the other planets around the sun must also be elliptical. Today, Kepler’s view is a well-established fact. For two thousand years, ancient astronomers remained absorbed in the idea of the perfect circle. They could not think differently about the motion of the planets. The reason was the authority of Aristotle’s idea. They accepted it without debate as an unquestionable truth, and because of that, their minds could not move in any other direction. This is not just a matter of ancient times—it is true in every age. In all eras, certain ideas dominate people’s minds so completely that they find it impossible to think independently outside of them. This happens in both religious and non-religious fields. Such a closed mind is the biggest obstacle to progress of any kind. RISING HIGHER O n August 12, 1985, a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 took off from Tokyo. It was scheduled to reach Osaka in one hour. But only 10 minutes after takeoff, the pilot realized he had lost control of the aircraft. The plane was meant to fly at an altitude of 24,000 feet. But as it kept losing height, it dropped to 9,800 feet, and finally struck a mountain and