Some Errors That Are Still Taught In Nigerian Schools Today 2: • Babies are born tabula rasa: For ages, arguments and counterarguments have been made by psychologists and philosophers over whether human beings are born with the so-called blank slate. But thanks to advancements in genetic studies, most of us are now in the know that humans transfer some of their characteristics (known as traits) to their offspring. These traits go a long way in determining how the offspring will react when put in certain situations and subjected to certain conditions. • Different parts of the tongue detect different flavours: Even in my university days, I was taught by professors that different parts of the human tongue are specialized for detecting different tastes. The so-called tongue map balkanized our taste organ into areas responsible for detecting sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, sourness and unami. Per contra, it turns out that most taste buds on the tongue and in other areas of the mouth can detect any taste irrespective of their position. • Europeans brought Christianity to Africa and Christianity is a Western Religion: Christianity is the world’s largest religion and it originated from Asia in the geographical East. The movement that gave rise to Christianity was begun by Jesus Christ who was born over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem in present-day Palestine. The followers of the teachings of Christ were first called “Christians” in the town of Antioch which is now a historical site in present-day Turkey. Antioch lies on the eastern part of Turkey which is in Asia. It is not clear when Christianity was brought to either Europe or Africa. It is recorded in the Bible that Christ was taken to Egypt as an infant by Mary and Joseph who were fleeing from Herod the Great during the Massacre of the Innocents. However, Christ’s ministry began few years before He was crucified. It is not recorded if He went to Africa or Europe during His ministry. What is clear, though, is that one of His apostles, Mark, established the first church in Africa twelve years after the crucifixion, known as the Church of Alexandria. • Some years before that, another apostle, Philip, was recorded in the Acts of the Apostles to have baptized an Ethiopian eunuch on the road leading to Gaza from Jerusalem. The Acts, however, did not tell us where the eunuch went afterwards or if he spread the message in Ethiopia. A church was established in Ethiopia some years after the Church of Alexandria in Egypt and it is still in existence today. Most present-day Ethiopians are Christians and their own form of Christianity is not linked to the ones spread by the Europeans. • The Bible, the Church and People in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat: According to the notion – which has been erroneously published in some textbooks – Christians in the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat. The notion has it that it was not until Genoese explorer, Christopher Columbus, had “sailed round the world” without falling off the Earths presumed edge (and “discovered” what turned out to be North America) that the Church leaders came to the realization that the Earth is indeed spherical and not flat. Contrary to this view, Greek astronomers and pretty much everyone else then knew long before the advent of Christianity that the Earth was spherical. The early Greeks were renowned astronomers who made predictions that are still correct today. The Bible also alluded to a spherical Earth. Isaiah 40:22 says that “He (God) sits enthroned above the circle of the earth.” It was only a handful of scholars in the Middle Ages who claimed to be representing the whole Church that believed in a flat Earth. • Michael Faraday invented electricity: No-one actually invented electricity. The form of energy now known as electricity has been there since the beginning of the world. Electricity occurs in nature. A lightning bolt, for example, releases electricity. • Thomas Edison invented the light bulb: While it is not clear who invented light bulbs, they were being used as electric lights more than 50 years before Thomas Edison patented his famous invention in 1879. What Edison invented was the worlds first commercially viable incandescent light bulb. • Diabetes is caused by sugar: Sugar doesn’t directly cause diabetes, but if you consume too much sugar, you are likely going to get diabetes. What sugar does is that it increases the quantity of calories in the body. Too many calories in the body lead to weight gain which significantly increases a person’s likelihood to develop type 2 diabetes. • The Whites kidnapped Africans and sold them into slavery: This is not entirely true. Most slaves that were shipped into the Americas to work in plantations were actually captured by their own kinsmen and sold to the Europeans. When it all began, the Europeans were the ones doing the kidnapping. They organized abduction raids to capture slaves from different communities. But in no time, they realized that it was too dangerous a venture for them since they were not familiar with the inland terrains. What did they do? They subsequently found people that will do their dirty jobs. Then came the local chiefs and the greedy merchants. They were given this responsibility in exchange for money and other privileges. At the height of the slave trade, this practice became a lucrative business along Nigeria’s Atlantic coast. • The United States of America is the world’s largest economy: That was until 2014; October to be precise. The US is still the richest country when measured by reserves and collective national wealth, but it no longer has the worlds largest economy, according to the International Monetary Fund’s Gross Domestic Product Purchasing Power Parity (GDP PPP) estimates. China is now the world’s largest economy. In the IMFs indices, China’s GDP is now worth $17.63 trillion compared with the US’ $17.55 trillion. The IMF makes its calculations based on purchasing power parity, a measure which is preferred by most economists. Purchasing power parity adjusts a country’s GDP for inflation based on the fact that the prices of goods and services as well as cost of living vary from country to country. When not measured based on purchasing power parity, the United States is still the world’s number one economy with a GDP of $16.8 trillion compared to China’s $10.3 trillion.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 05:30:31 +0000
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