Isaac Asimov's Nightfall

Isaac Asimov's Nightfall is a sci-fi dystopian story wherein the people reached a tragic end upon discovering that their universe is much bigger than what they had expected. At first, the scientists thought that the darkness itself resulting from the eclipse was what will make the people burn the cities in the hopes of having a light source because of the fact that they haven't experienced darkness ever in their entire life. But it turns out that when the eclipse came about, they saw so many stars, and so they realized that their universe is much more vast than they had known. And the bizarre thing is, this realization drove them insane.

Relating this to reality, many people are afraid of what's out there. We all know that we are only a part of one galaxy, and there are still billions and billions of galaxies out there. Some people cannot fathom the idea that the place they know now isn't the only place that exists, and so they choose not to believe in it. They choose not to believe in Science altogether because they are afraid to know the truth behind certain things, behind certain ideologies that have been popularized over time despite it being a lie. They choose to be blind to the truth because they are scared that their beliefs are different from what's real. I think that Science is a tool for making us see what is real and what is not, and so people shouldn't be afraid of it. Instead, they should embrace it. We should use science to earn knowledge about the world, and not oppose it. Whatever we discover with science, we should accept wholeheartedly, and use it to make ourselves ask more, to be more curious, and to question things that need to be questioned.

Anna Isabelle R. Lejano
2013-14235