The premise of this prescribed title lies in objectivity.

One would like to have faith

that historians and scientists are objective in their retelling of historical and scientific
events and discoveries, yet this is indeed a false premise as one must acknowledge and
accept the bias and subjectivity of human beings in accordance to the historical time
periods in which they are researching and analyzing as well as their social and cultural
backgrounds. In turn, within the areas of knowledge of history and natural science,
knowledge is in a constant state of flux as revision and new discoveries certainly shift
that which society deems as accurate to obsolete.
The concept of historical revisionism exemplifies the idea that knowledge within
the body of history is subject to change. David Williams discusses how history is
primarily written by the elite of society, and in turn their rewriting of history impacts
the knowledge of today but faces revision over time. Perhaps what one must consider
is not that knowledge today is discarded, but that new evidence sheds light onto the
limitations of societys previously held views. For example, there is little mention in
textbooks that following WWII, 12-14 million Germans were expelled from their
country by the Allies (Expulsion). The focus has been on the genocide of the Jewish
population thus justifying the creation of Israel and the Wests continual support of the
Jewish state. Yet, the expulsion of almost 14 million Germans from their homeland
acknowledges that those who perpetuated crimes against humanity were punished and
makes one question the validity of knowledge regarding the necessity of the creation of
Israel, a country for Jewish refugees. In the natural sciences, one needs only to look to
Galileos heliocentric theory. At the time that Galileo presented his theory that the
earth revolved around the sun, most discredited his ideas: this can be found in religious
texts especially where religious scripture dedicates that "the world is firmly
established, it cannot be moved (Chronicles 16:30). Galileos theory was not accepted
until technology advanced to discredit the religious texts deemed as sacred truths by
the masses. Yet even during his time Galileo used scripture to defend his knowledge as
he stated that scripture is not intended to tell the layman where heaven is located but
only how to get there (Galileo Project), thereby acknowledging that mans knowledge
is limited and can only evolve as time progresses, supporting the premise that what one
knows today is subject to change based on the discoveries of tomorrow.
Works Cited
Expulsion of Germans after World War II. Princeton. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Expulsion_of_Germans_a
fter_World_War_II.html