Ancient Hindrance

Why do we bow to ancient thought when it conflicts with modern understanding?

The Englishman, within his stable,
Beheld only his working-table,
Possessing only Christian thought
To validate what he’d been taught.

South African, as wonder grew,
No further than the jungles knew,
No globe or modern scholar’s mind
To tell him where his city lie.

Indigenous man, to know the moon,
List’d to nature’s reverent croon:
In absence of educated stance,
He guessed a thousand years’ advance.

And in the hot Arabian sands,
These men prayed for divine hands—
Direct and guide their human motion,
And encourage pre-existing notion.

The Chinese man, of progressive theory,
Still knew of Earth a vision bleary;
All the mathematics he had gained
Left that much more to be attained.

Shivering man of far, freezing north
Had no solution to give forth.
Attention fixed upon the cold,
His understanding was one of old.

Billions came and went together,
Unaware of their human tether—
Geography held them apart,
Yet all were part of one great art.

Religion, superstition, fright,
Ritual, racism, and might:
By these, countries lived and died;
Progress is through them denied.

Now, with map, science, and book,
Knowledge is here if one wish’d look,
Yet still we hold to ignorance,
Forged in ancient hindrance.