Skeptic Way To Live

Lately I've delved into history to renew information received – but not photographically retained – from long ago academics. Other than books, videos and DVDs are good resources since they capture points in time on which I can concentrate. I chose a video of historic Florence, Italy, for background of art history. My mouth fell open at the beginning statement - that a proposal for the design of a church dome by an engineer/architect was responsible for the beginning of the great Renaissance.
We can talk about misinformation and that statement stands as a prime example. It is incredibly inaccurate. No period in history began with a single incident. The Renaissance being the least of them. People for at least three hundred thousand years have been endowed with the same brain capacity, imagination, creativity and curiosity as was present in the 1400's when this Florence dome plan was brought forth. My historical curiosity reaches points around the world and reliable sources prove that the Renaissance was not an accident of one discovery.
Man's insatiable curiosity took explorers from home to faraway places at least in recorded history since Marco Polo and Magellan. Exploration was not exclusive of women (although the role of women was never mentioned because men never went very long without women), never mind the perversions written in sea lore or insistence that men need release to prevent explosion of sperm buildup.
What a self serving form of misinformation.
But back to the point: Arrogant Spanish explorers in search of a direct water route to riches in the Orient bumped into what they labeled as the “new world” - a land inhabited by scholars for generations beyond European belief. Botany was so highly understood in Peru that Mendel and his pea experiments were less than a baby's first steps. The number of unusual vegetables at least fascinated the Spanish enough to introduce root crops to their vassals back home. You know the routine, make them responsible for their own food. Potatoes - white ones - (it seemed aversion to 'colored' existed in Europe at the time) were accepted. Where grown, the extra nutrients improved general health and local prosperity. And as all sex driven species, reproduction flourished. Enlightened - better fed - humans in Europe came up with new inventions, innovations, and discoveries.
If one single item or event can be said to have inspired the Renaissance, it would have be the immigration of the potato, a development in gene manipulation by an age old civilization we know as the Incas of Peru. I bring this up because humans must be skeptical about the information they receive from whatever source. Be like a two year old and ask questions? Why? How come? Who says so?
What you have then is the basis for reasonable decisions that will help make more sense of your life.
Naomi Sherer