“In the Dark Ages, people believed the world was flat.” I first heard this concept in elementary school, and have seen it reiterated in film and on television often since. Dark ages belief in a flat earth a widely accepted “fact.”

Yet my daughter Arielle, a Medieval scholar, shared these insights about the time designated as the Dark Ages:

Not the dark ages:

• People in Medieval times had soap and took baths;
• Universities were founded in Europe during the High Middle Ages, and a lot of the learning came to them from Jewish and Muslim scholars, including ones who interpreted Greek texts into Latin (Aristotle, Plato, etc.);
• We think of “peasants” as poor, miserable, dirty, and fully dependent on their nobles; actually, the non-nobles and non-clergy population describes a large group of people (those who “work,” as opposed to those who fight—nobles, kings, knights—and those who pray—clergy) and they were not all in awe of their nobles—there were several uprisings in England (as one example); there were also craftspeople, wealthy merchants, and so on who would fall under this category;
• Women weren’t all oppressed (queens and ladies often defended their lands from attackers);
• They knew the world was round (the Norse “found” the Americas well before Columbus, and the orbs that you see kings and such holding when they were crowned or depicted in art are meant to represent the globe—a sphere);
• Oh, and witch trials in England—that’s a “Renaissance”/Early Modern thing.

So why all this misleading information about times gone by? I suspect our teachers and entertainers were, in good faith, sharing what was taught them, as I doubt there is a national conspiracy to disparage the pre-Renaissance era. They taught what they thought.

Which got me thinking about, well, thinking. A lot of what we do at A Spacious Place encourages choice: what color do you want? Which song do you choose to sing? Does the work feel finished to you? It not, what else do you want to do with it?

We encourage choice because each one of us deserves to know our own mind. Each one of us has the right—and the responsibility—to think for ourselves. To ask questions. To do our own research. Otherwise, we cheat ourselves of true selfhood, and we cheat the world of the persons we, alone, can be.

Someone somewhere did their own research and discovered that Medieval times weren’t so dark after all. Then that person shared the information with another, who, hopefully, verified with their own research, and so on.

Why this lengthy discourse inspired the earth’s rotundity and times not so dark? Because thinking for ourselves has never been more vital. We need faith leaders and government leaders who encourage free thinking. When either—or—both expect, instead, that we blindly choose their version of truth, we need to do our own thinking.

After reading this piece, I hope everyone double checks the flat-earth concept. And then, while we’re at it, let’s double check something else we’ve long assumed correct (with at least two credible sources, of course). Because, for each of us, the shape of our soul is ours to choose. 

What practices help shape your faith? How do you understand truth, fact, and opinion? How important is choice to you? We would love to hear from you. Share your Soul & Solace thoughts at contact@aspaciousplace.com.