Professor Langley's flying machine

Did not Professor Langley's flying machine go to the bottom of the Potomac River? - Alcoholics Anonymous - p.51

As the Big Big enters it fourth quarter of a century (seventy-six years, to be exact) some of the reference are becoming more obscure and unfamiliar to many new members. It would be a good idea if we could read up on these references in order to make the points Bill intended in a more comprehensible way. Here's a link to a Wikipedia article about the above quote. What Bill is saying is that people often ridicule that which they do not understand. Or, worse yet, they ridicule it because they don't want to understand it.

Bill lived in an age when the religious culture of the United States was coming under heavy attack. It was the age of prolific scientific discovery. In fact, in Bill's Guest House talk he refers to the way in which Science was his God.

The point of his citation is that people deride what they can not conceive. Langley was a laughingstock because his failure reinforced the beliefs of people who did not think flight was possible. And rather than attempt to prove their point, it was easier to point to another's failure.

Christianity had been such an unspoken assumption in our culture for so long that when it became more acceptable to hold anti-religious views, the handiest expression of those views was to ridicule it.

⁶ “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.  - Matthew 7:6 NIV

It's not just that the pearls are wasted on the pigs, but rather that if you do that they will turn and attack you. It's an odd fact, but one borne out by experience, that spiritual things don't bounce off unbelievers but rather pierce them. And the reactions are generally disproportionately hostile.

And it was in this primitive mindset that I viewed religion in general and Christianity in particular. I was a pig and not only did I trample on the good things people tried to give me, I attacked them for even trying. It took nothing less than the complete collapse of my life to see through this irrational bias. And that's exactly what it was: irrational. I had always argued that rational people didn't believe all that God crap, yet my attack was entirely devoid of reason. It was visceral, it was mindless and it was, once I admitted it, embarrassingly shallow.

So rather than point out the ugliness of the trees, I could begin to see the beauty of the forest. Instead of laughing at the spiritual "Langley's" whose silly beliefs reinforced my prejudices, I began to see those who soared on the wings of the angels.

As a little footnote, I am soaring on the wings of a United Airlines 737 on my way back home and crammed into a seat too narrow to hit the "a" key on the keyboard comfortably. Why do I bring that up? Because despite his failure to demonstrate it, Langley was right, I wouldn't be sitting here if he weren't.