Church of the Flying Elephants

PZ Myers wrote a wonderful expansion of the old parable about blind men encountering an elephant. It begins:

Once upon a time, four blind men were walking in the forest, and they bumped into an elephant.

Moe was in front, and found himself holding the trunk. “It has a tentacle,” he said. “I think we have found a giant squid!”

Larry bumped into the side of the elephant. “It’s a wall,” he said, “A big, bristly wall.”

Curly, at the back, touched the tail. “It’s nothing to worry about, nothing but a piece of rope dangling in the trail.”

Eagletosh saw the interruption as an opportunity to sit in the shade beneath a tree and relax. “It is my considered opinion,” he said, “that whatever it is has feathers. Beautiful iridescent feathers of many hues.”

Go read the rest. It should hopefully enlighten you on how incorrect assumptions, stubbornness, and a lack of scientific curiosity, can dovetail and snowball into a religion, a meme that blinds people to the truth of the universe.