We small-time collectors of old, inexpensive maps know how drastically the view of the world has changed. After Columbus, the early maps of the New World were twisted and distorted with inaccuracies. Huge, imaginary lakes were drawn in. Fanciful rivers and mountain ranges appeared. California was, for centuries, portrayed as an island. Florida was criss-crossed with nonexistent rivers.
There is one constant in maps. Every old map, no matter how different from geographic reality, was said to be “modern, accurate, and reliable” by those who sold them.
It didn’t take long for political distortions to appear in maps. The course of the Mississippi River was shown by the mapmakers of some countries to appear far to the West, expanding or shrinking the territory claimed by European powers. France, England, and Spain had “Royal Cartographers” whose job it was to draw maps that benefited their employers. The Dutch and Germans weren’t far behind.
Maps were used in drawing up treaties when territories were divided before, after, and during wars. Each nation found that a Royal Cartographer was a necessary help in the process. Long, verdant river valleys could be transferred simply by moving a line a dozen miles. Locations for canals, cities, forts, fishing grounds, and mills were vitally important for government mapmakers, both to find and to hide.
Today, we see the same frauds perpetrated by mapmakers appearing in every field of human endeavor. Temperature records are altered or hidden to support various Global
Freezing/Warming frauds . Bandwidth, now an important commodity, is analyzed to favor whomever is buying or selling it. Underground maps of mineral and energy deposits favor whomever is paying for the map. Educators claim to be “doing good work” based on fraudulent analyses of student achievement. Highway safety proponents are always looking for safety problems (“We need laws against using cell phones while driving!”) to justify more funding, despite large, continual decreases in highway fatalities.
So, what maps teach us, in clear and unambiguous terms, is that people have lied for money since the first maps were made. We also learn, by comparing satellite photos with old maps, that their lies are later, and inevitably, uncovered. We chuckle at how obvious their lies are, today, and classify them as “historical curiosities”. While doing so, it’s important to realize that today’s lies are just as believable as the lies our ancestors told, and are as well documented. And, that they are as widely believed.
Thus does one find the doorway to truth, salvation, and the Divine Love that brought us the opportunity to enter.
