The Belief that the World was Created Last Thursday
What started out as a parody religion, but ended up with deep philosophical thoughts.
At first thought, this belief can be so outlandish and bizarre that a majority of the people would skip reading at this point itself.
However, this story gets even more bizarre as it includes plot points like the Flaming Laser Sword of Sir Isaac Newton, disorder in the Universe, and a Bradley Cooper starring film.
Welcome to the world of the followers of Last Thursdayism, a way of thinking that encourages numerous questions to be raised.
So what is this theory and why is it a point of conversation?
In literal terms, the core belief revolves around the fact that the entire universe, including every individual along with their collective thoughts and memories, was created last (referring to the most recent) Thursday. This leads to the conclusion that everything around us has a life cycle of exactly one week, beginning and ending on a Thursday.
But what about our memories of seeing the Moon landing and the fun we had during the rollercoaster ride in Disneyland? To put it simply, all our memories were also created last Thursday, and not just your memories, but every single living person’s memory, along with the physical existence of the Moon and the rollercoaster in Disneyland. Such schools of thought are known as unfalsifiable theories, things that can neither be proven nor disproven. However much you try to prove Last Thursdayism wrong, it will not be possible because all the arguments are refuted by the statement that things around us are designed to make us believe in the history beyond the last one week.
So how do we go about examing the truth?
The easy solution is we don’t. Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword is a principle that classifies things which cannot be settled by observations and experiments to be not worthy of debate. In olden days some people thought that a rabbit dwelled on the moon, a fact that though it sounded too absurd to be true, could not be proven true or false. That was until we had the Moon landing and experiments were conducted on its surface.
Similarly, some people may believe that if you fall from a rollercoaster ride, you see your entire life flash before your eyes. Without experimentation, it is not possible to prove this theory, and the process would have real-world consequences.
We can, however, consider this to be a thought experiment, incorporating the concept of time and the Law of Entropy. The universe is fuelled forward because of its disruptiveness. Energy is transferred, leading to disorder in the universe that allows for it to move ahead in time. So for everything to have started last Thursday, energy would have to be created every week, which in itself would be an insane requirement. However, it can all be refuted by the mere statement that the law of science was brought into existence the last Thursday along with all of our knowledge of how things work in the universe.
So to bring our mind to comprehend the principle of Last Thursdayism, we need our minds to be open to endless possibilities such as having the aforementioned rollercoaster ride being on the Moon. If we can imagine beyond what we think are our capabilities, the scope of achievements is limitless.
If the last Thursday idea has been sounding funny so far, that’s because it is.
The thought started out as a form of a parody religion, which becomes quite apparent once you visit the official website of The Church of Last Thursday, where things like abstaining from being left-handed are promoted. However, their primary purpose is to encourage every person to think for themself as stated in their own words:
“You are not expected to believe in Last Thursdayism, since belief would require faith. In fact, believing in it would cause you to at least partially fail the judgment part of the test You set out for yourself.”
Believing in yourself counts as the greatest experiment ever performed, one that has been tested on numerous occasions, one that cannot be wounded by any sword, even if the sword is a laser one wielded by one of the greatest scientists to have ever lived.
