Moving the heavens

(Slight spoiler warning for the anime Orb: On The Movements of the Earth)

Let’s dial back the clock to 15th century Europe. The Church was a powerful and vast institution, guiding people in all aspects of life. People were taught that they were created in God’s image. That the Creator loved humans the most out of all His creatures. That mankind was special, and thus the Earth they lived in was placed at the very center of the universe.

Then one day, a man asks a budding scholar a question that would change his life forever.

“What if it was the Earth that revolved around the Sun?”

The kid (named Rafal) initially scoffs at the idea, because it would contradict the teachings of the Bible. And yet, he could not shake the concept off his mind. He begins to entertain the heliocentrism hypothesis, and as he pored over the calculations, he found the celestial bodies moving in harmony. There Rafal discovered an elegance to the cosmos that the geocentric model supported by the Church lacked. But at the same time, now he can’t turn a blind eye to it, and how he’s set upon the pursuit of knowledge that could get him killed.

While the story revolves around the heliocentric theory, Orb is not too concerned with exploring the minutiae of the science involved (though it does have excellent layman explanations for various astronomic concepts). Instead, it’s more interested in the impact of this astronomic model on people. If the Earth was not the center of the universe, then there are other commonly held beliefs that very might well be mistaken, too. Maybe the words contained in the Bible and sermons are not an infallible truth. Of course, the clergy wants to stamp out these doubts, by any means necessary. They are the whispers of the Devil that lead innocent lives astray. And it undermines their authority and wealth.

To Rafal, however, heliocentrism is proof of the beauty of the universe, and thus proof of the invisible hand of divine. So much so that he is willing to risk his life to study it. The way the pursuit of rational science transforms into the courage to move the heavens is downright fascinating to behold. It resembles something like faith.

And all that is just the tip of the iceberg. There is honestly more I want to yap about (the entire show is worth at least a handful of theses on philosophy), but I’ll stop myself, because this really is best enjoyed as a personal journey of rumination and self-reflection. If you are even the littlest bit interested, please, take the leap. Get your world spinning.

Bonus: the opening song positively reverberates with emotion.