Shift Happens

1. Smoking

"Smoking kills", but it didn't always. In the past, cigarettes were advertised in a way that would make you want to smoke. Dentists, doctors, men, women, children.. they were all featured in these ads. Smiling, happy, healthy, and loving a smoke. How things have changed. Nowadays, all cigarette packs say smoking kills in large letters somewhere on them. This assures that the consumer - the smoker - knows the risks associated with what they are doing. Cigarette and tobacco companies have to do this because of the proven serious health risks that are associated with smoking as well as chewing tobacco. Cigarettes are not portrayed positively, and the only commercials I have ever seen are showing the negative side effects of smoking. This paradigm shift most likely occurred because of advancements in the medical field, as well as a growing concern for public health in general.

2. The universe

At one point in time, it was agreed upon that the earth was flat and we didn't rotate around the sun. Obviously, things have changed. Through years of observations (research), scientists have discovered more and more about how our world works and what lies beyond us. There has been more than one theory of how the universe works and what specifically Earth is and how it fits into the universe. As new, better observations were made, the theory changed to encompass those observations. Of course, most of this happened many many decades, even centuries, ago. While it seems definite to us now, the world was different in those days. Science was feared, so it took a shift in people's mindsets for them to accept scientific observations. But once people began to accept science, the commonly accepted ideas about the world and its place in the universe started to change and resemble what we believe to be true to this day.