The Biggest Lies And Misconceptions We Were Taught In School

#1 Our Founding Fathers Were All Christians

For many years people believed that the founding fathers of the United States were all Christians and the country was based on those values. That is not the case. Especially since both Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were considered deists, and Alexander converted to Christianity after his son was killed, which happened long after 1776. George Washington believed that nature was God and John Adams was a Unitarian, meaning that Jesus was a good man but not the son of God.

#2 The Thirteen Colonies

We were taught that there were 13 colonies, which is why the flag has 13 stripes, one for each colony. However, Delaware was never a colony. It remained part of Pennsylvania and owned by William Penn up until the Revolutionary War.

#3 Thomas Edison And The Light Bulb

For many years, people were taught that Thomas Edison was a mastermind who invented the lightbulb and harnessed the power of electricity. However, the truth is that Edison actually bought the patent for the incandescent light bulb from a German inventor named Heinrich GÃ¶bel. There were also 22 other inventors working on the light bulb and perfecting it at the same time the patent was issued.

#4 Abraham Lincoln Opposed Slavery

Lincoln was ambiguous about his views on slavery and only took actions to abolish it because it would strengthen the Union. In fact, Lincoln had once written that if he could save the Union without freeing any slaves, he would do it. He said, "What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe in a united Union."

#5 Van Gogh's Ear

After reviewing historical records it is believed that Van Gogh did not cut off his own ear as taught in school. He allegedly lost his ear in a fight with Gauguin who sliced it off with his sword after Van Gogh threw a wine glass at him. Van Gogh reported that he himself cut off his ear because he did not want Gauguin to face jail time for the accident which he started.

#6 Human Evolution

Evolution is a theory where the strong survive and the weak are eliminated. If humans have evolved directly from ancient apes species there would no longer be any apes left as humans would have won the survival lottery. There are still apes, which leads to the theory that all great apes share a common ancestry but at some point in time the ancestors evolved in different directions from on another.

#7 The Human Tongue

Scientists and teachers thought that there were different parts of the tongue that detected different tastes like sweet, sour, bitter, and etcetera. In reality, our tongue equally detects these different tastes regardless of what they are. The only exception to this is the taste of sour, which is detected by a protein in our system.

#8 Blue Blooded Humans

For many years science has taught us that our blood was actually blue in color and only turned red when it was outside of the body and exposed to oxygen. The defense to this theory was that our veins are blue and green appearing under our skin. But this mistake was made due to a trick of the eye and how the eye perceives light. The layers of skin and refracted light cause a blue color to our veins, but we still bleed red.

#9 Thanksgiving AndThe Pilgrims

The tale of native Americans and Pilgrims sharing a fancy feat on a cold Autumn day is very heartwarming, but not true. The only thing that was actually shared between the Pilgrims and the natives was the plague, which killed off 96% of the native population. It is believed that the Pilgrims were aware of the effects of their deadly disease and utilized this to their benefit to rid the natives and steal their crops and land.

#10 Christopher Columbus

Columbus did not discover that the earth was round, and he never 'discovered' the Americas. He never had to convince the Spaniards that he would not fall off the face of the earth if went on his voyage to Asia. The fact is that the Greeks had already known the earth was round about two thousand years before Spain ever existed. The reason the Spanish did not want to fund his trip was because it was believed Columbus was a failure and would never survive.

#11 Sir Isaac Newton

While it's true that Newton came up with his theory about gravity while watching apples fall, it's unclear in one actually fell on his head. It actually took Newton over twenty years to come up with his theory of universal gravitation. There were also many other involved in coming up with the theory, so there was never really an aha moment when an apple fell from a tree and gave him this amazing revelation.

#12 Gravity

Contrary to what we've been taught, there is gravity in outer space. However, it is just very weak. Gravity is actually responsible for keeping the moon in orbit and those planets and objects that are defying gravity are actually in a state of free fall.

#13 George Washington Carver

Carver was an amazing man who made several agricultural advances. He created over 300 uses for peanuts in an attempt to save the farming industry when the cotton business started dying in Alabama due to a boll weevil infestation. However, he did not invent peanut butter. Peanut butter has been in existence since the Aztecs and the first patent was given to Dr. Marcellus Gilmore Edson as a way to fortify a patient's protein levels when they were rendered incapable of chewing solid foods.

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