Monthly Archives: October, 2007
Nero is not fiddling, but making ugly noises
Among the frightening news reports that fill our newspapers in our times, I came across one (on October 21) with the following lines: “A catastrophic reduction in the flow of the Colorado River — which mostly consists of snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains — has always served as a kind of thought experiment for water …
Request
I know that many of you are browsing through my musings. I will appreciate your reactions, and would like to know something about you and your thoughts on some of these matters. Thanks! You may enjoy visiting http://www.metanexus.net/Institute/
Being Optimistic
A reader: “I tend to be a little optimistic and hold on to the belief that a little goodness exists in the hearts of the average, ordinary person in spite of all the prejudiced and pernicious propaganda and brainwashing they are subjected to.” Thank you for re-affirming what I used to feel very strongly in …
On Watson’s Comments
News item: “On 17 October 2007 one of the world’s most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that ‘equal powers of reason’ were shared across racial groups was a delusion.” We live in an extraordinarily confused …
Science and Poetry
Let us look into some of the common elements between science and poetry. To the superficial observer, indeed sometimes even to the devotees of the fields, the two may strike as contrasting endeavors, as different from each other as day and night. Yet the two have a great deal in common: In both instances creativity plays a …
Agnosticism, Atheism, Religion, and Science
Agnosticism is an expression of humility, and does not imply an attack on what others believe in.Atheism is a strong attack on a deeply cherished and long-held-as-sacred belief (in the existence of a Divine Principle). Therefore, atheism sounds (even if it may not actually be) arrogant to the ears of believers, because it is an explicit …
Science and Culture
Science and Culture Science, as we all recognize, is one of the most lofty expressions of the human spirit. It is the consequence of the irrepressible urge in the human mind to explore, understand, interpret and explain the world of perceived reality. This urge and efforts to give vent to it have been there in …
On Frank J. Tipler’s “The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God, and Resurrection.”
On Frank J. Tipler’s “The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God, and Resurrection.” This daring book with a catchy title, written by a physicist at Tulane University, elaborates on the conviction of the author that the results of current cosmological theories have finally proved the existence of God, and much more. Readers of E. T. …
On Fred Watson’s “Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope.”
The word science often conjures up visions of theories, concepts, ideas and explanations, rather than of the countless instruments that make science possible. One of the first instruments which instigated the birth of modern science was the telescope. Aiding Galileo and other pioneers in their quest, it has revealed to human perception celestial bodies from …
On Louise M. Anthony et al.’s Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life.
The essays in this book by mostly disillusioned Christians and Jews writing on topics like “From Yashiva to Secular,” “Overcoming Christianity,” “On Becoming a Heretic,” and “Divine Evil,” imply that atheism is superior, more rational, and less prone to fanaticism. The concluding essay tries to show that faith automatically leads to fanaticism, ignoring the facts …
