Science Musings Discussion
To be honest, that face just looks a lot more to me like Little Orphan Annie than the Virgin Mary.
Not that I've met either lady, of course.
A science-based thinking America? What is that?
Dear Mr. Raymo:
thank you for this site (which I, to my great surprise and joy, discovered only today), for your wisdom, quiet - and yet poetic! - objectivity and, of course, for your wonderful books. "The Soul of the Night" is one of the very few books I'd take with me to a desert island - along with Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot", Whitman's "Leaves of Grass", Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" and a collection of Russian poetry, - so close it is to my heart and mentality, so conducive it is to a dignified and knowing, and yet - romantic and exciting, reflection on beauty and mystery of the cosmos and on a myriad of "mundane" things and creatures in it and on ourselves and on one’s mission in this world…
I am a former high school science teacher from the former Soviet Union. For somebody like me, devastated culturally and psychologically by the realities of life in the US, your books and articles are one of the “safe havens” of sanity, soberness, poetic realism, if you will, - among the ocean of maddening trivialization, demagoguery, hypocrisy, intellectual cowardice, screaming and yelling of those who have nothing to say from TV- and computer screens, on radio waves and newspapers’ pages. At the time when the mass-media and politicians seem to be obsessed by trying to lower common denominator even further and to make sound bites even shorter than they (bites) already are, you - and a few people left like you - do the opposite. For that, once again - sincere “thank you”!
Sorry for being so loquacious and for veering (but just a little bit!:-)) off the topic: Virgin Mary's "face" in Grilled Cheese...:-))
PS: Since you, Mr. Raymo, judging by your books, are a person who loves and knows good poetry, let me offer you a link to one of my favorite works of Russian poetry, which, seems to me, has something in common with today’s subject (here - in pretty decent English translation):
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/7944
I think this poem is an example (rare these days!) of treating deep, albeit somewhat naïve, religious feelings and subjects sympathetically, but appropriately so, with tact and restraint, - as opposed to, say, shameless pandering to them and/or their (feelings and subjects’) disgusting blockbusterization. (I’ve already seen the ads from electronics stores which offer a discount for those who buy DVD with “The Passion of Christ” along with other DVDs – let’s say, “Kill Bill” or “Austin Powers” or… “Dumb and Dumber”. Hey, that’s American way, isn’t it; it all – personal faith, life, death and teaching of Jesus Christ, “moral values” – just a commodity. If you can brutalize, trivialize, twist them to the point of making hundreds of millions of dollars, and - along the way - scaring the people, encouraging hatred and ignorance and/or winning the elections, - why not? It works – and it’s very sad…)
It seems odd to me that someone claiming to represent scientific and philisophical thinking, as expressed in your books (which I have loved for years), would stoop so eagerly to such a silly guilt by association fallacy. To imply that the kind of people who believe that God would choose to create miracles in a grilled cheese sandwich and the much more defensible position of the Creationists are one and the same, that they are of like mind, is rediculous--and more importantly it is intellectually dishonest. Such fallacies always work on the lesser intellects on both sides of any argument. I expected better from you. Whether the universe is 10,000 or 15 billion years old has nothing to do with a grilled cheese sandwich Virgin Mary. What's more, it is possible to believe that the universe is both very old and created by a Creator, so ridiculing the 10,000 or even 6,000 year old universe claimed by some Creationists does nothing to refute the idea of a Creation itself. The fact is that we live in a universe that is very much real: Did that universe always exist in one form or another? Or was that universe created by a Creator who always existed? That is the question in a nutshell. Grilled cheese Virgin Marys do not belong in this discussion.
I believe you do a great disservice to scientific acceptance every time you choose to insult the religious people of our nation--and our world. The fact is in ridiculing Creationists for their beliefs, you are also ridiculing almost all of the world's Christians (Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox), the Muslims, the Jews, the Hindus and many others who all believe that the universe was indeed created by a Creator. If you attack and ridicule those you do not agree with, they will never listen to your arguments. America, and certainly the world, has never had a scientific-thinking majority. That is largely the fault of the tactics of the scientific community. Be more sympathetic to opposing ideas. Be honest in your portrayal of them. What is that old saying? "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." Be honest. If you must resort to fallacies, it only shows the weakness of your own position.
A tempest in a teapot and a miracle in a grilled cheese.
I'll take the Madonna on white. Mmmmm...sacrelicious
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