One common trait among many of our civilization’s great thinkers is their humility. Perhaps this started with Socrates and the line for which he’s so well known: “I know that I know nothing,” meaning that true wisdom is knowing you don’t know anything.
About 2000 years later, in the 1660s, we have this quote at left from Isaac Newton.
Of course, not all great minds through the ages were so modest. Take, for example, the physicists of the late 19th Century who were convinced that everything of any real importance in their field has already been discovered. A few later we Einstein, followed by quantum mechanics. Oops! That belief didn’t age well.
All this raises a series of unanswerable questions. Is there an end to physics, i.e. a point at which we honestly do have our arms wrapped cosmology and all our puzzles have been solved: wormholes, time travel, dark energy and matter, string theory, unified field theory, parallel universes, another universe before the big bang? If there is such an end, how close are we to it?
“Republican Patriots” writes: Howard Stern once again reveals the contempt so many in the entertainment elite hold for everyday Americans. He claims not to hate President Trump himself, but openly declares his hatred for those who support him, calling them stupid and saying he has no respect for them. This kind of arrogant dismissal shows how out of touch these Hollywood types have become with the hardworking people who built this country.
I’ve got news: contempt for Trump supporters is hardly limited to “these Hollywood types.” The vast majority of Americans–especially at this point–are neither greedy pigs nor hateful morons. We respect human rights and rule of law.
Can’t something be done to stop this lunatic?
I have such respect for Pascal that I considered naming our son after him. (My wife wasn’t having it. Maybe if we lived in France?)
Pascal was instrumental in math and physics, but is perhaps best known for his philosophic “wager,” that it makes sense to believe in God, since if He exists, you’ll be very glad you did, and if He doesn’t, you haven’t lost anything. I counter that this is not how we adopt or reject religion.
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