April 3, 2007

The Monkey God Vs the Science Robot

How curious, after all, is the way in which we moderns think about our world! And it is all so novel, too. The cosmology underlying our mental processes is but three centuries old (a mere infant in the history of thought) and yet we cling to it with the same zeal with which a young father fondles his new-born baby. Like him, we are ignorant enough of its precise nature; like him, we nevertheless take it piously to be ours and allow it a subtly pervasive and unhindered control over our thinking.

Free nerd hats to all who are still with me. You can wear them to my special party where I'll be handing out tasty candy SUCKERS because I just tricked you into reading the opening paragraph of my fave new gem of a book, "The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science" by E A Burtt. The new born baby of which he so insightfully speaks is of course our good friend Science! (the tool by which some lovely lady quite recently pilfered my vision). The program of Burtt's work is to shed some light on the underlying beliefs and assumptions of scientific thought by comparing it to medieval thought. As an added benefit, he spices up the trip with some agile prose and euphemisms such as referring to a woman's lap as the "nether bifurcation." Hilarity ensues.

READ A BOOK!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so glad that you didnt write that first paragraph. I thought I was going to have to cyber slap you for saying "fondles his new-born baby" !!SMACK!! "piously" !!SMACK!! and "subtly pervasive" !!POW!!
KD

the unbeatable kid said...

true. and i would have deserved it too. This dude only gets away with it because he was writing in the 1920's when fondling new borns was acceptable terminology. back then, you could say "butt me" and it meant "give me a cigarette" and not smack me with your butt like it does today.