But is this really "for fun"? Or a parody on a gathering opposition?
Without evidence to offer, I nevertheless suspect the latter.
Since the time of Galileo, the churches have largely left physics alone as
not in their best interests to challenge and not directly threatening to
their doctrines. Now the emergence of cosmology as an experimentally based
branch of physics must be causing the fundamentalists to reconsider their
tacit acquiescence to the uncensored teaching of physics. The truce -which
has lasted over 300 years - may be about to end. We are trampling on what
they consider to be their turf, big time. The "demon-haunted" folk (to use
Carl Sagan's phrase) may be about to give us the same treatment they have
been giving for a century and a half to biology and geology.
What we are finding is pretty scary stuff for the children, the
demon-haunted and the scientifically challenged. My Joseph, 6 1/2, who
doesn't understand the concept of "millions of years", is in a state of
persistent anxiety about the sun expanding and scorching or swallowing the
Earth, never mind "heat death". He really wants to hear about Adam and Eve,
Heaven and Hell, and the Judgment Day, things he can grasp.
Chris
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Christopher A. Horton, Ph.D.
4158 RR#3 (Hwy. 204)
Amherst, NS B4H 3Y1
CANADA
ChrisAHorton2@hotmail.com
(902) 447-2109
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us
will have been effaced. Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has
in it something for every age to investigate ... Nature does not reveal her
mysteries once and for all."
- Seneca, "Natural Questions", first century, quoted by Carl Sagan in
"Cosmos", p.xi.
* * * * * * * * * * *
----- Original Message -----
From: kyle forinash <kforinas@IUS.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 1:48 PM
Subject: for fun