(by ChristosTsotsos author of The secret of the elements.)
I remember reading once that Richard Feynman considered with joy that we lived in a very scientific era. I cannot help imagining him as a young scientist amongst his peers happy to deal with the beautiful world of science, and the absolute nature of mathematics. He must have felt pleased. He must have felt enourmously pleased to exist in a modern and advanced era as he was frequently expressing this view to colleagues, students, and friends. I can only imagine then how he must have felt one morning, when this belief collapsed abruptly. He mentions that spoting a magazine once with the week's astrology prediction burst his scientific world bubble.
I remember reading once that Richard Feynman considered with joy that we lived in a very scientific era. I cannot help imagining him as a young scientist amongst his peers happy to deal with the beautiful world of science, and the absolute nature of mathematics. He must have felt pleased. He must have felt enourmously pleased to exist in a modern and advanced era as he was frequently expressing this view to colleagues, students, and friends. I can only imagine then how he must have felt one morning, when this belief collapsed abruptly. He mentions that spoting a magazine once with the week's astrology prediction burst his scientific world bubble.
This statement excited my imagination. I can almost see this young scientist, as he did a number of times before, that day too, walking into a cafeteria; ordering his breakfast and coffee; sitting at table with a grin, pondering on humanity’s progress over the centuries. That is when his gaze landed on a magazine, that someone at a table next to him was reading. If we were a mystical fly on the wall, we would be able to see a dark cloud over his head, followed by a sudden loss of appetite. His runny egg left there, abandoned, inviting our proboscis.
He must have felt as if he had witnessed a mockery of his idea. An exhibition of twelve vulgar insults to his thoughts presented on a glossy page in the form of the Zodiac weekly predictions.
A few decades and some ‘Windows’ upgrades later, we too consider our society advanced and modern. Yet, astrology and religion are still around (mocking our view of the world as modern). As we speak, some people re-discover Christianity, and some consult the charts to see how Pluto entering Uranus can affect their love/money/work/relations. Everyone, including myself, enjoys a bit of fun with friends on life prediction. What bugs me though, more than anything else, is how come we allow for crap like zodiac signs, religion and career politicians to deceive us into believing that they hold the key to our future? Particularly when there is no scientific proof that they do.
A few decades and some ‘Windows’ upgrades later, we too consider our society advanced and modern. Yet, astrology and religion are still around (mocking our view of the world as modern). As we speak, some people re-discover Christianity, and some consult the charts to see how Pluto entering Uranus can affect their love/money/work/relations. Everyone, including myself, enjoys a bit of fun with friends on life prediction. What bugs me though, more than anything else, is how come we allow for crap like zodiac signs, religion and career politicians to deceive us into believing that they hold the key to our future? Particularly when there is no scientific proof that they do.
(by ChristosTsotsos author of The secret of the elements.)
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