Re: MD Douglas Adams - now you're talking

From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Fri Jul 18 2003 - 15:34:01 BST

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    Hi Rick, Matt, Ian, other Douglas Adams fans,

    > Rick
    > Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Douglas Adams was the ultimate pragmatist, a man
    > who genuinely knew how to attack metaphysics without practicing it. The
    > Hitchhiker's Guide is a grand send-up of the absurdities that flow from
    > looking for a single, ultimate answer to life (the universe, and
    > everything).

    Since Adams claims there's no single, ultimate answer to everything I
    couldn't help but laugh when I read what he said in an interview:

    "Sometime around my early thirties I stumbled upon evolutionary biology,
    particularly in the form of Richard Dawkins's books The Selfish Gene and
    then The Blind Watchmaker and suddenly (on, I think the second reading of
    The Selfish Gene) it all fell into place. It was a concept of such
    stunning simplicity, but it gave rise, naturally, to all of the infinite
    and baffling complexity of life. The awe it inspired in me made the awe
    that people talk about in respect of religious experience seem, frankly,
    silly beside it. I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of
    ignorance any day."

    His single, ultimate answer:science! How insightful. How original. How
    profound. Are you guys kidding or what?

    Platt

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