Re: MD Douglas Adams - now you're talking

From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@tiscali.co.uk)
Date: Fri Jul 18 2003 - 18:04:11 BST

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    Hi Platt,

    I think you can enjoy an absurd sense of humour without buying into an entire metaphysics. That's
    what I get out of it anyway - that and some stimulating ideas. He is (was) very close to Richard
    Dawkins, as friends and like-minds.

    Sam

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Platt Holden" <pholden@sc.rr.com>
    To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
    Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 3:34 PM
    Subject: Re: MD Douglas Adams - now you're talking

    > 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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