RE: MD Douglas Adams - now you're talking

From: Ian Glendinning (ian@psybertron.org)
Date: Fri Jul 18 2003 - 22:20:57 BST

  • Next message: Ian Glendinning: "RE: MD And now for something not very different at all"

    Platt "couldn't help but laugh when he read what he [DNA] said"

    Mission accomplished.

    I've obviously touched a nerve with DNA. He was definitely naive when it
    comes to science, but he wasn't around it all that long (RIP) which explains
    why he was so enthralled by Dawkins (about as extreme a logical positivist
    as Ayn Rand in my book), but at least he had the sense to make fun of it,
    and get off his a*se and climb Kilimanjaro to do something about it.

    Many a true word spoken in jest I say. (Seriously)(No, honest, I mean
    it)(Stop tittering)

    Ian

    -----Original Message-----
    From: owner-moq_discuss@venus.co.uk
    [mailto:owner-moq_discuss@venus.co.uk]On Behalf Of Platt Holden
    Sent: 18 July 2003 15:34
    To: moq_discuss@moq.org
    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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