PARADOX
by Clarence R. Wylie Jr.
Not truth, nor certainty. These I forswore
In my novitiate, as young men called
To holy orders must abjure the world.
'If...,then...,' this only I assert;
And my successes are but pretty chains
Linking twin doubts, for it is vain to ask
If what I postulate be justified,
Or what I prove possess the stamp of fact.
Yet bridges stand, and men no longer crawl
In two dimension. And such triumphs stem
In no small measure from the power this game,
Played with the thrice-attentuated shades
Of things, has over their originals.
How frail the wand, but how profound the spell!
FEAR OF GOD
by Ronnie J. Hastings, Ph.D. (1983)
Galileo was chided by the God-fearing for observing that the solar system is Copernican, not Ptolemaic.
And yet... the wanderers did and do move about the sun.
Newton was chided by the God-fearing for describing all motions with mathematics, not with divine will.
And yet...measurements in mechanics could and can be predicted with precision through calculation.
Lavoisier was chided by the God-fearing for explaining chemistry as quantative reactions, not as miracles or magic.
And yet...substances did and do appear and disappear with predictable regularity in labs everywhere.
Darwin was chided by the God-fearing for showing the diversity of life resulting from ecological factors and adaption to them, not from theistic interventions.
And yet...life had and has a single structure and has changed and does change forms in time.
Einstein was chided by the God-fearing for demonstrating the democracy of observers, not the absolute God's-eye view.
And yet...space and time have changed and do change from frame of reference to frame of reference, and the laws of nature have been and are the same for all frames.
Perhaps the God-fearing are right to fear God. If God is the source of reality, they have been fighting or ignoring God's facts for four hundred years!
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