Friday, June 6, 2008

"Did you imagine that science was a disinterested pursuit of truth? Well, ... "

Your latest dose of David Berlinski: Well, no, you don't have to read it, but ...
Questions about the parameters and laws of physics form a single insistent question in thought: Why are things as they are when what they are seems anything but arbitrary?

One answer is obvious. It is the one that theologians have always offered: The universe looks like a put-up job because it is a put-up job. That this answer is obvious is no reason to think it false. Nonetheless, the answer that common sense might suggest is deficient in one respect: It is emotionally unacceptable because a universe that looks like a put-up job puts off a great many physicists.
They have thus made every effort to find an alternative. Did you imagine that science was a disinterested pursuit of truth?

Well, you were wrong.

From The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions (P. 112)

Yes, of course Berlinski is on YouTube. Don't write to me to complain. It's fine with me. But whatever you do, don't show this to Darwin Boy if there's a fire code in place.