Friday, September 14, 2007

Let there be

People who claim to have found The Key that will unlock all mysteries are generally deserving figures of fun. From Casaubon (in George Eliot's Middlemarch) to the conspiracy theorists, from Communism to The Da Vinci Code and the Jihadists, those with The Answer are foolish, dangerous and often very funny. Yet their outlandish beliefs and practices are merely the surface manifestation of a faith in the unity of things. This article of faith has not only dominated human history, but is implicit in Science, where is it allied to a second: that human reason is capable of understanding this unity.

One rather beautiful example of this is that of the origin of the universe and of life, here briefly expounded by Gottfried Schatz. In just over a thousand words, he follows a beam of light from the Big Bang to the black dragon fish 1,000 metres below the surface of the sea. It's like a prayer.

5 comments:

Hazar Nesimi said...

The Final Key to unlock all mysteries is our search for them. But search we in different ways. Scienitst too often are unable to revel in the mystery that is the World, unlike the author. Too often they are slaves of their own endeavour. But so other adepts.
"Science who alters all things with peering eyes
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart, Vulture whose wings are dull realities
How should I love thee, or deem thee wise" (Edgar Allan Poe)

Hazar Nesimi said...

But so other adepts= of other creeds
unlike the author= Gottfried Schatz

NoolaBeulah said...

Can you explain your second comment? Who is Gottfried Schatz?

NoolaBeulah said...

Sorry. I meant, how is Gottfried Schatz relevant to what you were saying? I'm not sure I understand what you mean here.

Hazar Nesimi said...

It was a minor comment I mean that most scientists, are not able to express themselves in such a way that he was in the article you referenced, they are unable to revel in the mystery of the World. Some of them are inarticular to a degree that you think they are not inspired by what they do.