If a student at Corpus Christi College fails to get a top class degree then they deserve a good slap. It is the most beautiful learning environment on earth, like a pale golden nunnery in a scented garden. Perfectly inserted into this paradise is a modern lecture hall where I heard Rupert Sheldrake - maverick scientist/heretic, discuss the ten dogmas of science. I love any lecture where a tiny old lady asks detailed questions about String Theory and is not assumed to be referring to crochet.
His opening notion - that scientists subscribe to these dogmas in working hours and then many go home and are happy to believe that their dogs know when they are coming home, that their children are not mere robots and that there is a God - was a great starting point. He believes that scientists should at least be prepared to contest some of these dogmas (the conservation of matter; that all matter is unconscious; that all nature is mechanistic etc. ) which according to him have some quite insubstantial foundations. I would like a partner who can remember when I'm coming home.
No comments:
Post a Comment