Warped parallels
Those who speak in the name of science can err in their assessment of the relative validity of science and religion. This is amply demonstrated by the following quote, taken from one of the most influential books written on the subject:
John
William Draper (Prof at the
"....within this world of transient delusions and unrealities there is a world of eternal truth.
That world is not to be discovered through the vain traditions that have brought down to us the opinions of men who lived in the morning of civilization, nor in the dreams of mystics who thought they were inspired. It is to be discovered by the investigations of geometry, and by the practical interrogation of Nature. These confer on humanity solid, and innumerable, and inestimable blessings.
The
day will never come when any one of the propositions of
In fact, one of the propositions of Euclid has been denied, it’s been shown to be untrue in our universe [since the presence of matter-energy curves space-time, physical space is warped, not 'flat', and thus Euclid's 'parallel postulate' is physically incorrect.
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Note: The connection in which he writes the above is ironic, as it deals with the loss of faith in religion, and the increased faith in science: Draper writes at length about the great Museum at Alexandria, and Ptolemy who ruled there, and the great philosophers/scientists who used experimentation to discover things etc; he writes of the way that the Greeks lost faith in their mythology etc, and turned to philosophy etc, the Jews in Alexandria: p32b:
“had forgotton the God that made his habitation behind the veil of the temple. Tradition, revelation, time, all had lost their influence.......And the Ptolemies recognized how ephemeral are forms of faith. But the Ptolemies also recognized that there is something more durable than forms of faith........within this world of transient delusions and unrealities there is a world of eternal truth.”