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The movie isn't the focus or my remarks. It's just an example of how
science is often misinterpreted by non-scientists, as is the Lederman
reference. The use of Quantum and Mysticism together is what drew my
attention. That automatically sounds new-agey, whether intentional or
not. As I pointed out in my last paragraph on the postmodern debate
struck up by Kuhn, culture and science don't mix. That is, science does
not have a cultural basis.
Jeff Courtman wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
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>
> Wayne: The argument you make in the first paragraph supports the
> Marin's article that is summaried - that our tendency to dismiss what
> we presume to be unscientific is in great part due to our cultural
> heritage. (Remember, we are talking about language here - not the
> movie). I found the article interesting because it suggests that the
> assumptions many of us have made about something we call "science vs.
> religion,'" in the modern context, is more complex in its origins than
> some dilettantes, like me, presumed.
>
> Sorry if you took it to mean I was going all new-agey on the
> list-serv. But I do buy Marin's argument that the translation of a
> theoretical framework from one language to another can be complicated
> by the constraints of language, that these initial complications can
> lead to distortion and/or misappropriation.
>
>
>
> On Jun 9, 2009, at 7:01 AM, Wayne Watson wrote:
>
>> *This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(tm)
>> Pro*
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>> Centers
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>>
>> Myticism? Colored by language? This is beginning to sound a bit like
>> the "Quantum" movie from several years ago, which was shot down by
>> many physicists as nonsense, and panned as gobbledygook. A bit more
>> serious attempt at tying physics into religion was made in The Tao of
>> Physics. Leon Lederman in his God Particle tore into that idea in his
>> chapter titled The Dancing Moo-Shu Masters. Lederman ends the chapter
>> with, "Physics is not religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier
>> time raising money."
>>
>> Here's something more to think about concerning reality and science.
>> In 1962 Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
>> rejected the notion that science was value neutral, impersonal, and
>> a true representation of reality. The claim was that science was a
>> social construct, dependent upon social and political views. You
>> might recall the 60s as a time of cultural upheaval. A one-sided
>> debate among supporters of that idea went on for decades that
>> dampened science in the view of the public and many educators. In
>> 1986, physicists Gingras and Schweber counter-attacked this idea,
>> which had been ignored by scientists. By 1996 the debate was in full
>> swing, known then as the Science Wars, with scientists on one side,
>> and, on the other, historians, social scientists, science
>> philosophers and some intellectuals who were challenging Western
>> ideals and knowledge. By the end of the 1990s the debate had pretty
>> much run its course. The so-called postmodernism view had pretty much
>> run out of steam. See Steven Goodman's Science in the Twentieth
>> Century: A Social Intellectual Survey, pub. The Teaching Co.
>>
>> --
>> Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
>>
>> (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
>> Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
>> "The zero is something that must be
>> there in order to say that nothing is there."
>> -- Karl Menninger, Number Words and Symbols
>>
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--
Wayne Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
"The zero is something that must be there
in order to say that nothing is there."
-- Karl Menninger, Number Words and Symbols
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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
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