The Times They Ain't a Changing

The French have a saying -“Plus les choses changent plus elles restent les mêmes”. In English this means “The more things change; the more they remain the same." Looking through this old newspaper confirms that saying in either language.

Now, this is no ordinary newspaper. This paper is from January 30, 1931. My father was born that day in Brooklyn, New York. He would have been 84 today had he lived. But he didn’t, and as a result he lost a long standing bet with himself that he would outlive me. It was a silly bet of $1,000.*

Now here’s where the French come into it; the headlines are pretty much the same as today's paper. The House was set to vote on Food Relief, seeking $25 million to feed the unemployed. Just like the Great Recession we just had a few years ago. The Secretary of the Treasury was backing payment of the War Bonus to the Veterans of the First World War, which they would never get; similar to the current state of affairs with the VA.

Below the fold is a story about Einstein and his theory on sunspots; and the tiny planet Eros was veering out of its usual orbit and passing the Earth at a distance of 16 million miles. There's your space exploration and Stephen Hawking all in one.     

On page 3 there is a Coast Guard Cutter capturing a rum runner; an earlier incarnation of today's continuing and unsuccessful War on Drugs.

Calvin Coolidge is on the front page, a former President undercutting the presiding one, which was Hoover. That’s about like Jimmy Carter today.

The blame for the St. Valentine Day Massacre; barely 2 years old at the time; is laid at the feet of the Chicago Police Department. There’s your Police corruption and drive by shootings neatly packaged for your enjoyment. So, cops and robbers don’t seem to have changed much either.

In my old neighborhood apartments were renting for about $35 a month. Stenographers were earning about that for one week’s work. Maids were going for $70 per month; which is about a quarter of what the stenographers made. Wage disparity is still an issue today.

The ads are all kind of quaint; advertising the latest in radios and Victrola’s. We have ads for the latest I-phones.  

Actually, about the only thing that has really changed is the Want Ads. Gone are the various categories for Men and Women. And, there are even ads for “Colored Help”. Wonder what color was cool that year? Must’ve been a shade of white I suppose. Though you don’t see those ads any longer; I have a suspicion that some folks would love to see them again.

  

I love to look at old newspapers - it's such a useful way to look back upon the past and see what; if any; progress we have made.  The cars have changed, the technology is advanced; but things are surprisingly the same. Much like this post; which is an expanded version of something I posted on this day 5 years ago. “Plus les choses changent plus elles restent les mêmes”.

*For the full story of that bet go to; 

http://robertwilliamsofbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-father-at-83.html

Charles Fort - A Most Peculiar Man

Charles Hoy Fort was a most unusual man; some might even say peculiar. Either way; he made quite an impression, leaving over 60,000 written articles to the New York Public Library upon his death in 1932. He may not have been correct in most of the things he wrote about, but he was prolific!

Born in August 1874 in Albany, New York he is considered to be an American writer and researcher of anomalous phenomena. Although he was controversial; to say the least; his books are still in print and there adherents to his philosophies; even if they have largely been discredited by science. He is somewhat of an American oddity; indeed, I am writing about here, over 80 years after his death in May of 1932.

Some might say that Mr. Fort was the father of the modern American conspiracy theorists; those who believe that the government lies to the people about everything. Hmmm, there might be something to that. But Mr. Fort’s distrust seems to have originated with his stern father, who was a grocer by trade. In his autobiography he recalls several “harsh” physical punishments at the hands of his father.

As weird as some of his theories may have been, the man was literally driven, by his teen years he was already a collector of sea shells, birds, rocks, insects and anything else he could amass. And he became totally immersed in whatever he was interested in at the time. So, it is no surprise that when he turned of age he set off to see more of the world which he was so curious about.

In 1892 he left on a tour of the world, in order he claimed, to "put some capital in the bank of experience". He crossed the United States, went through Scotland and England before setting off to Africa. It was there that fate made its appearance and he took ill, forcing him to return home.

But even that turned to his advantage when he reconnected with Anna Filing, a woman whom he had known previously and was now engaged as his nurse. They were married in 1896 and the couple set off for England shortly after that. It is of particular note that she was 4 years his senior and not very well read. Her chief interests seem to have been silent films and parakeets! While in London they lived a rocky life financially as he struggled with writing short stories to fund his research into just about anything which interested him.

His chief bit of renown came from his investigation in “spontaneous eruptions” of people bursting into flames. Although they were burned to a crisp, their clothes were always unharmed; which ruled out lightning. In the 1890’s and on through the early 20^th century this was a common occurrence; which has never really been explained beyond the fact that science wasn’t able to answer the question at the time. So, you have to wonder…

His Uncle died in 1916, leaving him enough money to quit working; if you can call what he did working; and devote his time to writing full time. The efforts produced 10 books, one of which actually got published. It was a story about life in the tenements. It was not very well received. He then turned to science.

He was mainly concerned with two questions; the first was about Martians. He believed that we were puppets of the Martians and that they were actually controlling us from space. His other big thing was the existence of a lost civilization that lived at the South Pole. He believed that there was an opening there which allowed them to exit the interior of the earth. He believed that they were plotting to take over. It’s interesting to note that there are some UFO buffs who believe that flying saucers come from that location; thus combining Fort’s two theories into one.

From this theory he was encouraged by writer Theodore Dreiser, to write “The Book of the Damned” in 1919, which would cement his name into literary history. If not for that work I would probably not be writing of him now. The book is a compendium of all his unproven research. Unproven is used here in two ways. The first is obvious; he never proved any of his theories to be true. The second meaning is better; science had never actually proven him to be wrong.  

Aside from a return visit to London, where he lived from 1924 to 1926, he spent most of the rest of his life in the Bronx. He was a lively and witty character, and sought out by literary contemporaries such as Dreiser. This group of friends rotated meeting at one another’s apartments for coffee and robust discussions about everything under the Sun. When their spouses tired of the meetings night after night, they would adjourn to local neighborhood taverns.

During this period he found himself to have an actual following of people who admired him for any number of reasons. Some believed his theories; while others merely found him to be engaging company. Although he suffered from poor health he had a routine of sorts. Each day he would take the subway to the New York Public Library. He would buy a bunch of newspapers and clip articles from them, writing notes about them all. He needled anything which claimed to be scientific, and then gave his own explanation. These articles comprise much of the 60,000 items he left to the library upon his death.

Say what you will about the guy, he had the courage of his convictions; eschewing doctors and the medicines which might have alleviated some of his suffering. He collapsed on May 3, 1932 and was taken to the hospital. His publisher came to visit him and let him know that his latest book was to be published shortly. He died a few hours later from what was probably a form of leukemia. He was a most peculiar man.

Einstein and Spinozza

Einstein's religious beliefs were a direct result of his love of Spinoza'a ethics in dealing with the dual questions concerning God and Free Will. Baruch Spinoza, like Einstein, was Jewish. He was a philosopher in 17th Century Amsterdam, where he was ex-communicated for his belief in Causal Determinism. (I did not know that the Jewish faith did ex-communications, having only heard previously of the practice in conjunction with the Catholic Church.) Causal Determinism is the belief that the existence of a superior being reveals itself in the harmony of nature and the natural order of all things. Einstein was interested in Spinoza as a way of reconciling science with his own religious beliefs.

I think that Einstein would be in agreement with the words of the late Pope John Paul II when he said, "Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes." I think he would have accepted that. I know that I do. It assumes the worst of both religion and science, while at the same time recognizing the strengths that each of the two bring to the human condition. In other words, it is a position of moderation.

In November of 1920, Einstein traveled to Spinoza's home in Leiden, Amsterdam for a visit. He even signed the guest book. The signature beneath his is that of Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, the nephew of the famed physicist, who accompanied him on the trip to Leiden. The visit so moved Einstein that he later wrote a poem about Spinoza, titled, "On Spinoza's Ethics."

I have reprinted the poem here, first in German, and then followed by the English translation. I have credited both translations to their sources at the end of each translation. The two lines in italics are ones which Einstein wrote and then put a line through, replacing them with the lines immediately following.

I have included them here simply because anything Einstein thought, or wrote, must be important in some way, even if I didn't fully understand it. The Latin phrase in the third line of the second verse translates as "For God's sake." Einstein uses the phrase here to call out Spinoza's aversion to faith alone, noting that the philosophy of amor dei "leaves him cold."

Zu Spinozas Ethik

Wie lieb ich diesen edlen Mann

Mehr als ich mit Worten sagen kann.

Doch fürcht' ich, dass er bleibt allein

Mit seinem strahlenen Heiligenschein.

So einen armen kleinen Wicht

Den führst du zu der Freiheit nicht

Der amor dei lässt ihn kalt

Das Leben zieht ihn mit Gewalt

Die Höhe bringt ihm nichts als Frost

Vernunft ist für ihn schale Kost

Besitz und Weib und Ehr' und Haus

Das füllt ihn von oben bis unten aus

Du musst schon gütig mir verzeih'n

Wenn hier mir fällt Münchhausen ein

Dem als Einzigem das Kunststück gedieh'n

Sich am eigenem Zopf aus dem Sumpf zu zieh'n

Du denkst sein Beispiel zeiget uns eben

Was diese Lehre dem Menschen kann geben

Mein lieber Sohn, was fällt dir ein?

Zur Nachtigall muss man geboren sein

Vertraue nicht dem tröstlichen Schein:

Zum Erhabenen muss man geboren sein.

Written circa 1920.

Transcribed from ms. facsimile, Albert Einstein Archive, 31-018

On Spinoza's Ethics

How I love this noble man

More than I can say with words.

Still, I fear he remains alone

With his shining halo.

Such a poor small lad

Whom you'll not lead to freedom

The amor dei leaves him cold

Mightily does this life attract him

Loftiness offers him nothing but frost

Reason for him is poor fare

Property and wife and honor and house

That fills him from top to bottom

You'll kindly forgive me

If Münchhausen here comes to mind

Who alone mastered the trick

Of pulling himself out of a swamp by his own pigtail

You think his example would show us

What this doctrine can give humankind

My dear son, what ever were you thinking?

One must be born a nightingale

Trust not the comforting façade

One must be born sublime

©2007-2008 English translation by Jonathan Ely

Non Aggressive Cats - An Absurd Notion

Last week I read something so absurd that I am afraid to pass it on lest I incur the wrath of those who love cats; the animals, not the show. The article in question here was located in my local newspaper on the science page, if that tells you anything.

Basically speaking the article came to the conclusion that cats see human beings as “non-aggressive cats” and show that affection by rubbing against you to clean themselves; as they might with another cat; or the posture of their tails. Rubbish.

There is no way my cat considers me to be anything other than an upright, knuckle dragging, mouth breathing, possessor of opposable thumbs who lives in a heated home and drives a car far, far away to unknown locations, in order to get cans of tuna fish, which I then proceed to open with those incredible thumbs of mine to feed him with.

Anything else is mere conjecture, or simply rubbish. In addition, Midnight feels that it may be actionable.

Understanding Pi

We all take Pi for granted. It’s loaded into our computers and calculators for us, and we use it in equations all the time without ever thinking of it beyond it formulaic utility. Some years ago, while working as an estimator of utilities, I found it necessary; or maybe desirable; to understand the exact meaning of Pi and how it worked in relation to the circle.

Having failed at the subject all through high school, and even before that, I had this “fear” of math brought on by my parent’s assertions that I was not able to understand the subject. I was, like my mother; and remember, it was my mother who said it; used to tell me, “You take after me and I could never understand math. But you can read well, and your brother can’t.” What a stupid statement to make to any child, even your own! Water under the bridge. Having navigated around the world, by sextant, in the days before Nav Sats etc., I can truly say that I am perfectly capable of working out any mathematical problem thrown my way. The failure was in the teaching method.

Had they wanted to really engage my passion all they would have had to do was make the problems relevant to real life. Like, you are on a ship and headed in this direction for 8 days at so many mils per hour. How far have you gone? That would have got me interested. And by high school, rather than the mundane tasks of geometry and trigonometry, nautical astronomy would have proven more effective at teaching not only both of those subjects, but given the student a true perspective of just where we were on the terrestrial plane, and also how insignificant we actually are; individually, or collectively, in the grand scheme of things.

What is Pi? 3. 14159 is the most common answer. Then browse Wikipedia for what that means. Ask the “math” student in your family. The answers you get will all be concerned with the number rather than what it really means, or stands for. That was the purpose of charting it, as I did above, almost 30 years ago while estimating the volume of pipe necessary to hold a specific amount of water. I used a 6” pipe for the example, mostly because it was easily equated to decimal form, and I had a boatload of 6” pipe on hand.

But I kept running into Pi while figuring it out, and then rechecking my figures. So, I did what Captain Ellison used to tell us at the Baltimore School of Navigation; “Draw it out!” So, I did. And while putting some of my papers in order the other evening; I am actually doing that; I ran across this and decided to post it for posterity. Forgive the non-pun. Hope someone finds this useful and lets me know! Pi for now!

The God Particle

The new breakthrough on the so-called “God Particle” could mean that the world will cease to exist billions of years from nw. Heck, I could’ve told you that in 1^st grade. The whole story here contains the elusive Higgs boson particle, thought to be the main ingredient in “mass”; in other words the block upon which everything tangible rests. The most comical part of this whole experiment, at least for me, is the uncertainty which permeates all of their claims. Examine the quotes carefully and you will see that the latest claim is based on the previous inconclusive claim.

So, in essence, we now have proof that the earlier claim was erroneous, but in the right direction, thereby proving the latest claim, which, if you read the article all the way through ends with the assertion that “"It may be the universe we live in is inherently unstable, and at some point billions of years from now it's all going to get wiped out." Does that mean we should just stop working to make the world a better place?

I believe in science. I believe in Darwin and evolution. They make absolute sense to me. Carbon dating seems to be an accurate measure of the age of the objects which we find in archaeological digs the world over. All of those things yield a vast amount of knowledge which is of great value in understanding ourselves and how we got to be where we are today. But to spend time and money to prove that which is unprovable, and not even worthy of the result, is ludicrous.

What good is it to know that we will be unsustainable in billions of years? There is so much work to be done now in saving the planet from ourselves, and feeding the hungry; not to mention taking care of those who are physically ill; that the unproven “knowledge” of ultimate doom gained by these experiments is really worthless.

I used to sit and watch the Mercury and Gemini flights take off during our “race” to the Moon with great excitement. Nothing came of it. And we’re getting ready to go back, though no one has adequately explained to me what for.  I love science, and I believe in furthering man’s knowledge about his beginnings.

The Egyptians had the Book of the Dead and concentrated on the next life, thus speeding the decline of their empire. The Christians have the Apocalypse to look forward to, thus engendering a fight with the Islamics who share the same fatalistic view of humanity. Their course of action already has us on that path,  and making good time towards a future based on conjecture at best;  superstition at the worst. And now science has joined in on the chorus of doom and gloom.

Just as many millions of others around the world, I would love to know where we are heading. But first, I want to fix the here and now. And the atom smashing experiments; with their unfounded predictions of ultimate demise; leaving us only billions of years to exist, prove to me that we've still got plenty of time.

Here is the article which prompted me to write whatever it is that I just wrote;

A newfound particle discovered at the world's largest atom smasher last year is, indeed, the Higgs boson, the particle thought to give other matter its mass, scientists reported today (March 14) at the annual Rencontres de Moriond conference in Italy.

Physicists announced on July 4, 2012, that, with more than 99 percent certainty, they had found a new elementary particle weighing about 126 times the mass of the proton that was likely the long-sought Higgs boson. The Higgs is sometimes referred to as the "God particle," to the chagrin of many scientists, who prefer its official name.

But the two experiments, CMS and ATLAS, hadn't collected enough data to say the particle was, for sure, the Higgs boson, the last undiscovered piece of the puzzle predicted by the Standard Model, the reigning theory of particle physics.

Now, after collecting two and a half times more data inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — where protons zip at near light-speed around the 17-mile-long (27 kilometer) underground ring beneath Switzerland and France — physicists say the particle is the Higgs. [In Photos: Searching for the Higgs Boson]

"The preliminary results with the full 2012 data set are magnificent and to me it is clear that we are dealing with a Higgs boson though we still have a long way to go to know what kind of Higgs boson it is," said CMS spokesperson Joe Incandela in a statement.

Dave Charlton, ATLAS spokesperson agreed, the new results "point to the new particle having the spin-parity of a Higgs boson as in the Standard Model," referring to a quantum property of elementary particles.

To confirm the particle as the Higgs boson, physicists needed to collect tons of data that would reveal its quantum properties as well as how it interacted with other particles. For instance, a Higgs particle should have no spin and its parity, or the measure of how its mirror image behaves, should be positive, both of which were supported by data from the ATLAS and CMS experiments.

Even so, the scientists are not sure whether this Higgs boson is the one predicted by the Standard Model or perhaps the lightest of several bosons predicted to exist by other theories.

Seeing how this particle decays into other particles could let physicists know whether this Higgs is the "plain vanilla" Standard Model Higgs. Detecting a Higgs boson is rare, with just one observed for every 1 trillion proton-proton collisions. As such, the LHC physicists say they need much more data to understand all of the ways in which the Higgs decays.

From what is known about the particle now, physicists have said the Higgs boson may spell the universe's doom in the very far future. That's because the mass of the Higgs boson is a critical part of a calculation that portends the future of space and time. Its mass of 126 times the mass of the proton is just about what would be needed to create a fundamentally unstable universe that would lead to a cataclysm billions of years from now.

"This calculation tells you that many tens of billions of years from now there'll be a catastrophe," Joseph Lykken, a theoretical physicist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., said last month at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"It may be the universe we live in is inherently unstable, and at some point billions of years from now it's all going to get wiped out," added Lykken, a collaborator on the CMS experiment.

"Fever Season" by Jeanette Keith (2012)

Science, religion and an epidemic outbreak combine to fuel this story of the Yellow Fever outbreak in Memphis in the summer of 1878. Just as they always have, science and religion were  both battling one another in the 19^th century; only this time they were both fighting as one; to save the life of their city.

Beginning with a background on the history of Memphis, centering mostly on the days leading up to; and including the Civil War; the author paints a picture of the town, and its inhabitants on the Mississippi River. What little was known about the disease is discussed, and a history of prior epidemics; including the 1873 Smallpox/Yellow Fever outbreak; give the reader a sense of being “in the moment”, armed with limited knowledge about the disease and how it spreads. This part of the book has definite applications today, when some segments of society refuse inoculations for diseases which have been under control for decades; or more; in obedience to a religious or tribal doctrine. They are unwittingly turning back the clock to a time when annual outbreaks of various epidemics killed thousands at a time.

In the 1873 outbreak, the town’s entire leadership fled, leaving the populace to fend for themselves. But, in the 1878 outbreak, some remained. They established committees to administer aid to the sick and dying; enlisted donations of food from Washington, as well as the surrounding states; even had former slaves working side by side with whites, which was unheard of at the time. There is no enemy as potent as yellow fever to make people forget their superficial differences, at least for a while.

These local leaders found themselves in a quandary; one which is still applicable today; most, if not all, of the leaders were former Confederates who believed in limited government, state’s rights, and above all else; the Constitution, which made no reference to supplying aid to states in time of crisis. Now, they needed, and were glad to receive this aid from their former enemies. I can’t help but wonder what they didn’t understand about the phrase “to promote the general welfare…” in the preamble to the Constitution.

There were rampant burglaries committed during this time. Some residents arrived home; after the outbreak had subsided; only to find the corpse of a dead burglar lying in the house, a victim of yellow fever, as well as greed.

But, at the same time as these few crimes were being committed, Nuns worked alongside of prostitutes as Memphians put religion, class and even racial differences to the side as they battled the advance of the disease. The scarcity of food was the real danger to civil order. In the Black and Irish quarters; where people felt they were being shortchanged; a petition was drawn up and posted, warning Memphians that “...we can’t starve and don’t intend to do so…if something is not done…. We shall take the law into our own hands.” The food was distributed equally and no mob violence was necessary.

In spite of malicious reports; all untrue; of African-Americans raping sick and dying women, no race riot occurred. People were simply too busy staying alive and helping one another to engage in such trivialities. As a matter of fact, during the entire outbreak, the streets were patrolled by Negro troops and even deputies. And so much help poured in from the Northern states; which only 13 years previous had been the enemy; that many Memphians of that generation would never refer to a Northerner by the derogatory term “Yankee” again.

Even people not acclimated to the fever came to Memphis to help. A male physician, Dr. Besancny, traveled to Memphis and came to the aid of one woman, Miss D.P. Rutter, and after her health was restored he took ill, and she nursed him. A month later they were married, with no doubt that their “ties that Bind” were extra strong due to the nature of their courtship.

There were many and varied reactions to the outbreak, with both heroes and villains enough to fill several books. The author has chosen the finest examples of both, with an emphasis on what we can all do to help one another in times of crisis. This was a time when Protestant and Catholic were bitterly divided, but the outbreak of the fever called upon all of the different religious sects to act as one to defeat a common enemy. In the Jewish community there had been 3,000 people at the onset of the disease. On Rosh Hashanah in 1878, there were only 18 people at services held jointly by the Orthodox and Reform Congregations.

J.M. Keating, editor of the Memphis Appeal, stayed in the stricken city for the duration, keeping lines of communication open and acting on all of the necessary committees required in keeping order and providing whatever means available to alleviate the suffering. He is truly one of the heroes in this story, and shines as a beacon of what the press; and its attendant power; can accomplish when in the hands of principled persons.

There are many stories in our history which illuminate the dark side of human nature. What a pleasure to read a book about a time and place, where; challenged by the most virulent of opponents; people stood together, helped one another as best they could, and even learned from that experience. In the face of recent events, both here and abroad, Ms. Keith has given us a glimpse of man’s “better angels.”

Einstein and Spinoza

Einstein's religious beliefs were a direct result of his love of Spinoza'a ethics in dealing with the dual questions concerning God and Free Will. Baruch Spinoza, like Einstein, was Jewish. He was a philosopher in 17th Century Amsterdam, where he was ex-communicated for his belief in Causal Determinism. (I did not know that the Jewish faith did ex-communications, having only heard previously of the practice in conjunction with the Catholic Church.) Causal Determinism is the belief that the existence of a superior being reveals itself in the harmony of nature and the natural order of all things. Einstein was interested in Spinoza as a way of reconciling science with his own religious beliefs.

I think that Einstein would be in agreement with the words of the late Pope John Paul II when he said, "Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes." I think he would have accepted that. I know that I do. It assumes the worst of both religion and science, while at the same time recognizing the strengths that each of the two bring to the human condition. In other words, it is a position of moderation.

In November of 1920, Einstein traveled to Spinoza's home in Leiden, Amsterdam for a visit. He even signed the guest book. The signature beneath his is that of Harm Kamerlingh Onnes, the nephew of the famed physicist, who accompanied him on the trip to Leiden. The visit so moved Einstein that he later wrote a poem about Spinoza, titled, "On Spinoza's Ethics." I have reprinted the poem here, first in German, and then followed by the English translation. I have credited both translations to their sources at the end of each translation. The two lines in italics are ones which Einstein wrote and then put a line through, replacing them with the lines immediately following. I have included them here simply because anything Einstein thought, or wrote, must be important in some way, even if I do not fully understand it. The Latin phrase in the third line of the second verse translates as "For God's sake." Einstein uses the phrase here to call out Spinoza's aversion to faith alone, noting that the philosophy of amor dei "leaves him cold."

Zu Spinozas Ethik

Wie lieb ich diesen edlen Mann
Mehr als ich mit Worten sagen kann.
Doch fürcht' ich, dass er bleibt allein
Mit seinem strahlenen Heiligenschein.

So einen armen kleinen Wicht
Den führst du zu der Freiheit nicht
Der amor dei lässt ihn kalt
Das Leben zieht ihn mit Gewalt

Die Höhe bringt ihm nichts als Frost
Vernunft ist für ihn schale Kost
Besitz und Weib und Ehr' und Haus
Das füllt ihn von oben bis unten aus

Du musst schon gütig mir verzeih'n
Wenn hier mir fällt Münchhausen ein
Dem als Einzigem das Kunststück gedieh'n
Sich am eigenem Zopf aus dem Sumpf zu zieh'n

Du denkst sein Beispiel zeiget uns eben
Was diese Lehre dem Menschen kann geben
Mein lieber Sohn, was fällt dir ein?
Zur Nachtigall muss man geboren sein
Vertraue nicht dem tröstlichen Schein:
Zum Erhabenen muss man geboren sein.

Written circa 1920.
Transcribed from ms. facsimile, Albert Einstein Archive, 31-018

On Spinoza's Ethics

How I love this noble man
More than I can say with words.
Still, I fear he remains alone
With his shining halo.

Such a poor small lad
Whom you'll not lead to freedom
The amor dei leaves him cold
Mightily does this life attract him

Loftiness offers him nothing but frost
Reason for him is poor fare
Property and wife and honor and house
That fills him from top to bottom

You'll kindly forgive me
If Münchhausen here comes to mind
Who alone mastered the trick
Of pulling himself out of a swamp by his own pigtail

You think his example would show us
What this doctrine can give humankind
My dear son, what ever were you thinking?
One must be born a nightingale
Trust not the comforting façade
One must be born sublime

©2007-2008 English translation by Jonathan Ely

Hawking, Einstein and Spinoza

Stephen Hawking (pictured here on the left, next to his sister Mary in 1948) wrote, in "A Brief History of Time", that "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason, for then we should know the mind of God." I read that book, and although I do not profess to understand everything in it, I could follow his logic in relation to physics, as it encompassed the philospohies of Spinoza, which were later embraced by Albert Einstein.

Mr. Hawking, arguably the most intelligent person on the planet, and who is greatly admired by myself, as well as countless other millions of persons, has now stated that there is no God. He has written, in his new book,"The Grand Design," that the big bang was the event which created "something out of nothing." (I have not read the book yet - this is a quote from the news on my web page) and that "a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant."

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Now, I am in no position to argue the finer points with Mr. Hawking, being humble enough to know my own limitations. But to me it seems to be a disconnect in reason not to see that the belief in something created "out of nothing" is flawed.

A basic principle of physics, and nature, and as argued by Mr. Hawking himself in the opening quote to this article, is that everything is connected in some fashion.In essence he states that to find the truth is to know the mind of God. It's all a big circle, with a beginning and perhaps, even more importantly, an ending.

In explaining his latest, and perhaps ultimate, triumph, Mr. Hawking should look to himself for the proof of the forgoing conjecture on my part. The saddest thing is to find what you have been looking for all the while, and then upon discovering it, losing sight of what it really is.

I believe in the science of Mr. Hawking's latest claim. It was an inevitable conclusion, borne of physics. But I also believe that he has missed the point of his own studies. Einstein, with his belief in Spinoza and the theory of Causal Determinism, set the stage for Mr. Hawking. It is also one of my beliefs, based upon my own life experiences. Change one thing and you change many other things, all of which are connected.

It is sad to see Mr. Hawking's departure from this course, which clearly shows, by his own earlier writings, an ordered universe, with a beginning other than "something created from nothing." I just cannot accept that.