source file: mills2.txt Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 08:20:44 -0800 Subject: relativity and understanding and Sagan From: Aline Surman Interesting discussions on physics, etc. First of all, is it at all possible that science will reach areas where it is impossible to explain certain phenomenon in terms we can comprehend? Is it conceiveable that a more intuitive, "mystical" way of approaching the Universe will be what we are confronted with? There's that old saw, "the Universe is not only stranger than we can imagine; it'e stranger than we CAN imagine" (or something like that). Meaning, there are places where our intellectual minds cannot ever comprehend the happenings. I believe that is quite possible, but that is not frightening to me...it seems quite reasonable. Humans occupy a special place in the cosmos, but that doesn't mean we're able to reduce all things to our sphere of understanding. In fact, if one cares to explore other cultures, they often find "mystical" (sorry) ideas and concepts, and folks doing things that defy any sort of "scientific" understanding. And that brings me to my reply to Paul Hahn about Sagan's death. In Paul's original message (which I did not save), there seemed to be a sort of condescension present, in the form of Sagan, which seemed to say, "there, there, don't take that mystical crap too seriously;" in fact, I do know Sagan represented a philosophy which I find ludicrous, namely that there is no ultimate Creator, and those who believe so are a little, shall we say, "old fashioned", or something to that effect. That's why I mentioned his death; what could be more mystical, final, and absolutely out of our control? All of this relates to music, to me...I cannot separate music from any other facet of life, including what we call "science." But, science just shows, in mathematical or other terms, what is there in a fashion that may or may not explain what's REALLY happening. Even one of the greatest scientists of all time, Newton, was well aware of the limits of science, and spent much time exploring other, more important, facets of what makes the Universe tick. I myself have experienced many phenomena which are well beyond the capacity of any "scientific" explanationm, and which, unfortunately, many folks who consider science the be all and end all, would probably not believe in, anyway. And my own experiences, personal though they may be, are quite valid and illuminating as to the fact that there are greater realities out there, which what we call the scientific method would be quite helpless at explaining, or understanding....Hstick Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 18:04 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA24004; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 18:04:49 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA23992 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id JAA03000; Sat, 15 Mar 1997 09:02:22 -0800 Date: Sat, 15 Mar 1997 09:02:22 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu