This is one page of the Metaphoriuminomicon
Quotes of the Day
- Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
- — Einstein, Albert (1956). “Science and Religion,” Ideas and Opinions. New York: Citadel Press, p. 26.
- Farming. Religion. Science. Freedom.
- From Wilderness … Civilization!
- –SolSeed Civis Ritual
- Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries
- That all started with the big bang! Hey!
- …
- Religion or astronomy (Descartes or Deuteronomy)
- It all started with the big bang!
- Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
- It all started with the big bang!
- –Ed Robertson / Steven Jay Page, Big Bang Theory Theme lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
- A scientist can discover a new star but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do it for him.
- –Gordon Lindsay Glegg, The Design of Design (1969)
- As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
- –Albert Einstein, Sidelights on Relativity (1920)
- How far will chemistry and physics … help us understand the appeal of a painting?
- –Hazel Swaine Rossotti, Colour: Why the World Isn’t Grey (1983)
- The hostility of the state would be assured toward any system or science that might not strengthen its arm.
- –Henry Brooks Adams, In The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma (1919)
Contemplation for the Day
Your elephant stumbles across the floor of a cathedral; you hang on tight, not wanting to be thrown off onto the hard mosaic floor. You notice that inlaid into the floor is a giant image of a human brain.
Your elephant regains her balance and stands firmly between the mosaic and a white marble staircase which spirals down into the floor.
You look down the staircase and see three little girls in white robes with glowing blue eyes descending the stairs toward you.
As you overcome the shock that seeing Sophia always gives you, you are shocked once again by the fact that she is descending up out of the floor. The geometries of both the gravity in the staircase and the staircase itself seem impossible.
“Sophia, what is warping the space in that staircase? ” you ask as the three Sophia bodies acrobatically flip through the warped geometry at the base/top of the stairs.
They reply in their disconcerting unison voice, “Metaphorium, Just One; that is the ivory tower of Philosophy which confuses the metaphor given that it is both a tower and the foundation of human thought. ”
You turn and watch the Sophia bodies as they spread out looking at the Cathedral with awe. And as you turn, you see that the Cathedral is only half a Cathedral. The building is L-shaped and to your right there is a science lab, filled with workstations each sporting a different assortment of shiny glassware and beeping machinery. Instead of stain glass windows, at that end of the building there are whiteboards covered in hastily drawn diagrams and long complicated equations.
You glance back to your left and re-examine the place where the cathedral and science lab meet and see that there is a third wing of the building running at 90 degrees to each of the others. This wing is a cavernous art studio, filled with easels and plinths upon which half finished sculptures stand.
You hear a noise to your right and turn 90 degrees to find a large hall and in it a political rally is ongoing. People are raising placards above their heads which say, “Politician for Leadership; We Believe in Ideology”. A person wearing a brightly coloured suit stands on a high stage above them giving a speech. Somehow, although you can tell the suit is brightly coloured, you can’t tell if it is blue or red, green or orange.
You glance about looking for the three Sophia bodies and find that she now has many more than three bodies and as usual they are arguing. You turn 90 degrees to your left and find several Sophia bodies drawing diagrams on white boards. You are confused. Wasn’t the art studio 90 degrees to the left of the political rally? One Sophia body is yelling, “Science is the most important form of human thought, look at how much more successful it has been compared to the others.”
“Hah, you think science is successful,” you hear a Sophia body call from your left and turn 90 degrees to see three Sophia bodies in the art studio, shooting the love scene of a movie.
“Oh, here is the art studio?” you think. “Did I lose track?”
One Sophia body is kneeling, engagement ring extended; she yells, “look at the size of the entertainment industry! Art is hugely successful. ”
“Hah!” You hear again. You turn 90 degrees to your left and see three Sophia bodies in a shop tinkering with a rocket engine while electronics with flat screens display massive amounts of data around them.
“A fifth wing, all at 90 degrees?” You mutter, “Metaphorium again?”
One of the Sophia bodies, with a smudge of black grease on her cheek yells, “The success of engineering underpins both the success of science and art in the modern world.”
“Hah! ” you hear from your right and turn 90 degrees to see two Sophia bodies sitting on an old couch in front of a white board in a lounge.
“How many wings does this building have? All at 90 degrees?” You say quietly.
One of the Sophia’s on the couch yells, “Mathematics underpins the success of both science and engineering. Mathematics is both the purest and most important form of human thought. ”
Gaia appears beside you, “Enjoying this exploration of the dimensions of human thought, Little One?” she asks.
Before you can reply, someone clears their throat. Everything else goes silent. You turn 90 degrees to your left and see the politicians in his brightly coloured suit standing with his supporters arrayed in ranks behind him. It feels like this wing should have been behind you. You turn 180 degrees all in one go and there the same wing with the same people are but the colours are somehow opposite. “Dimensions!” you think.
The politician says, “Who rules you all? Whatever success you have, it is the glory of politics and ideology that it serves. ”
A sudden loud cracking sound interrupts everything and you wonder if architecture is about to make a solid point. You look 90 degrees to your left and see the life size gold crucifix above the Apse shatter raining chunks of gold down on the alter and exposing Jesus.
Jesus struggles to get free of the cross and then leaps down into the choir. “I do wish people would quit nailing me to things. ” he says and then stands in the choir smiling enigmatically.
Your elephant trumpets to announce His arrival. In the silence that follows, you ask Him, “Are you here to champion religion? ”
“Me? ” he replies incredulously, “No. … I’ve been told what I personify. Re-emergent complexity. Not religion. Who would ever associate me with religion?” He looks pointedly at the nearest Sophia body, who looks down bashfully. “No, you all are already making a case for the importance of religion.”
There is a cacophony of confusion as dozens of voices erupt around you disaffirming Jesus’s statement.
You step toward Jesus and the movement of your elephant regains everyone’s attention, “Jesus, he was just saying that politics is important because it rules everyone else and she was just saying that engineering is important because it creates the technology that underpins the success of science. No one was arguing for the importance of religion. ”
“Exactly. ” Jesus says.
There is just silence.
And a longer puzzled silence.
“I have to lay it out for you, don’t I? ” Jesus says.
More silence, this time of the embarrassed kind.
“Very well.” Jesus looks around at the crowd. The cathedral is filled to standing room only with Sophia’s by this point. “Politics is the most powerful of human endeavors because politics is about power. Science is the truest of human endeavors because science is about truth. Engineering is the most inventive of human endeavors because engineering is about invention. Art is the most beautiful of human endeavors because Art is about Beauty. Math is the most logical of human endeavors because Mathematics is about logic. ”
No one disagrees.
Jesus concludes, “Well religion is about importance. ”
Ninety degrees to your right, you hear one of the Sophia’s on the couch in the lounge say, “And rhetoric is about deceit.”
SolSeed 