When Michael Crichton, one of the most successful novelists of our time, lost his faith in Science, the “progressives” turned on him with all their fury–and loudly rejoiced when he died. Nice people.
What Crichton had to come to grips with was the history of science: today’s settled science, which you question at the risk of your reputation and your livelihood, is tomorrow’s quaint and pitiable error. Crichton wound up seeing science as a succession of “newer and better fantasies.”
Well, who ever just slightly loses faith? Many of us have been there. It would have been a good thing, had Crichton lived long enough to know Jesus Christ, his Savior. Often we don’t have as much time as we think.
Very true. We do not know if we will be alive tomorrow, so we should always think; “if God is willing” before we go making definite plans.
I always held a fair amount of respect for Crichton. He had a degree of integrity and honesty that I found refreshing. He realized that science had limitations and, in no way, represented some ultimate truth. Jurassic Park was a perfect example of this; a tale about something very well planned which went horribly wrong. It was about the limitations of science.
I was sad to see him die. He certainly did some great writing. It astounds me that the Loving Left would actually rejoice in his death. It points up much regarding what has happened to our culture. When people become irrationally angry, as we are seeing so much of these days, it’s because by not accepting their beliefs as rote, we are Inadvertently forcing them to face the fact that not everyone see things their way. This, at least for an instant in time, causes them to admit that their conclusions are not the universal, self evident truths they think them to be, and the response is to angrily defend their beliefs, based upon emotional attachment to these beliefs, instead of being based upon a factual appraisal of their beliefs.
Which circles back to Crichton’s comments. It’s just theories. We are dealing with belief systems. Suppose you were to join a church which promoted a feel-good message that asked little of its members, but promised all sorts of blessings. That’s a belief system; a theory which makes conclusions and then offers some fairly universal answers. The adherents of such a belief system may quit searching for answers, because the belief system itself becomes THE answer.
The problem is in the blind trust placed in these belief systems. Even if we have sought out truth at every turn, we can never rest upon our laurels. This is equally true for science or for spiritual beliefs. We have to keep searching for truth and weighing our beliefs to be assured that the theories haven’t become confused with facts.
Or computer models becoming confused with nature.
Same thing. They are all belief systems. It’s belief in the system, as opposed to belief in reality that causes the problem. If the computer models don’t pan out, then it can become a matter of defending the model, instead of reevaluating the validity of the model.
The same thing has been known to happen with scripture, BTW. I’ve seen examples of various teachers declaring passages which disagree with their beliefs to be symbolic. If you carry this far enough. It would be possible to reverse the meaning of a passage and claim just about anything you want.
“Abortionists are doing God’s work!” Maybe it sounds clever now, but I’d hate to offer that to the ultimate tribunal.
False prophets will arise and mislead many. I think we are seeing this.
God is a mystery. The search for answers is on!
I knew Michael fairly well, would not call him a close friend. He did not espouse any one set of values. He evolved in some of his thinking like all of us should consider. I knew him as a creative force in his business but my dealings with him were in the same gym we both were part of . I was a personal trainer there, he was not my client.
Michael had fun working out , kept most of his opinions to himself but also had a very sharp wicked humor. Good dude.
Today’s Gestapo of PC need to go back to Immanuel Kant and how he proved human reason has limits so we need faith to handle the unseen world. A woman running for the Senate in Oregon is bold about wearing cloth masks being useless, and you can just imagine how the MSM is treating her – the woman has obviously lost her mind.
Doddering Joe has promised a national Mandate (we don’t do laws anymore) forcing everyone, everywhere, to wear the damned things.