
The Magic of Science
Columnist Jacob Gelt Dekker is na lange afwezigheid weer aan het schrijven geslagen. In het Engels. When we grow up, many of us switch effortlessly from fairytales to faith. The pain comes when undemocratic forces start using religion for their own ends.
Remember the incredible success of Harry Potter? No series of children's have sold faster - with millions of copies snatched from bookstore shelves in just a few days.
Magic is so very appealing to children. With the touch of a wand a toad turns into a Prince Charming; no need for generations of genetic engineering. With a few drops of magic potion you may obtain eternal youth; no need for expensive years of anti-ageing treatments. And with the spell of a friendly wizard your demons and enemies will be cast off to eternity; no need for extensive therapy or bloody warfare.
But the moment your five year old enters school, all of his young life will be dissected, divided up into parts and portions, segments and subjects. All carefully analyzed, with layers of problems identified and solutions custom fitted. Extensive analytic thinking skills, application of bureaucratically layered and multiple faceted solution approaches are taught him. The fruits of the Age of Reason enable our modern Western society to tackle the most complex problems and challenges with ingenious supersolutions.
Grand Wizard
A child’s appetite for magic can make a seamless transition into an adult craving for religion. When a loved one gets sick, the patient will enter a hospital, where, again, ailments and complaints are painstakingly analyzed with an array of sophisticated tests in different departments. A complex treatment plan with multiple layers of therapy may lead the patient back to health. In the meantime, family members gather and turn to their Grand Wizard with desperate prayers, so their Almighty in his Eternal Grace and Wisdom may touch the patient with his magic wand and a miracle of health will cure the seriously ill. In such despair, the world of magic and religion may touch the world of analysis and science for a brief emotional moment.A child’s appetite for magic can make a seamless transition into an adult craving for religionThe conflict between supernatural magic and analytic science dominates the present Middle East and African conflicts. Boko Haram, with its name meaning 'Western education is forbidden' in Nigeria and ISIS in Syria, with grand expectations of an imminent arrival of a Messiah, or Mahdi, for the Final Day of Judgment in Dabiq, are religious-magic solutions to challenges facing peoples after generations of suppression and prolonged poverty.
13 Bijdragen
theoprinse
jefcooper
theoprinseAlgebra b.v. is een arabisch woord.
Lees eens:
Ibn Battúta, 'Travels in Asia and Africa 1325 - 1354', 1929, 1983, London
en
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, ‘Civilisations’, London, 2000.
Het laatste boek rekent ontnuchterend af met de westerse superioriteit.
Cale
The part about the ruling elites in Africa and Middle East might be correct, but what about the EU? What about the ruling elite in Brussels? Bombing, attacking and killing wherever they deem it necessary. Or rather where the militairy industry deems it necessary. Again a total commercial concept. Scientific evidence you don't need when your eyes are open. And children's magic? That truly exists and should be left alone without interference from adults. Then at night stories can be told and shadows on the walls can be a little frightening. Magic only exists without the interference of adults.
Ian
When was the last time you got down to your knees and took off your pride and arrogance? We will all have our share of misery on this earth, you're not unique in sickness or in dying.
Anton van Haasteren
Religion is another thing. George Carlin has already said something about it. Maybe you should thake that as an advice. He also said something about economy in this part.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5rLWJntz-o
Cor Peul
Molenaer
John Maynard Keynes zei over Isaac Newton: "Hij was niet de eerste vertegenwoordiger van het tijdperk van de rede, hij was de laatste van de magiërs."
Toch niet de minste, die Isaac.
John Jansens
"at the expensive of many"
should be :"at the expense of many"
jefcooper
Dekker kan zich kennelijk niet voorstellen dat er culturen zijn die gewoon de westerse cultuur niet willen.
Ward Churchill, 'A Little Matter of Genocide, Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present', San Francisco 1997.
Het volgende boek betoogt dat de autochtone bevolking van N en Z Amerika de westerse cultuur en technologie niet in het minst bewonderde, toen Columbus, Pizarro en dat soort mannen kwamen.
Ronald Wright, 'Stolen Continents, Conquest and Resistance in the Americas', 1992, London.
Pizarro en zo hadden ook nooit de America's kunnen bezetten als ze niet 'geholpen' waren door Europese ziekten die de autochtone bevolking tot aan 90 % uitroeiden.
Pizarro was overweldigd door de Inca hoofdstad, die veel groter was dan enige Europese stad toen, en hoe goed en schoon het daar toeging.
Woekkie
jefcooperMeer mensen zouden zich op de hoogte moeten stellen van verschillende culturen.
Voor de paapse bullen Terra Nullius door Paus Urbanus ll ( 1095) Romanus Pontifex (1455) door Paus Nicolaas V and Inter Caetera (1493) door Paus Alexander lV. hadden wij geen hemel god da's een importproduct.
Wij hadden een Aardgodin.
Molenaer
jefcooperjefcooper
MolenaerEen familielid van me ontmoette hier een Amerikaanse, waarmee hij getrouwd is.
Ze wonen nu in de VS, waar ze haar VS gewoontes weer heeft opgepakt.
Dit tot ergernis van haar schoonouders.
Cultuur en levenswijze veranderen niet zomaar.
Dat is de basis van de EU illusie.
The Dutchman