Jeremiah Joseph Callahan Quotes
Einstein is an analytical mathematician seeking to give a physical interpretation to the conclusions of his mathematical process. In this he is hampered by a load of contradictory and absurd assumptions. The whole Relativity theory is as easy to follow as the path of a bat in the air at night.
There have always been critics and scientists differing on the most significant findings of science. Even as late as 1931, there were those who would oppose Relativity.
Einstein is an analytical mathematician seeking to give a physical interpretation to the conclusions of his mathematical process. In this he is hampered by a load of contradictory and absurd assumptions. The whole Relativity theory is as easy to follow as the path of a bat in the air at night. Jeremiah Joseph Callahan, *, Catholic Priest and President, Duquesne University, Einstein or Euclid: A Proof of the Parallel Theory and a Critique of Metageometry,1931
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In almost every age and with each new advancement of science there have been those experts, acknowledged or self-styled, who have maintained that the advancement was not valid, useless or prematurely stated. Even Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was subjected to attack long after it had essentially been established.
We have two opposite dynamics operating today. On the one hand the scientific breakthroughs like Quantum Mechanics and genetic engineering widen the intellectual gap immensely between the average person (and politicians) and the scientist—at a time when society must make enormous decisions on scientific matters. On the other hand, there have never been so many people before educated in the sciences. There are many (not a majority) high school students who today understand Relativity and even well and broadly educated non-science college graduates are often familiar with Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and other scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century. The world as a whole has never had so many scientifically literate people as today, nor has it ever had so many scientifically illiterate people today.
This quotation was a milestone on scientific and technological development. For the first time in human history the smartest and most creative and visionary people, could not understand or comprehend the direction in which science and technology was moving. It now took people with specialized mathematical capability. Experience and intuitive insight was actually counter-productive in understanding the world as it was being revealed. Intelligence, creativity, perseverance and hard work, for the first time was insufficient. Education and training was the new requirement in addition to the others.
Actually “normalcy” was not a theory but a slogan or a codeword. See {624061}.
The Senate had heard technical testimony of the Research Director of the Department of Energy on the importance of funding research on J/Psi particles and quarks:
Gross and the Nazi official party line completely rejected what some called “Jewish Science” the new world of Theoretical Physics that had grown out of Einstein’s early 20th century work. Although Einstein and most of the great German physicists fled Germany for America, England and Scandinavia, there were Heisenberg and enough left that Germany was probably capable of development of an atomic weapon. But since such a weapon would have been based on politically unacceptable “Jewish science,” no one would dare suggest it seriously. Ironically, Gross actually thought that The Theory of Relativity was only a theory which by that time, it was not and had been validated by physicists the world over—including Germany. The German scientists were directed at traditional German technology to develop jet airplanes and long range rockets, both of which they developed successfully. It was however too late to make a difference, and if these weapons were strong enough to defend Germany from invasion, the first Atomic bombs would have been dropped on Germany as that was the plan and the major purpose of development. Only the collapse of Germany under the allied attacks, moved the target from Germany to Japan.
Born was a refugee who escaped to England from Nazi Germany.
Bush had advised FDR to go ahead with the research and development program to try and develop an atomic bomb. He was the only Government Official who Roosevelt discussed the idea with. At the time, Bush as a government official supervised and directed many thousands of scientists, and was one of just a few scientists who monitored and advised on the Manhattan Project to develop the Bomb. Here he is one of the first people to notice, understand and articulate the dilemma of specialization in science. To the degree it was a problem in 1945, it became a geometrically greater problem 65 years later satellites were capturing more high resolution of the universe every week than all the astronomers in the world could examine in a year. Ironically, Bush called for a type of precursor to the Internet to cope with this problem which the Internet helped with. Using computers to observe and analyze the many images helped much but all of science became weighed down with this problem of specialization and the explosion of knowledge.
