Kurt Vonnegut Quotes
in nonsense is strength
Vonnegut, Kurt. Breakfast of Champions. Delacorte Press, 1973.
When the Shah left Iran, the moderate religions leaders of the country. including those who were major opponents of the Shah, approached the American ambassador urging America do something to prevent the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini who had returned to Tehran from taking over the government, as they claimed he would;d create a dictatorial theocracy. Ambassador Sullivan was convinced tghatg America should work with the new government an d negotiate with them for moderation. See the related quotes for more of his erroneous thinking.
This quotation illustrates a scientific principle that is at the heart of several political issues. Specifically the debate over whether creationism should be taught in science classes along with evolution. The major reason that almost all serious scientists (religious and secular both) oppose teaching creationism is that it is not a “falsifiable” set of statements—that is there is no way to prove it or disprove it. There are scientific statements that can be proved or disproved but have not yet been so. To be a scientific statement, it must be falsifiable—logically provable or disprovable. And this is the logic which the Federal Courts have used in ruling that creationism may not be taught in science classes in public schools. This quotation, Pauli is saying that the paper is not falsifiable—it cannot be proved and cannot be refuted. As such it is not scientific and belongs in the realm of philosophy, literature, theology, or other disciplines, but not science. An example of non-falsifiable statements are: “Blue is the most attractive color.”; “Freedom is essential to capitalism”; “Monarchy is more efficient than theocracy”.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works, with further collections being published after his death.
