Lewis Thomas Quotes
The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature... It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century science to the human intellect.
Thomas, Lewis. The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher. Viking Press, 1979, p. 73.
First Astronomy, then Geology, proved that the Creation that was described in the Bible was not literally correct. To religious fundamentalists who believe that every word of the Bible is the word of God or the word of those inspired by God, the only possibility of conclusion is that the science is wrong. To the extent that undermining the word of God is not acceptable to the fundamentalists, they have used every power—including the criminal law power of the state to stop the blasphemy and discredit the scientist. In 1856, there was a much larger proportion of fundamentalists in the Western World than there is today. By 2012, the vast majority of these same populations have rejected Christian Biblical Fundamentalism, and no longer attack science for its affect on religion. The minority of fundamentalists, however, are vehement in their opposition to science.
Most of the greatest scientific breakthroughs were motivated by a search for the truth, a desire to understand the world, and the joy of discovery, not utility. None the less, the results have had profound usefulness to humanity in most cases. After this basic research, there are other people who then specifically work to apply the basic research to improvement in the human condition. That is applied research. Each important basic research breakthrough spawns a host of applications that are then developed.
Lewis Thomas was an American physician, poet, etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher.
