Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Living in the Middle Ages

Wally (Wallace Shawn), in My Dinner with André (dir. Louis Malle, 1981):

“In the Middle Ages, before the arrival of scientific thinking as we know it today, well, people could believe anything. Anything could be true: the statue of the Virgin Mary could speak or bleed, or whatever it was. But the wonderful thing that happened was that then in the development of science in the western world, well, certain things did come slowly to be known and understood. I mean, you know, obviously, all ideas in science are constantly being revised; I mean, that's the whole point. But we do at least know that the universe has some shape and order and that, you know, trees do not turn into people or goddesses. And there are very good reasons why they don't, and you can't just believe absolutely anything.”
I think that Todd Akin is living in the Middle Ages.

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August 22: Todd Akin’s theorizing about rape and pregnancy dates back at least to the late thirteenth century.

comments: 4

Elaine said...

Maybe he has a degree in Junk Science?

I just LOVE that the GOP couldn't make him go away. I hope it's a shot in the arm for Claire McCaskill. We paid a visit to Springfield MO during her initial race, and wow--were the ads ugly!

hans said...

But the wonderful thing that happened was that then in the development of science in the western world

I would suggest you read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science before making outlandish claims!

Michael Leddy said...

I’m quoting. You need to speak to Wally.

Michael Leddy said...

But also: he’s speaking about changes in western thinking: one way of looking at reality replacing another. I don’t think he means that science is the property of the west.