Whether or not a hypothesis can be falsified is not the point. It's a point, but not the point. The human mind comes up with gods as well as monsters, moralities as well as their opposites. It can't prosper if it is limited to the middle ground between the two. Pace Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World, Random House, 1995), I'm happy with the dragon in my garage, and when I think about it, I'm not concerned with proving it true or false.
Deferring also to Karl Popper (various, but let's go with The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Routledge, 1959), susceptibility to falsification does not imply an obligation to falsify; quite the opposite, IMH(sic)O. The human mind, the creative imagination, does not perform most effectively under test conditions. It is there to be encouraged, guided, educated in the possibilities of the world, the universe, and if you like, the Creation. Not stopped. Not met with contradiction. In our understanding of everything around us, I suspect, we are as children.
The dragon in Carl Sagan's garage may (or may not) have died with him, but the dragon in my garage is still keeping me busy. We don't make progress by identifying what can't be done. We don't innovate by placing sensible limits on our creativity.
Deferring also to Karl Popper (various, but let's go with The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Routledge, 1959), susceptibility to falsification does not imply an obligation to falsify; quite the opposite, IMH(sic)O. The human mind, the creative imagination, does not perform most effectively under test conditions. It is there to be encouraged, guided, educated in the possibilities of the world, the universe, and if you like, the Creation. Not stopped. Not met with contradiction. In our understanding of everything around us, I suspect, we are as children.
The dragon in Carl Sagan's garage may (or may not) have died with him, but the dragon in my garage is still keeping me busy. We don't make progress by identifying what can't be done. We don't innovate by placing sensible limits on our creativity.
Long before the road was built, the owner of Gyllyngdune House and its Gardens in Falmouth, the Reverend Coope, built this as a place to meditate. See also the picture below. In the distance is Pendennis Castle.
Mind you, if we're looking for revealing inconsistencies in human behaviour, the opposition of organised science to the wilder shores of imagined truth pales into insignificance next to the opposition of organised religion to spirituality. In the West, whole studio discussions about religion and its purpose can go by without mention of the Deity. What are we suppressing when we organise ourselves - sorry, organise each other?
Known as the 'Chapel', apparently, although not in any formal way adopted for that purpose. Bottom right.
Not that this means anything necessarily, and I'm only mentioning it because it just came into my head, but I've noticed that ghosts are going viral. By which I don't mean that they're everywhere (although ... cue creepy music), but that these days, formerly supernatural afflictions have become viruses. Today's vampire, or zombie, is as likely to be infected by a virus as to have been bitten by something (that's great; keep playing!) from beyond the grave. Am I watching the wrong box sets?
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