A tiny question.

[Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt]

John Burgess writes:

> I think HAG is taking a rather harsh line here... von Braun is not saying 
> that "science prove" a spiritual existence... he's saying that his 
> knowledge of science (which I think fairly considerable) reinforces his 
> _belief_ in continued spiritual existence.  He is willing to take a 
> scientific law and apply it to a field for which is was not created, 
> i.e., to make a metaphore.  One may not care for his poetry, but that's 
> what it is.  If the "truthfulness" of it doesn't strike a particular 
> reader, then the poetic connection didn't work.
> 
> I don't see a "misapplication" of science in the quote.

I have to disagree. He is clearly attempting to connect the first law 
of thermodynamics with "our" continued spiritual existence. He is 
thus implying something like 'energy = soul', and is therefore quite 
explicitly misusing the clearly defined concept of energy - if you 
take the scientific definition away from E, you take the meaning away. 
Furthermore, vBraun is using the authority of science in order to 
propagate some non-scientific opinion. You may think this not serious, 
or merely poetic license, but it is more than that. There are many ways 
to use science in order to create interesting and _successful_ metaphors 
without making nonsense of the science in the process - this is not one 
of them.

hg
hag at iafrica.com