Destroying the Poetry of the Rainbow? | StarTalk

he thought that Newton was destroying
the poetry of the rainbow by explaining
this better or completely destroying the
mystery of it displaying the mystery of
it and the message of my book is that
you don’t by destroying the mystery you
increase the poetry you don’t you don’t
decrease and I try to go there in all of
my work whether or not I succeed that’s
my intent I think there’s no more
reproduced image when people want you to
think of God than a sunset with beams of
light coming out but I also know that
the surface of the Sun is 6000 degrees
and there’s Rayleigh scattering in the
atmosphere you have water droplets
condensing to make clouds and exhaust so
where do you differ from this maybe I go
a little bit further in the direction of
good-natured ridicule of absurd ideas
like astrology
you’re saying it’s good-natured but
clearly the people who are who are the
on the other side of your wit and
intelligence would are they saying
you’re being good-natured possibly not I
don’t I don’t really care about that no
I mean I feel stupid next to you now I
and I know all this stuff it’s come on I
I haven’t I – not just the astrologer
that I’m talking to but the for example
the radio audience whatever it is that
that are that are listening in if you
call somebody an idiot you’re not gonna
change his mind but you may change the
minds of a thousand people listening in
yeah so let me ask you something but
just flat-out
sure slide out I don’t have a problem if
people feel spiritually when they
contemplate the cosmos and I may even
feel some of that as well I’m really
talking about as religion manifests in
the world it’s a whole other portfolio
of things you’re supposed to do the
rituals that derive from it the rules
that come down from revealed texts
that’s a whole other conversation than
telling me that I’m experiencing an open
door to God when I’m on a mountaintop I
think those are two different things I
think God and the ocean I believe you
yeah you see those as two different
things but most people who are vocal
active and politically motivated do not
but why should that keep you from God I
mean if if you have an experience of God
why should all the other stuff that
distracts you keep you from that I mean
we’re like saying you know I ran into a
I took a terrible course and in science
once and all the teachers were terrible
well does that mean you don’t believe in
science anymore no it means you don’t
believe or you haven’t had a good
experience of the other things of the
human element of it so I might ask is
which God are you is it Zeus that I’m
coming closer to because I am on the
mountaintop where Zeus live mama did
come out of his head so so maybe there’s
a particular God that you would rather
it be than other gods that have come
before people of the past but I also
know that throughout most of the history
of science some of the greatest
scientists have ever lived have been
deeply religious themselves