Adams never forgot this spirited meeting with Herschel. Years later, in 1825, he wrote to Thomas Jefferson, his successor as President, complaining of the orthodox Christian beliefs of most British scientists, and advising Jefferson not to hire them to teach at the University of Virginia, where he was Chancellor. Adams contrasted these scientists' attitudes with Herschel's untrammelled vision. 'They all believe that great Principle which has produced this boundless universe, Newton's universe and Herschel's universe, came down to this little ball [planet earth], to be spit upon by the Jews. And until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.'
3 comments:
Maybe it's high time the Texas Board of Education voted Adams out of history, too. See Why is Texas Afraid of Thomas Jefferson?
Yep. They should probably add Washington and Franklin to the list also. Granted, it will take some fancy foot work to tell the story of the U.S. without any of its founding fathers.
Here's another quote by Adams. This is concerning the possibility of intelligent life in the universe.
I ask a Calvinist, whether he will subscribe to this alternative: EITHER God Almighty must assume the respective shapes of all these different Species, and suffer the penalties of their Crimes, in their stead; OR ELSE, all these Beings must be consigned to everlasting Perdition?
The thing is: the whole project is just fantasy heaped on top of fantasy. The founding fathers were not particularly Christian, as we have seen -- they certainly didn't share much by way of belief with today's fundamentalists. But then early Christianity has nothing to do with the religious right's gun-toting, individualistic, Ayn-Rand inspired, personal-freedom-to-do-what-I-want conservatism, either.
"But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" 1 John 3:17.
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