Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
It is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of origin of life; one might as well think of origin of matter.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that contemplating the origins of life is as futile as considering the origins of matter, implying limits to our understanding.
In this quote, Charles Darwin reflects on the complexities and challenges inherent in understanding the origins of life. He implies that just as pondering the beginning of matter leads to questions beyond human comprehension, so too does the exploration of life's origin. This assertion serves to highlight the boundaries of human knowledge and the limitations of current scientific inquiry into existential origins.
In practice
This quote can be used in a scientific discussion about the limits of our understanding of life.
Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.
We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
It is the very strangeness of nature that makes science engrossing. That ought to be at the center of science teaching. There are more than seven-times-seven types of ambiguity in science, awaiting analysis. The poetry of Wallace Stevens is crystal-clear alongside the genetic code.
My whole interest is, how do you use evolution as an innovation engine? How does evolution solve new problems that life faces? And to have a system that can create a whole new chemical bond that biology hasn't done before, to me, demonstrates the power of nature to innovate.
Science is not formal logic-it needs the free play of the mind in as great a degree as any other creative art. It is true that this is a gift which can hardly be taught, but its growth can be encouraged in those who already posses it.
If your child gets asthma, the fossil fuel industry doesn't pay. Or if there's a natural disaster, the bill is paid by the taxpayer, not the fossil fuel company.
The scientific method of examining facts is not peculiar to one class of phenomena and to one class of workers; it is applicable to social as well as to physical problems, and we must carefully guard ourselves against supposing that the scientific frame of mind is a peculiarity of the professional scientist.
As our own species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.
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