And if we must educate our poets and artists in science, we must educate our masters, labour and capital, in art.
If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of creation it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that observing nature reveals the preferences of the Creator, particularly emphasizing stars and beetles.
John B. S. Haldane's quote reflects a philosophical perspective on the relationship between the Creator and the natural world, implying that the complexity and beauty found in creation, particularly in seemingly ordinary beings like beetles and the vastness of stars, hints at the character and inclinations of a divine being. It prompts us to consider how our understanding of nature can inform our insights about existence and creation itself.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the wonders of nature and science, this quote could be used to highlight the intricate design found in the universe.
More from John B. S. Haldane
All quotes βAn attempt to study the evolution of living organisms without reference to cytology would be as futile as an account of stellar evolution which ignored spectroscopy.
Until politics are a branch of science, we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.
A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry.
My final word, before I'm done, Is "Cancer can be rather fun"- Provided one confronts the tumour with a sufficient sense of humour. I know that cancer often kills, But so do cars and sleeping pills; And it can hurt till one sweats, So can bad teeth and unpaid debts. A spot of laughter, I am sure, Often accelerates one's cure; So let us patients do our bit To help the surgeons make us fit.
My practise as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world. And I should be a coward if I did not state my theoretical views in public.
Similar quotes
I live on Earth at present, and I donβt know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing β a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process β an integral function of the universe.
Archetypes, in spite of their conservative nature, are not static but in a continuous dramatic flux. Thus the self as a monad or continuous unit would be dead. But it lives inasmuch as it splits and unites again. There is no energy without opposites!
Even as one and the same person is called by different names according to the different functions he performs, so also one and the same mind is called by the different names: mind, intellect, memory, and egoity, on account of the difference in the modes - and not because of any real difference.
All children have to be deceived if they are to grow up without trauma.
We don't recognize each other because other people have become our permanent mirrors. If we actually realized this, if we were able to become aware of the fact that we are only ever looking at ourselves in the other person, that we are alone in the wilderness, we would go crazy.
I wrote the song "Show Me" as a prayer to God asking simple, honest questions about life and death and why there is so much suffering in the world. As I grew with the song I realized I shouldn't limit these questions solely to God; I should ask those questions of others and of myself.