“Gravity may put the planets into motion,” Isaac Newton wrote, “but without the divine power, it could never put them into such a circulating motion as they have about the sun; and therefore, for this, as well as other reasons, I am compelled to ascribe the frame of this system to an intelligent Agent.”
I saw this quote of Newton’s recently in a study book. I think it is quite timely, especially in light of the pseudo-science going on today, and especially in the most recent news about some hackers who hacked into scientists’ email and discovered their statements that they had been fudging climate data to “prove” global warming (and influence global foreign policy). A lot of the kooky liberal news joints are up in arms about the hacking… but what about the atrocious lies and manipulation of data??
Back to Newton. Everybody thinks of him sitting under the apple tree, whiling his time away until an apple bonks him on his head. But did you know that Newton wrote more about the Bible than he did about science? And he wrote about science a lot!
So judging by his statement that I quoted above, Newton would be kicked out of most “science” circles and universities for his “radical” views. Just like the American Founding Fathers would probably all be at Guantanamo Bay (or something like it) for their radical “anti-government” views.
The world is completely upside down. It’s just crazy!
I’m a married mom with 4 kids. We live in Upstate New York in an old 1855 house with our five pets (yes, five, *sigh*). Life is never dull, and exciting things just seem to always happen to me... why me... when I'm not running around the house fixing things, I do freelance writing and blogging. My work and opinions have appeared in Salon.com, USAToday, eHow.com, iMedia.com, the Associated Press and I've even been interviewed by TIME and The Wall Street Journal about blogging. Can you believe it?! Here is where I express my zany, creative, motherly side. 
December 2, 2009 at 11:57 am
I was just thinking about how badly our great land has lost its way. Vocabulary has been twisted so that words now mean the opposite of what they used to mean. I’d like like to blog about it, but it would have to be in allegorical verse.
Keen and penetrating observation and right-headed analysis.
Write on!
December 2, 2009 at 8:51 pm
In reference to the hackings of emails – first, they don’t prove anything, and that is the problem. It is pretty much the same old talk that deniers have been spewing for a long time. There is no proof that data was actually skewed, there is no where in those documents that concludes climate change is not real. There was, however, some questionable statements that may or may not make more sense if they were put back into context. As they currently are, they are snippets of a conversation. You can make alter the meaning of just about anything if you cherry pick it. Hence, why people murder each other over religion.
Also, someone hacks into your system for malicious reasons, for that alone, the “emails” could have been altered by the hacker or someone else.
They also are only over 20 years, and the most current data from all over the world still very much proves there is climate change and we need to act now to try to stop it, and that data comes from many MORE than just 3-4 scientists listed in those emails.
I will agree with you on this though, if some data was skewed by any of those, or any scientists, then they should definitely be punished.