FOOD FOR THOUGHT: NO POSTULATE SHOULD BE EXEMPT FROM RE-EXAMINATION

William T. Vollmann, Uncentering the Earth: Copernicus and The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Great Discoveries) (New York & London: Atlas Books/ W.W. Norton, 2006) ("Most of us cling to any number of postulates which we've rendered exempt from re-examination--meaning not only what my old calculus textbook describes as 'a formal statement that is assumed to be true without proof.' but also 'founded on premises exempt from definition.' Here are some of them: I'll love you forever. My country is always right. All men are created equal. My sensory perceptions of physical phenomena are as accurate as they need to be. Science has the right to inquire unrestictedly into everything. God exists. We cocoon them in consistency. I may succeed in demolishing one of these to my own satisfaction without even scratching it in your estimation. In spite of Darwin, Creationism continues to survive quite nicely; in spite of Nazi atrocities, a few Germans go on believing that my country is always right. They may deny the Holocaust, or they may justify it by means of some other axiom immune to re-examination, such as the Jews are our misfortune." "This book deals with a moment in the history of science when reasoning was by its own logic subordinated to religious faith. A long moment it was, but still a moment; for over time, the Church's stance on cosmology and astronomy altered; meanwhile learned opinions predictably differed." Id. at 143-144.).