Saturday, August 4, 2012

Of God and Dice

When Albert Einstein was first presented with Max Plank’s theory of quantum mechanics—that the behavior of particles at the subatomic level is not completely predictable—he rejected the idea out of hand.  Before the quantum theory was postulated, the underlying assumption behind science and the scientific method was that the universe and everything contained therein was completely orderly and predictable, which caused Einstein to quip: “God does not throw dice!”

I don’t claim to know much about quantum mechanics, but I can draw one conclusion from Einstein’s reaction, together with many other things he said:  Einstein believed in God.  To be sure he was more of a deist—not believing in a personal God who involves Himself in the affairs of men—but there was no question in his mind that there was an intelligent deity behind the creation of the universe. 

Friday, August 3, 2012

It's still a free country, for now...

"Adam Smith" is a rather common name, but most people associate it  with the 18th century Scottish social philosopher, the author of The Wealth of Nations and  the father of capitalism.  Another Adam Smith of modern times is/was the CFO of a medical manufacturing company called Vante.

The latter, lesser known Adam Smith has achieved his fifteen minutes of fame.  He does not happen to care for Chick-fil-A, calling the company a horrible organization, a hateful organization, because the family owned restaurant chain  supposedly hates gays.  To be precise, the owners said they believe in the Biblical definition of marriage, to not only include the union of one man to one woman, but the faithful “until death do us part” definition of marriage.  In Mr. Smith’s eyes, that is hateful.