Einstein was openly ruled by an aesthetic scientific muse:
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science", he said.
There is mystery in the universe, beguiling mystery,
but it isn't capricious, whimsical, frivolous in its changeability.
The universe is an orderly place
and, at a deep level, regions of it behave like other regions, times behave like other times.
There is mystery but not magic,
strangeness beyond the wildest imagining, but no spells or witchery, no arbitrary miracles.
The popularity of the paranormal, oddly enough, might even be grounds for encouragement.
I think that the appetite for mystery
the enthusiasm for that which we do not understand, is healthy and to be fostered.
It is the same appetite which drives the best of true science,
and it is an appetite which true science is best qualified to satisfy.
Perhaps it is this appetite that underlies the ratings success of the paranormalists.
It's often said that people 'need' something more in their lives than just the material world.
There is a gap that must be filled.
People need to feel a sense of purpose.
Well, not a BAD purpose would be to find out what is already here, in the material world,
before concluding that you need something more.
How much more do you want?
Just study what is,
and you'll find that it already is far more uplifting than anything you could imagine needing.
You don't have to be a scientist
-- you don't have to play the bunsen burner --
in order to understand enough science to overtake your imagined need and fill that fancied gap.
Science needs to be released from the lab into the culture.
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