The Mysteries of Modern Science‪ ‬

I recently came across an article which began with the words: ‘The idea of relativity is really fairly simple.’ I assume that the writer was attempting to reassure his readers rather than to patronise them, but I do not suppose that he succeeded. The attitude represented by this kind of statement is quite common among scientists – it is the sort of thing one might imagine Haeckel saying to Bois-Reymond. It may be expanded thus: ‘Look, all this is perfectly simple and makes excellent sense to me. If it doesn’t make sense to you then you must be stupid.’ There is an old anecdote concerning a debate between the French Encyclopedist and atheist Denis Diderot and the Swiss mathematician and confirmed Christian Leonhard Euler about the existence of God. Euler said: ‘(a + bn)/n = x, therefore God exists’ and Diderot could find absolutely no way to refute the statement.

It is quite easy for a scientist to concoct mathematical logic and literally blind his opponent with science, as Euler did to Diderot. It is not simply that what is obvious to one man is not obvious to another, but that the kind of argument that one man recognises and accepts is not necessarily the kind of argument which makes sense to someone else, irrespective of stupidity. This applies just as much to honest scientific discourse as to Euler’s intellectual trickery.

Perhaps, as the article-writer claimed, the idea of relativity is really fairly simple. But it is not an easy one to grasp, and it is certainly not easy (or simple) to extrapolate the basic idea and discover its logical consequences. It requires a good deal of intellectual effort to surrender the notions of common sense which serve so well in the everyday world in order to adopt rather peculiar notions which, though they may confer a certain intellectual savoir faire on their owner, are never likely to come in useful in the routine of daily life.

I, personally, remain convinced that it is a worthwhile exercise to try to acquire uncommon sense, in order that one may come to terms intellectually with the infinite and the infinitesimal, but this does not imply that I find the ideas of modern physics simple or easy to command. Therefore, I begin with no promises about how easy to understand everything I am going to write about in these first chapters really is, nor will I covertly imply that anyone who remains unconvinced is a moron. I will avoid mathematical language and mathematical logic as much as possible, as these esoteric tools may confound even men like Diderot.