The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out

I've been reading The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, a collection of short works and transcribed lectures of Physiscist Richard P. Feynman (edited by Jeffrey Robins, who left in enough errors to make me think that he really didn't like Feynman;1999, Helix Books from Perseus Publishing, Cambridge MA). It can be difficult to read at times, because these are mostly transcribed lectures, and the transcription didn't change the speech to text. I have no doubt that Feynman was a fascinating speaker; probably very animated and exciting. But when transcribed almost word-for-word is ungrammatical and even disconnected. (I do get the irony here.) Anyway, I just read the The Role of Scientific Culture in Modern Society*, and I had to comment on it. Feynman's thesis, summed up, is that Science should investigate religion. I think he really wanted to say that science should debunk religion, but he didn't want to go that far. For example, he compared the miracles at Lourdes to astrology, even suggesting we should make measurements at Lourdes ("If the healing process is working at Lourdes, the question is how far from the site of the miracle can the person, who is ill, stand?"), so as to better control the situation. I think the implication is that there are no miracle at Lourdes, or anywhere else for that matter. Well, let's give Feynman (who I really do like, I think) the benefit of the doubt. He lived in heady times, and clearly struggled with the idea of a higher power. *A lecture given at the Galileo Symposium in Italy, 1964.