Quote of the Day

[highlyeccentric]

courtesy of the Goblin.

.. But if we laugh with derision, we will never understand. Human
intellectual capacity has not altered for thousands of years so far as
we can tell. If intelligent people invested intense energy in issues
that now seem foolish to us, then the failure lies in our understanding
of their world, not in their distorted perceptions. Even the standard
example of ancient nonsense -- the debate about angels on pinheads --
makes sense once you realize that theologians were not discussing
whether five or eighteen would fit, but whether a pin could house a
finite or an infinite number.
-S. J. Gould, "Wide Hats and Narrow Minds."

Regarding which goblinpaladin observes:

I wish people would understand this about medieval scientia, about astrology and alchemy. About the medieval world. They were not stupid, these people. They were looking for something we are not. It might be wrong. That. Is. Not. The. Point.