Numbers Decide and Other Essays
S. L. Jaki
This book, a collection of fifteen essays,
takes its title from a remark, "numbers decide," of Max Planck, one of
the greatest physicists of the twentieth century. Among competing
physical theories that theory proves indeed victorious whose
predictions agree best with the numerical values of experiments.
Planck's phrase would have become even more
memborable had he added that outside physical or experimental science
numbers decide very little. In fact in the vast field of humanities
they decide nothing substantial, a point well to ponder in this age of
science.
This view sets the tone of the fifteen essays that
cover topics widely differing, yet equally relevant to some burning
questions of modern culture. Among these are the perplexities posed by
speculations about extraterrestrials, by cloning, by education, by the
rude awakening of an increasingly de-Christianized West to the reality
of a crusading Muslim world, and by anxious thoughts as to what the
next thousand years may have in store for mankind.
Stanley L. Jaki, the author of these essays, is the recipient of the
Templeton Prize for 1987.