Looking back on the history of science you see that any accurate knowledge of the center of our solor system, came very late in the history of humanity---that is assuming we do now have MUCH reliable information about the sun. Galen came before Newton.
This came to mind when I considered the very consistent human questions about what men call god, and these questions have only remained steady or increased throughout human history---anyone who thinks we do not live in a theological age has not listened out to what is being chatted about. In the past day the idea of men putting god on trial, has been verbalized, and also I just read that Isaac Bashevis Singer, an adorable thinker, had said he was "angry with god."
Most all mention of god, in human history, ignores one salient fact (and I am not including in this list Jan Cox, Gurdjieff, the anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing," or other mystic scientists)---but the parade of human thinkers we typically include in an intellectual history of humanity---they all ignore a certain detail---they are asking about god before they have answered THIS question---what is man.
You start with what you can access, you start with the possible, the local terrain, the planet you know, this terrestial study must preceed a study of the sun, or galaxy. You must know what rocks are before you can study thermonuclear equations--- You start questioning what you have a chance of answering, and keep asking, pushing intellectually. This kind of radical empiricism is the path of honesty and hope.
To proceed courageously, persistently, objectively, in a study of WHAT IS MAN, is to be on the path to a summit from which real answers could be glimpsed.
