"Now I will have to say that the great Prof. Lettvin could hardly get himself bent out of shape just because some puny undergrad had come forward with a puny work product, but I was to learn that day what he might heap upon a bullshitter."
Your heart is in the right place, but do not foul the memory of such a beautiful, insightful, and honourable individual with bullshit---metaphorical or otherwise.
I think it is too bold a statement to suggest that the idea of an afterlife is rubbish. Who are we to definitively say that there is nothing after this life?
While man's body likely evolved from an ancestor common to all other life on earth, I believe it would be wise to take a humble and open-minded approach when contemplating the origin of man's uniqueness.
As smart as this group may be, when it dismisses everything that can't be empirically proven it misses out on so much of human experience. Being open to those experiences and even beliefs that are beyond the reach of the scientific method will lead to a deeper and more meaningful life.
Also, true religion and true science will never contradict each other. At the heart of both true religion and true science is the same driving force: a search for truth. Though the means of searching are very different, the ends are the same as long as truth was the result.
Anyway, just my 2 cents after spending many years searching for truth in both spiritual and scientific places.
I thought a hater or two might come out of the woodwork when I said that.
You people are as arrogant and humorless as the worst fundamentalists.
Jerry was neither arrogant nor humorless. You cannot persuade me that he would have the slightest objection to my innocent image of him in an afterlife.
I'm ok with your colorful counterfactual about his current disposition, the same way I'm fine reading a Sutra talking about reincarnation, or a Nasrudin story invoking Allah. I don't think belief should have anything to do with cultural acceptability; and I think the people objecting to your comment are rude--but I also think "you people" is a rude way to address them.
"Now I will have to say that the great Prof. Lettvin could hardly get himself bent out of shape just because some puny undergrad had come forward with a puny work product, but I was to learn that day what he might heap upon a bullshitter."
Your heart is in the right place, but do not foul the memory of such a beautiful, insightful, and honourable individual with bullshit---metaphorical or otherwise.