Dear Alice, I do so hope you are able to take a break from your grueling work in the lab and get a chance to read this before midnight; today is the feast day of your patron saint, my dear niece, and you ought to do something special in his honor.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be confused; I know that you are not named after Albert the Great, but do you know that he is patron of all students of the natural sciences?\u00a0 And since your biochemistry fetish still qualifies as a natural science, he is your patron.\u00a0 There you have it.\u00a0 I am sure that he will be delighted to join his prayers to yours for all your intentions today, if you are willing to take a minute and ask him.\u00a0 (Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll ask him too.)\u00a0 And in addition to his intercession, it wouldn\u2019t hurt you to reflect a bit on his example.\u00a0 He was dubbed \u201cthe Great\u201d by his contemporaries, you know, not by pious devotees of later centuries, and when Pope Pius XI named him a Doctor of the Church (\u201ca title given since the Middle Ages to certain saints whose writing or preaching is outstanding for guiding the faithful in all periods of the Church\u2019s history\u201d) he pointed out Albert\u2019s relevance for our day and age: \u201cSt Albert had that rare and divine gift, scientific instinct, in the highest degree\u2026 he is exactly the saint whose example should inspire the present age, which so ardently seeks peace and is so full of hope in its scientific discoveries.\u201d You might be interested to know that among Albert\u2019s voluminous and authoritative writings on geography, physics, astronomy, mineralogy, chemistry, and biology, he also clearly argued that the earth was in the shape of a sphere \u2013 so much for the specious theory that the Middle Ages were clouded in utter superstition and ignorance. Those specious theorists also commonly neglect the obvious fact that modern science grew directly out of the European university culture, which just so happened to be a Catholic entity, and that the father of the modern scientific method (Francis Bacon), just happened to be a Franciscan priest, and that the early modern scientists (like Copernicus, da Vinci, and Galileo) were believing Catholics (although, admittedly, da Vinci squeaked in a bit later in life than the others)\u2026 Well, better not get me started.\u00a0 Just promise me that you\u2019ll never fall for that despicably arrogant and ignorant pseudo-scientific atheism so popular among techies today.\u00a0 It makes my skin crawl, really does. Happy feast day again \u2013 Love, Uncle Eddy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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