Over at Alan Jacobs blog, there is this wonderful quote from W.H. Auden's excellent book, The Dyer's Hand:
"All exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. (Bertrand Russell). If so, then infernal science differs from human science in that it lacks the notion of approximation: it believes its laws to be exact. [. . .]
The first anthropological axiom of the Evil One is not All men are evil, but All men are the same; and his second — Men do not act, they only behave. [. . .]
One of our greatest spiritual dangers is our fancy that the Evil One takes a personal interest in our perdition. He doesn't care a button about my soul, any more than Don Giovanni cared a button about Donna Elvira’s body. I am his “one-thousand-and-third in Spain.”
One can conceive of Heaven having a Telephone Directory, but it would have to be gigantic, for it would include the Proper Name and address of every electron in the Universe. But Hell could not have one, for in Hell . . . its inhabitants are identified not by name but by number. They do not have numbers, they are numbers"
The rest of the post, which is itself in reference to a First Things post, can be found here. Jacobs' blog is worthwhile if you are interested in literature and how technology is affecting the dissemenation of knowledge. And of course I hardily recommend reading Auden, but that goes without saying.
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