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Comment by ianstallings | Hacker News Reader

Magic and science do not mix. That's why I don't dabble or anything else.

Tell that to Newton. There is a fine line separating the various realms of the unknown and inventors are merely the most successful of the insane as they have made flesh of their delusions.

This is hardly Newton we're talking about or the unknown appearing as magic as Asimov pointed out all new technology might appear. No this is doing spells and trying to call on mystical powers. And where I'm from, that's called bullshit. If you want to practice science then do so. But don't pretend doing a spell led to a certain result because you "believe".

I agree that the methodology is somewhat suspect to say the least, but I also think that the impulse that leads folk to try and practice magic is more or less the same as the impulse that leads them to try and study science and which route you take is more often than not an accident of culture.

There are many examples other than Newton of scientists who were heavily involved in trying to do magic. Go look up the founder of the JPL and noted Thelemite occultist Jack Parsons, for instance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons_%28rocket_engineer...

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/newton-papers-q-and-a/

Dee was also doing real science, for example taking measurements of the super nova of 1572 and the comet that appeared 5 years later, and corresponding with Tycho about the same. Along with Tycho, he helped establish that the comet was further away than the moon, which helped dissuade people of the belief that all changes in the heavens happened between the moon and the earth.

If you are going to dismiss Dee on the basis of his irrational beliefs, than you must dismiss Newton, Tycho, Kepler and many others as well.

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