Musings 197--The dead wizard

I get frequently miffed at all the arguments between creationists and scientists. Sometimes you just want to say...STOP! USE YOUR HEAD FOR THINKING!

Well, today I can stop because the reason that I loved science has died. Mr. Wizard is dead. (See Link)

Don Herbert, the Saturday morning man of wonders, is dead at 89 years old.

Herbert, known to kids and adults alike as Mr. Wizard, did things that made us wonder. He did it with things that were just lying around the house. He didn't need a big laboratory or much else besides a kitchen table or work shop bench. He involved a kid in every episode.

In the article about his death, it states that Herbert never had any advance degrees in science. Well, he had one in teaching. He was a natural. We went to the moon and back in the 1970's because Herbert fanned the flame of learning in an entire generation of kids.

At that time there were no debates about science and God. Both co-existed in the same universe with not so much as a wrinkle. Both were deemed necessary. Maybe we should learn from this past...maybe.

Don Herbert's passing marks the end of an era of America. It was a time when learning was fun, and politics didn't intrude. Well the dead wizard is now history, and with him goes a national treasure.