March 21, 1934
Well, they apparently got Madlin at the proper zero of metabolism yesterday, and harnessed her to a rigging, put a clothespin on her nose, and fed pure oxygen to her lungs for eight minutes, and got a graphical record of her CO2 output, and found that her rate of tissue oxidation was about normal. All of which means, we are five dollars out, and have eliminated thyroid activity from the picture. She experienced near suffication during the interminable process, but demonstrated her self control, and they complimented her on giving them a good record without the usual hysteria. Hats off to you, old gal.Composed the basic laws for the Tribe of Keo-ha-ha yesterday. Took Jack into my confidence, presumably to get his ideas, and his eyes glowed with interest. I hope the imagination of the gang will be similarly captured, but this is unpredictable. I shall not attempt to force a serious program on the kids, and will watch with interest for spontaneous reactions. Have solicited cooperation from Dr. Ehinger, Garth Johnson, and George Berryhill; and Wayne Steele's iniative is assumed. I told Garth and Cale last night that this is my answer to their pertinent inquery about a year ago during the discussion of Cale's "Creative Education" - I had asked Cale why the scout idea was not more active in Keokuk, and Garth came to the point and said "What are you doing about it, John?"
X Club meeting last night. I walked in molasses most of the evening. What else could you expect from Clausen? "Metaphysics in the Realm of Cosmology". Morton is a gentleman and a scholar; there may be some doubt about my classification in the first instance, but undoubtedly I am not a scholar. If he used a sentence without at least one six syllable word, I missed it. And to thus attempt to convey definition of an obscure topic left me high and dry: I frankly confess it was over my head. John Kaut was the only one who had enough sense to avoid comment; all the rest of us displayed our ignorance. Morton had a lengthy bibliography which represented six years of study, and professed to be just on the threshold of his researches; so how the dickens could we attempt an intelligent discussion in the three minutes allotted us, without previous thought. However, we did. As near as I could determine, Morton is attempting to rationalize metaphysics in the same sense as science is a provable field. Imagination vs. realization. Dreaming is justified if dreams are not our end. (If you can dream and not make dreams you master; if you can think and not make thoughts your aim - sorry I didn't think of that last night) He raised the question as to whether mind is a spiritual entity or a physical attribute. In his attempt to reconcile science and the unseen forces, he demonstrated the upset of atomic science by the discoveries of X-ray and radioactivity: hence scientific knowledge is not axiomatic. Likewise the effects of light on electrons have upset the immutable law of the conservation of matter. All of which renders materialism merely a superstitious belief. The history of religion is similar. Science has no predictable basis for determining the character of water by joining totally dissimilar hydrogen and oxygen. Sense perception is relied upon in seeing into the invisible. So THEREFORE, science and religion have a common need of security.
The hit-or-miss discussion. Dr. Wollenwebber observed a universal need of a comforting agency which is not scientifically demonstrable. Mr. Abe Hollingsworth found a metaphysical demonstration in the fact that the nebulous world could have contained no life and consequently no spirit; they came later in the scheme of things; hence the reasonableness of metaphysics, and, carrying the thought further, the reasonableness of a continueing spirit after physical death. Mr. Cale saw the logic of reincarnation. Mr. Berryhill stumbled around with petty definitions which are inscrutible to all. I admitted my lack of scholarship; but felt that the supposed conflict of science and religion was over-rated; suggested the dissociation of atoms did not upset existing laws of physics, chemistry, or thermo-dynamics - new discoveries simply supplement them; revived the old observation-guess-test method of science, and suggested it might equally apply to the unseen, and thus give them a common approach - no conflict; applied my own demonstration of faith, for instance, as reasonable because it works. Garth was over my head, or rather my attention wandered because of my own "profound" cerebration. Dr. Paysley saw spiritual life as an attribute of mind; he used the physical development of the brain as the controlling feature. John Kaut had enough sense to keep quiet in a graceful manner. Dr. Curl met Clausen on his own level, and since I was studying the man, I lost his wisdom. Huston Taylor thought the rooster should have some consideration in the proverbial hen or egg; metaphysics the rooster! Dr. Ehinger liked a certain author. Mr. Elder - I forget. Mr. Pellett drove a sharp shaft by seeing metaphysics as simply an unexployed field of science, there is no conflict; they are the same thing.
