argumentum ad populum

In response to Douglas Adam’s statement, “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too”, provoked a heightened sense of curiosity in me that left me thinking about the strange nature of this statement.  Why ask the question at all if there were not some semblance of truth?  When children tell us make believe stories that have been crafted out of the caverns of a wonder-filled world of imagination, we do not correct them in order to bring them out of the delusion.  We laugh, smile, and encourage this world all the more.  But why is it that as we get older, this world is perceived with raised eyebrow and cynicism?  Perhaps Chesterton was right when he said of W.B. Yeats, that “he is not stupid enough to understand fairyland.” Read the rest of this entry »