>> you could ask is it important to write symphonies or preserve our environment and i think these things are important in themselves. the importance of learning the walls is a little bit vitiated by the fact they will probably be expressed in mathematical terms most people won't have the language to understand. but that changes with time. when the theory of that gravitate and a motion was first developed, there were only a handful of people in the world who were able to understand it. now it is commonplace, something that everyone who goes into engineering or science learns quite early in their education. so these things to spread out into society in general and i think also apart from knowing

the details, there is a great value to knowing what kind of world this is, but it's a world governed by impersonal laws in which human beings play little or in fact no essential role. i think that gives us a better understanding of our place in the scheme of things and it helps to free us up some of the superstitions that have bedeviled the human race. >> such as? >> i don't want to insult anyone but the historian trevor roper said it was the scientific revolution of the 17th century that led to a sharp decline in the 18th century.

i thin think today large parts e world are obsessed with religious fanaticism and i think the example of scientific knowledge which is so difficult to win is a good counter example to the certainty that people feel that they're just idiots. >> host: but you als that you ae toward transcendental talking about your research or your work and you see it as something doesn't that have religious implications? >> i don't think so. i just mean something similar to what emerson meant that it's something that affects us deeply and goes to the roots of our feelings that is not directed at getting and spending.

>> professor weinberg, one of the articles you have i this wht einstein was wrong about. >> a number of things. one of the reasons was to show in the spirit of science that even though we recognize the greatest of us, and einstein was certainly the greatest of all times could be wrong about things and that we are capable of pointing that out. it's not that it's a sacred text to depart from. he was wrong i think in rejecting one of his own ideas that as he had introduced a modification in the equation that govern gravitation, the

general theory of relativity. it's a modification that's the equivalent to say that space is filled with an energy that affects the gravitational field everywhere in the universe and affects the way the universe is expanding or not expanding and he introduced it as a means of preventing the collapse of matter under its own gravitati gravitation. he wanted to have a static universe. this was 1917 he learned the universe is in fact expanding and there is no need for that modification of general relativity and he decided that it was the biggest mistake of his life. his mistake was to think that it was a mistake because there is such an energy and space one of

the articles in the book is about the dark energy and it was discovered in 1998. he would have been better to make his modification and then sit back and wait for events. >> he regularly posts his reading list on the website. here's a look at some of the books he has been reading this year. he read destiny in power pulitzer prize-winning author john meacham . examination of the presidency of george herbert walker bush and he also read the former chief of staff to president george h. w. bush and his account of the bush administration. the book is called the quiet man. some other books are a passion for leadership by the former secretary robert gates as well as historian ron turnout . biography of washington. congressman cole also recommends

a west mitchell's book the unquiet frontier which explores how rival countries are testing the power of the united states. in july he read senator mitch mcconnell's memoir the long game. finally he read arthur herman's biography of douglas macarthur, jean edward smith, grant, and francis paul the history of the relationrelations between the ud states and american indians. the full list of recommendations is available at cole.house.gov. >> i couldn't think of a more apropos story than that which kind of described how people view flyover nation because you had a reporter from bloomington indiana who went down and really went out of her way to find some sort of a christian mom and pop shop she could stereotype. it was during the battle in

indiana and that was basically allowing people to say if you own a business and want to choose how you run the business, that's fine. if you don't want to violate your religious conscience, there are limitations. if you are actively engaging in discrimination you are going to run afoul of the law but if you are sincerely professing their faith and saying on this one instance of a wedding ceremony, i don't want to give you my artistic skill or labor or expression, that's understandable and that's what it was about. but this reporter went out of her way and went to this new little small town where you have the storefront window and people still park out in the middle of the street. she saw some crosses on the wall of the shop and bought here it t is and walked in side. the daughter of the proprietor was at the cash register that day and asked her word you cater

to a gay wedding. there was no actual service done, no goods or money were exchanged, it was just a hypothetical question she said we serve gay customers every day, but the wedding ceremony goes against what we believe as christians so we probably won't didn't participate in that. i thought the reporter would just go someplace like a quick trip. it's weird but they went to a pizza shop and i read about this because i have friends and family members and i'm sorry, i'm from the ozarks. we would never cater a wedding with pizza. i'm not shoving shade at anyone that has to do people not understand our neighbors threw a block party in st. louis on the gay neighbors, fabulous and they had a bottle service. no one is going to cater their wedding at a pizza for crying

out loud so anyway that became a big story in this restaurant all of a sudden was at the center of all of this debate. they had to close shop, they were getting death threats, all of this over a hypothetical question and it was maddening because not only was it something that it never actually happened, there was no discrimination that took place again is to the proprietors of a pizza shop because this is more than an issue of whether or not you are serving a cake at a wedding or giving pizza to a gay wedding reception. take the variable out of it. this is ultimately about who owns your labor. can the government come in and say you don't get to determine how you work in who you provide your services to, we do. that's it, it's about association which we've already had supreme court decisions on that and so the thing about it is you are talking about

servitude and that is what this boils down to when you remove the window dressing of identity politics this is about the indentured servitude and people are too involved in all of these politics to realize ultimately what path they are being led down with this argument and that is the scary thing about it. the fact you had a reporter that went to this small town and saw to someone else to prove a narrative that she was building a, that is why people in flyover nation have had it. .. ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷