In Heinlein's defense--if his character did say this, and if it was said by one of those fatherly "voice of Heinlein" characters, which I'm quite prepared to believe...
I would've read the quote as saying, in effect, "If a seemingly logical argument proves something I regard as absurd, I will be skeptical." That was, after all, the appropriate reaction for the person confronted with the proof that 2 = 1. The first reaction ought to be, "Well, I know 2 doesn't equal 1, so no matter how nice and logical the proof seems, there must be something wrong with it." Maybe then you look at the proof a bit harder and see the... (read more)
In Heinlein's defense--if his character did say this, and if it was said by one of those fatherly "voice of Heinlein" characters, which I'm quite prepared to believe...
I would've read the quote as saying, in effect, "If a seemingly logical argument proves something I regard as absurd, I will be skeptical." That was, after all, the appropriate reaction for the person confronted with the proof that 2 = 1. The first reaction ought to be, "Well, I know 2 doesn't equal 1, so no matter how nice and logical the proof seems, there must be something wrong with it." Maybe then you look at the proof a bit harder and see the... (read more)