Unweaving the Rainbow This pleasure was not in spite of, but rather because he does not assume as cause the inexplicable actions of a deity but rather the understandable laws of nature. His starting point is John Keats' well-known, light-hearted accusation that Isaac Newton destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by 'reducing it to the prismatic colours.' Dawkins's agenda is to show the reader that science does not destroy, but rather discovers poetry in the patterns of nature. It is of little concern whether or not science can prove that the ultimate fate of the cosmos lacks purpose: we live our lives regardless
The Blind Girl sun or rain and looks at the unusual spectacle of a double rainbow that has just appeared. Some critics have interpreted the rainbow in Biblical terms, as the sign of God's covenant described in Genesis 9:16. When the painting was first exhibited in 1856 it was pointed out to Millais that in double rainbows the inner rainbow inverts the order of the colours. Millais had originally painted the colours in the same order in both rainbows. He altered it for scientific accuracy. A tortoiseshell butterfly rests on the blind girl's shawl, implying that she is holding herself extremely still. The