they offended any sane person 's sense of order , they offended the central idea that god had given the earth a final tilt on its axis so that twilight would only last about twelve minutes at the equator and linger for an hour or more up where the eskimos built their ice-cube houses , that he had done that and he then had said , in effect : `` okay , if you can figure out the tilt , you can figure out any damn thing you choose .