Tradition
There is a line that runs from the ancient belief in the ancient worship of the creator God to the awe that Einstein expressed -- that the laws of the Universe is so wonderfully ordered and that laws that describe that order are somehow (dimly) comprehensible to the mind of man.
Another thread weaves through the centuries from the words of the Prophet Amos, who denounced the rich for (literally) trampling the rights of the poor to the modern Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
A third strand binds the other two -- the demand to trust our senses over the claims of authority and tradition. We see it running through the words of Isaiah, who mocked the lifeless idols of his time, through the ages to Galileo, Copernicus and Darwin.
For me, there is no conflict between "religion" and "science". I have been lucky enough to be born into a culture that marries the best of both into a common vision of justice and common sense, along with the optimistic belief that the workings of the world are accessible to the mind of man.
To be sure, this tradition also carries along a burden of obsolete language and the scars of battles long lost but not forgotten. We still speak of our rights as "God given" as if they are in anyone's hands but our own. The origin of the Universe is still a mystery to us, just as it was 3,000 years ago. Just as we did 3,000 years ago, we speak with confidence that hides our ignorance. Then, we spoke of God. Now we speak of the Big Bang.
Through the ages, this magic chord transforms itself in surprising ways, and seems to be lost sometimes, only to re-appear in wonderfully different ways. At one time, Justice demands that we free the slaves, at others, that we consider the rights of whales. In one age, the Unity of the Universe is ascribed to the will of God. In another, it is cast as Scientific Law. And in every age, we burn the prophets who enrage us by pointing our self-serving arrogance.
But what binds us together is not the words we use or the fog of myth that surrounds us. It is the story of our shared experience and the hard-won lessons we've learned along the way. It is life itself and the way we live it, or the way we should live it.
This blog is about my little corner of what we sometimes call "Judeo-Christian Civilization.
The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books—-a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects.
Another thread weaves through the centuries from the words of the Prophet Amos, who denounced the rich for (literally) trampling the rights of the poor to the modern Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
A third strand binds the other two -- the demand to trust our senses over the claims of authority and tradition. We see it running through the words of Isaiah, who mocked the lifeless idols of his time, through the ages to Galileo, Copernicus and Darwin.
For me, there is no conflict between "religion" and "science". I have been lucky enough to be born into a culture that marries the best of both into a common vision of justice and common sense, along with the optimistic belief that the workings of the world are accessible to the mind of man.
To be sure, this tradition also carries along a burden of obsolete language and the scars of battles long lost but not forgotten. We still speak of our rights as "God given" as if they are in anyone's hands but our own. The origin of the Universe is still a mystery to us, just as it was 3,000 years ago. Just as we did 3,000 years ago, we speak with confidence that hides our ignorance. Then, we spoke of God. Now we speak of the Big Bang.
Through the ages, this magic chord transforms itself in surprising ways, and seems to be lost sometimes, only to re-appear in wonderfully different ways. At one time, Justice demands that we free the slaves, at others, that we consider the rights of whales. In one age, the Unity of the Universe is ascribed to the will of God. In another, it is cast as Scientific Law. And in every age, we burn the prophets who enrage us by pointing our self-serving arrogance.
But what binds us together is not the words we use or the fog of myth that surrounds us. It is the story of our shared experience and the hard-won lessons we've learned along the way. It is life itself and the way we live it, or the way we should live it.
This blog is about my little corner of what we sometimes call "Judeo-Christian Civilization.
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