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When I was in college I had this great biology professor, who always looked like he had just awakened after sleeping his his suit and rushed over to teach the class. His short grayish hair was always sticking up all over his head and his corduroy suit was wrinkled from top to bottom.
But he was a damn fine teacher, and he really enjoyed talking about science.
He also encouraged both questions and debate. And when we got to the topic of evolution there was plenty of both.
In the middle of a Q&A a young girl stood up and asked the professor "Why scientists refuse to acknowledge the presence of God in their data?
He stopped, looked up at her about three rows away (The class had stadium seating), and simply replied, "Because we have not yet found any such data."
The girl looked irritated and followed up with "Then maybe they are trying NOT to see God in the data."
The professor walked closer to the first row and said the following:
"My dear girl, I don't believe you truly understand scientists."
"Every Astronomer who strains his eyes to study the heavens is searching for God."
"Every Microbiologist who suffers neck cramps after hours of staring at tiny samples through a microscope is looking for God."
"We search for God as we study ancient civilizations, the ocean depths, the fossils beneath our feet. Scientists search for the evidence of God every hour, of every day."
"And if we were to find it? Well that would, without a doubt, be the single greatest discovery in the history of scientific research."
"Scientists from all over the world would immediately drop whatever they were researching in order to study this new data. They would examine the evidence, test the hypothesis, and through this new prism reevaluate what they believed they knew about the universe, the world, and our place within them both."
"Not trying to see God? My dear, nothing could be further from the truth."
Yeah, what he said.
(P.S. "A Short History of Nearly Everything" can be ordered by clicking here.)
Update: I misplaced this video earlier when I was writing this post, but I just thought I would share Neil deGrasse Tyson discussing how progress is eroded by religions. It definitely provides food for thought.
Good post about Science being the ultimate search for God, though I am not sure I agree with Mr. Bryson's comments. How can he be sure that we are simply dust going back to dust, or simply particles of energy rejoining the cosmic soup? Obviously this is a somewhat credible idea, and ironically part of many mainstream religions' belief sets.
ReplyDeleteBut what if the remarkable essence that is Gryphen endured death in some way? What if Gryphen's personality, feelings, being, lived on in some form? Now couldn't that also be just as credible a possibility?
Somehow this makes more scientific sense to me. Why completely discount what makes us who we are - the intangibles that actually are very, very real and the centerpiece of our human experience? The uniqueness of each human being, the astronomical odds of being who we are, seems more than random. For that to simply dissolve seems illogical.
I would say scientists should try to prove life after death, but I don't think we're meant to know with 100% certainty. Certainly there are scientists who are interested in this kind of research.
If they did, the procrastination which might ensue boggles the mind, haha. On the other hand, it might make humans tend more toward kindness, using their free will.
Once upon a time, I read that the atoms in our bodies were once the stuff that stars were made of, then majestic trees, wispy butterfly wings, and the breathe of dinosaurs. And some day I will be released into the biosphere to become a part of continuing life cycles and eventually the cosmos, visiting stars as yet unknown. What a journey! Sure beats strumming a harp and singing praises to a megalomaniac god for eternity.
ReplyDeleteO/T
ReplyDeleteread it and weep...almost chocked on my tea
"Newt Gingrich: Sarah Palin Could Be Vice Presidential Candidate Or Cabinet Secretary (AUDIO):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/30/newt-gingrich-sarah-palin-2012-vice-president-energy-secretary_n_1176717.html#comments
now I will go read your post
LOVE Bill Bryson.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyone in a wrinkled suit, who shows up on a public podium, disheveled, blinking into the bright light and nonetheless undeterred, regardless of audience, has a lot to impart to the rest of us about this life on earth. Pull up your chair.
MicMac
Just a short note to say what a great post this is as we wrap up the old year and head into 2012. Thanks, Gryphen!
ReplyDeleteMy father recently passed, and it comforts me to know that he will now be a part of nature, which he loved dearly.
ReplyDeleteI am a follower of Christ, of Christ's teachings, which I hold as a very sacred philosophy. Beyond that, I am "selective". I certainly don't believe women were created out of Adam's rib (well, maybe some the atoms from Adam's rib), and I don't believe in the fables written in the Bible (pillar of salt? giant ark? talking burning bush?).
I don't attend church, but I gave my son a Sunday School upbringing (very moderate Lutheran). He is now free to make his own decisions about religion at 14. He's a great kid with a big heart, a declared democrat. His favorite subject is History, and he is interested in politics, and is considering it for his future.
I don't consider myself an agnostic, I call myself a Christian. But it is my own personal interpretation of Christianity, and it has nothing to do with what the zealots are pushing. In fact I find most of these people acting in the exact opposite of the teachings of Christ. They remind me of the temple of pagans that Jesus struck down. Exactly like that.
Anonymous 4:20 PM wrote: But what if the remarkable essence that is Gryphen endured death in some way? What if Gryphen's personality, feelings, being, lived on in some form?
ReplyDeleteThey will.
In the minds of his family—especially his daughter—those of us who congregate here, and everybody whose lives intersect his. Admittedly, this is a pretty low-calorie sort of existence compared with his present state. Probably not concentrated enough anywhere to be self-aware any more, but—hey!—it beats total obliteration.
But this business of parsing out/predicting what happens after death is way beyond the pay grade of either the scientist or the faithful, or the undecided rest of us.
ReplyDeleteWho frickin' cares? Even as a professed Christian, I live my life as though when I die all will be dust. What other position serves?
Don't live your life according to the physicists or the atheists or the faithful, with some sort of attempt at keeping one's foot in the door so it will not close against you.
Life is a gift, to be spent wisely and unwisely, that is the nature of a gift.
To me, science is entirely unuseful unless it humbly respects the limitations and boundaries of human comprehension.
Ditto religion.
MicMac
If there was a Great Creator, why did he not come to the aid of Jews and other oppressed people being slaughtered by Hitlers troops? Why did he not stop four airliners from crashing on 9/11/2001? Why did he not stop the tsunami in Japan this year? Of all the calamities.. why hasn't Jesus returned? I'm sorry, 6 million Jews is quite a need for a creator or his son to intervene.. As someone who was raised Catholic, I simply can no longer listen to people who rely on a book of discrimatory rules and theocratic laws that benefit a few.
ReplyDeleteHow will you know when you find Her?
ReplyDeleteI love his pov, I've always felt, from what I learned in school, that there was more "There" there than was being taught. I always viewed our life cycle in terms of atoms coming from the light eminating from energy, much like the sun, and when we pass, our light returns and our atoms etc are set free to be reincarnated.
ReplyDeleteJust did a quick read of the intro and first few chapters on your link. His natural inquisitiveness and the fact that he's not a scientist himself makes the mysteries of the universe extremely relatable. It's almost like he's sitting in a room full of friends, not lecturing from a podium.
I just added him to my wish list. Thanks for this post, it was a most enjoyable and thought provoking read. A testament to what a good teacher can do for his or her students.
We have no clue if or how our consciousness survives in some form after we are brain dead, but that's the only part of myself I care about surviving.
ReplyDeleteJust can't get excited about whose/what atoms my physical body shares/shared/will share.
In the beginning was the logos (translated from Greek to English- poorly, in my view- as the word) and the logos was with God and the logos was God.
ReplyDeleteGod is not "in the data." God is that which allows man to, inter alia, both use data and wonder at the universe, at least as I understand the term.
4:36
ReplyDeleteThat's so funny! Every comment is against Dirty Wig.
Seriously think Newt is in meltdown mode, he had his weepy moment today, just like Orange Man with the big boy gavel. People are comparing it to Hillary's emotional moment, but she didn't shed tears, she got choked up, composed herself, and moved on.
Newtie was all over the map and crying like a baby.
Some "historian", huh? Dirty Wig worked WONDERS for McCain.
Between some very funny stuff, Bryson pops up with truly PITHY statements, such as this one.
ReplyDeleteSomeone who knows him says he's a bit of an asshole, but that should not deter anyone from reading his excellent books.
Of those that amazed me, the one about his being in Australia completely blew me away. Do yourselves a favour, gang, find it and read it!
Great post, Gryphen, great post.
ReplyDeleteYou were lucky to have experienced such a wondrous teacher.
However, this is the kind of teacher that Rick Santorum fears. He wants to stop governmental support of colleges and universities because they are places of indoctrination (of the worst sort) that liberals control and use to steal the souls of hapless youth.
I say we need more of these professors, more of these colleges and universities, not less. Hurray for enlightened minds!
The bible states in death there is nothing. No work- no knowledge .
ReplyDeleteI am so sick of religion and these nuts trying to make everything about religion and having the so called right morals. when in fact they are all liars and that is against biblical morals and none of them see anything wrong with lying cheating stealing from the ppl. You can be a good, decent moral person and skip all that hate from religion. Thank you i:ve vented.
"Eco-friendly singer Jewel is a bright green celebrity. As a clean water advocate, she has been helping improve living conditions around the world and in her home state of Alaska. As a famous humanitarian and eco-friendly celebrity, she’s also knocked gun-toting Republican guru Sarah Palin out of the top spot as a reality television star. Will Jewel use her star power wisely with her own family’s new reality TV show special feature on the Discovery channel about living a more sustainable lifestyle off the grid and being Alaskan? You can bet your caribou on it. Even though she lives in Texas now, she still remembers the lessons being poor and living in such a remote area taught her.
ReplyDeletePolitician turned reality TV star turned professional book writer Sarah Palin has no monopoly on the phenomenon that is Alaska. Word has it that the family of Jewel, the star celeb rocker with hits like Hands and Foolish Games, will be featured in a new reality show from the Discovery Channel. The new show will focus on the Alaskan frontier where Jewel was born and will follow her dad, Atz, as he prepares his 600 acre homestead in the arctic North for the long, cold winter."
from greencelebs
OT, but this is why Sarah couldn't sell a second egocentric show...a woman who is a real talent and actually helps people got one instead.
"Eco-friendly singer Jewel is a bright green celebrity. As a clean water advocate, she has been helping improve living conditions around the world and in her home state of Alaska. As a famous humanitarian and eco-friendly celebrity, she’s also knocked gun-toting Republican guru Sarah Palin out of the top spot as a reality television star. Will Jewel use her star power wisely with her own family’s new reality TV show special feature on the Discovery channel about living a more sustainable lifestyle off the grid and being Alaskan? You can bet your caribou on it. Even though she lives in Texas now, she still remembers the lessons being poor and living in such a remote area taught her.
ReplyDeletePolitician turned reality TV star turned professional book writer Sarah Palin has no monopoly on the phenomenon that is Alaska. Word has it that the family of Jewel, the star celeb rocker with hits like Hands and Foolish Games, will be featured in a new reality show from the Discovery Channel. The new show will focus on the Alaskan frontier where Jewel was born and will follow her dad, Atz, as he prepares his 600 acre homestead in the arctic North for the long, cold winter."
from greencelebs
OT, but this is why Sarah couldn't sell a second egocentric show...a woman who is a real talent and actually helps people got one instead.
As a non religious person I think death is what scares the religious. They need heaven and for their enemies, hell. My after life is my wonderful children and their's, thereafter. Simple really. I prefer logic over brainwashing any day of the week. Thanks G!
ReplyDeleteFunny you posted this tonight. I was JUST thinking about life after death a few minutes ago, then decided to check a few sites before sleep. I'm so turned off of any kind
ReplyDeleteOf organized religion, but to think that this world is just one
Big happy accident is not a logical theory either. I think we go on. Not sure in what form but that makes sense to
Me . Happy New York Gryph!
In well over 20 years of being a scientist, and as a seeker for many years before that, I have to agree with your sentiment, Gryph, but, truly, are you sure?
ReplyDeleteI have thought many times that the incredible beauty and truth I found in science made me feel more immediately connected with the future I hoped touched a godliness, but still, learning to be an atheist has served better.
As an atheist, I am learning to think without fear, I am understanding more about my world without the perversion that religiosity has imposed upon my emotional life.
I am enjoying, as an atheist, the mythologies I have read, rather than trying to compare and contrast them with the mythology of Xtianity that was inculcated into my brain as a young child.
I prefer, as an atheist, to not wax poetic about god, using science, no matter how beautiful that histological slide looks under the microscope, no matter how that electron imaging stuns me, no matter how joyful the birds play in my trees in winter.
It is all so cool.
But does that mean that a god (or gods) demands fealty just because it makes me feel good?
Perhaps not.
More importantly, which may be your point, the Republican Conservative Christian demand to perpetuate ignorance of science so as to not disturb the fragile and fungible status quo of an earth history of only 6,000 years and a story of all creation arising in a matter of less than a week, is weak, it is very, very, weak as an exultation of god, any god.
To me, science is entirely unuseful unless it humbly respects the limitations and boundaries of human comprehension.
ReplyDeleteMicMac
If it doesn't, it's bad science.
Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceeding generation . . .As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.
Richard Feynman, Nobel-prize-winning physicist,
"They remind me of the temple of pagans that Jesus struck down."
ReplyDeleteAs a Pagan, I don't claim to know the Bible thoroughly, but I have no recollection of this incident. If you are talking about him whipping the moneychangers out of the Temple, that was a Jewish temple, and the moneychangers were enabling devout Jews to buy the animals which, at that time, were sacrificed.
Can you source the Jesus-in-the-Pagan-temple story? I am sure Jesus (if he existed, which is problematic in itself) had to have interacted with Pagans, but to my memory, most of his alleged recorded activities were with his fellow Jews.
I lost my faith very young. I now regard my afterlife as he next big adventure. Us, and everything around us, were birthed from the death of a dying star. A supernova. We are are made of matter. Matter is energy, which can't be created or destroyed, only released and recycled back into the universe. Just like our mother star, which imploded upon herself and released the building blocks of everything we know into the universe.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! Love that, thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this Gryphen!
ReplyDelete