Einstein’s God
By Krista Tippett
Setting the scene:
At any cocktail party where the subject of
science-v-religion comes up, it starts from the premise that there actually is
a rivalry. No doubt in the 20th
century, backed by our public schools, cemented in the Supreme Court cases highlighted
in 1948 McCollum-v- Board of Education ruling, science prevailed. The
collective conscious of our modern generations leans heavily towards
science. Come the year of our lord 2000
the scales tilts back. Was that argument
really about funding? Lost is the mere
fact that the premier scientists over time never meant for this schism to
exist. Specifically, Darwin!!!
In 2020 the year of the great pandemic in a politically
charged society, one is rebuked for not listening to the voice of science. A voice that zooms in on the species called
CoV-2 whose sole desire is to survive on this earth. Sounds like Darwin??? But then where is the legal argument for the Covid
species to live???? There is a fittest
species is there not? Consensus at that
party holds that science prevails until an illuminated chap quips anecdotally
its God’s will to be culling the herd.
“let old people die as 95% of medical is spent in the last five years of
life;” as he/they all sip their beverage and laugh it off behind their
masks.
If there is any wisdom in the Old Testament, it’s not hard
to find a history of ‘plagues’ that brings a society to a higher level of religious
consciousness in fear of death. Plagues
that mysteriously ran their course evolved to plagues resolved through the
intervention of man’s science; the will to turn and fight the intruder on our
species. This is my introduction to
Krista Tippett’s book Einstein’s God.
The book itself:
Tippett argues contrary to casual dinner party banter,
science and God sit together on the throne of the mind our great scientists and
philosophers. Her book provides ten
chapters, poetically akin to ten commandments, illustrates through interviews
with prolific gatekeepers of science the harmony with religion present in their
work. While the scientists’ pursuit was
a phenomenon of nature, explained through math and logic to a conclusion, their
‘Will’ came from faith in the unknown. Today
let’s call it the universe as an agreed upon proxy for God. What was not known on the embarkment of their
quest was the answer. Faith nourished
them in their quest. Faith and hope,
hallmarks of religion, stand in the dark periphery leaving their breakthroughs
in the light. Oddly enough a dynamic where
science being the louder voice that causes religion to be undervalued to the
extent that today’s Western world seeks to ban it from State run schools.
Let’s take a closer look at the landmarks of Tippett’s book,
her overarching themes and how they tie together. It starts with the title and her recognition
of Einstein’s reverence for the beauty of nature and thought. Who would band Nature and Thought one train
of thought… Tippett. In this modern
world where thought is a feature of the data processing brain, who would look
in to the biology of spirit of the nether world….Tippett. Who in today’s world would tie the brains
thinking to the heart as Tippet does in her discourse Mehmet Oz. I could tease you through the book but that
would be a dis-service to all her work.
So I’ll take a moment in her chapter on Darwin.
It seems Darwin’s survival of the fittest and his Origin of
Species planted in the minds of legislators and educators…but rather men endeavor
the endless progress or proficiency in both leaves todays populist voice
trampling over not only religion but Darwin as well. Tippett takes the reader down a different
path in thinking…one that may on the surface be logical but comes from the
heart of Darwin’s being. At its core Darwin writes:
“let no
man think or maintain that a man can search too far or be too well studied in
the book of God’s word, …but rather let men progress or proficience in both”. Darwin is humbled by the laws of nature. Darwin did not challenge the idea of God as
the source of all being. But he did
reject the idea of a God minutely implicated in every flaw, injustice, or
catastrophe.
My views:
On the heals of what is written above, I will ally with Tippett.
Her book is spot on in drawing out the true Darwin. Making my/our case, I bring East of Eden, by John Steinbeck.
It was very popular in the same generation as McCollum-v- Board of
Education. Why? From that book was a theme that comes from
the Jewish faith Timshel… Thou Mayest.
God gave one species the ability of complex thought and more importantly
the ability to CHOOSE! Tippett’s book
illuminates the voice of scientist, who rely on faith in that very point. Her book will cause you to take a second and
deeper look at your own thinking. Read
it.
