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Keith, a remarkable piece of thought and writing. As usual, I
disagree with some of it, but on the whole it is moving and thought
provoking. The following sentences
"Something that many fundamentalist religionists will find difficult, if
not impossible, to understand -- never mind agree with -- is that some areas
of science such as astronomy, genetics and quantum physics are the only
adequate source these days of the most profound sense of religious wonder and
awe that we are capable of feeling. The fundamentalist religions can only
touch on the edge of this."
made me think of something Timothy Ferris, the noted science
writer, wrote in summing up a book:
"... in a creative universe God
would betray no trace of his presence, since to do so would be to rob the
creative forces of their independence, to turn them from the active pursuit of
answers to mere supplication of God. And so it is: God’s language is silence.
The Old Testament suggests that God fell silent in response to the request of
the terrified believers who said to Moses, "Speak thou with us, and we will
hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." Whatever the reason, God
ceases speaking with the book of Job, and soon stops intervening in human
affairs generally, leading Gideon to ask, "If the Lord be with us, why then .
. . where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of?" The author of the
Twenty-second Psalm cries ruefully, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me?"
Whether he left or was ever here I do not
know, and don’t believe we ever shall know. But one can learn to live with
ambiguity — that much is requisite to the seeking spirit — and with the
silence of the stars. All who genuinely seek to learn, whether atheist or
believer, scientist or mystic, are united in having not a faith but faith
itself. Its token is reverence, its habit to respect the eloquence of silence.
For God’s hand may be a human hand, if you reach out in loving kindness, and
God’s voice your voice, if you but speak the truth. " (Timothy Ferris, The
Whole Shebang, Simon & Schuster, 1997, p.312)
Ed Weick
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