Stephen,
That's a great poem to make a point with, but I'm curious as to why one side
or the other gets to claim its point. I draw another conclusion from
Whitman's words - that despite how much we know about our universe it is
still awe inspiring.
Thus is born the feelings of religion - awe, wonder, desire for a certain
connectivity with it all.
We've been to the moon, taken pictures, brought back souvenirs, and might go
back, but it is still a huge rock following our planet through the void and
we have no idea exactly where it came from. That's freaking cool! I love
it. I love that we haven't figured that one out.
Just because we know how a movie is made doesn't mean we won't go watch
them. There is still that early man in all of us that allows us to still
look at our world and go, "wow." Blame it all on God or physics or a flying
Spaghetti Monster, we are surrounded by an incredible environment.
Enjoy it,
Christopher
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Stephen Nowlin
Sent: Friday, July 01, 2005 8:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: For those interested in evolution AND Intelligent Design . . .
On 7/1/05 3:48 PM, Rebecca M. Trussell's electrons arrived as:
> My appreciation of science's unfoldings is reflected in my
> spiritual awakenings and requires no further explanation.
There's a wonderfully apropos Whitman poem, with which all of you are no
doubt familiar...
WHEN I heard the learnıd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure
them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause
in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wanderıd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Lookıd up in perfect silence at the stars.
Walt Whitman (18191892)
Who gets to claim this poem for their own world view -- believers or
atheists? Since most people on the planet are believers in one supernatural
notion or another, I'll put words in their mouths and guess that they might
interpret the poem as elevating spirituality over materialism as a path to
truth -- confirming the ability to "simply know" something deep and timeless
about reality, something profound and permanent beyond the threshold of
those dry facts, figures, and data that are subject to all sorts of foibles.
Since I am a naturalist (philosophically anyway -- as opposed to being a
supernaturalist) and, I guess, by default therefore an atheist or at least
agnostic, it may seem surprising to some that my reaction to the poem would
be almost exactly the same. I think that science does not do a very good
job -- or does a terrible job -- of translating its findings into terms that
resonate on the level of human emotion. That is largely a task scientists
delegate to the less (in their minds) serious activities of "outreach." (A
job for museums!) But it is where they should put effort, because it is
there that they can capture the understanding and passion of a broad public
audience. And, it is where a simple but perhaps startling fact is best
revealed -- that one does not need to "believe" in anything beyond the
natural world to be filled with the weightless euphoria of spirituality --
spirituality in all its fullness, yet secular and in search of no gods to
span the gaps.
Oh, and by the way, that's exactly what the activists of Intelligent Design
fear the most -- a spreading secularization (democratization) of
spirituality.
_____________________________________
S t e p h e n N o w l i n
http://xrl.us/stephennowlin
Vice President,Director,
Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
Art Center College of Design
1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, CA 91103
626.396.2397
[log in to unmask]
http://www.williamsongallery.net
http://www.artandscience.us
http://www.pasadena-culture.net
_____________________________________
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