Aren’t those two little girls we just welcomed into our community beautiful babies? They were in my mind as I thought about today’s sermon. I wondered what kind of schools they would attend in just five short years.
Would teachers still be allowed to teach about the world using the scientific method? Or would their knowledge of the world be limited to the interpretation of a certain type of faith?
Would they be encouraged to develop their minds to their fullest extent? Or would they be limited to exploring the world as presented in ancient texts that explained our world according to faith traditions already centuries old when written?
Is there a story we can share with Tatiana and Weslee and all children that supports science and yet acknowledges the awesomeness of the cosmos?
When I scheduled this topic I did not know that the UU World was exploring these questions. Nor did I know that their answers would appear in my mailbox just two days before this Sunday. I will be drawing upon their wisdom for this sermon.
I encourage you to read the story “Welcome to the Ecozoic Era” in our current issue of the UU World.
At about the time that our founders brought forth upon this continent a new nation, the theory of the Clockmaker God was prevalent. Many founders embraced this view, called Deism. It was new, modern, and reflected the industrial expansion of Western Europe as well as Enlightenment philosophy.
Deism is essentially the view that God exists, but that He is not directly involved in the world. Deism pictures God as the great “clockmaker” who created the clock, wound it up, and let it go. A deist believes that God exists and created the world, but does not interfere with His creation. Deists deny the Trinity, the inspiration of the Bible, the deity of Christ, miracles, and any supernatural act of redemption or salvation. Deism pictures God as ambivalent, uncaring, and uninvolved. (From the website, GotQuestions.org.)
When I was a child, Deism was a liberal interpretation of Christianity that made sense to a lot of educated people. The idea of a “Clockmaker God” permeated the air of my General Science and Biology classes. That is, except for my introductory algebra class. Taught by a Southern Baptist part-time minister, our algebra assignment for every weekend was to attend church or Sunday School.
Mr. Smith did not specify which church, but we were supposed to bring back the forms he sent home each weekend. They attested that we had indeed attended church, and our parents were required to sign them. My mother, she who in-sisted that we go to both church and Sunday School unless we were reeeeaaal-llly sick, protested that “He’s not supposed to do that!” “Noooowwww, Rene”, my father replied. “It’s no use raising a fuss.” So I filled out the forms and my parents signed them.
I think that my Southern Baptist algebra teacher/minister believed in a Creator God, not a Clockmaker God. We don’t hear much about him—the clockmaker—any more. People either embrace a Creator God or Darwin. Like many other subjects, there seems little ground between the two extremes.
“Welcome to the Ecozoic Era”, in the current issue of the UU World, presents a story that explores that middle ground. It is a story that honors the outstanding scientific discoveries of the last few centuries. However, it is also a story that celebrates the beauty of the earth and the overwhelming awesomeness of the ever-expanding cosmos. It was crafted by physicists, astrophysicists, biologists and poets. It is called, “The Great Story.” The Great Story begins at the instant of the Big Bang. It traces the tale of great clouds of gases that form into flaming stars. It tells of chunks of matter thrown from the stars that form into planets.
It tells of one specific blue and white planet on which life rose from the oceans to walk upon the land. Life took many forms, some were discarded but others evolved into more and more complex forms. Fins and scales enabled fishes to survive in the water. Fur kept animals warm on the land. Feathers and wings allowed birds to fly through the air. The brains of some mammals grew to develop language. And then, as “British biologist Julian Huxley put it, ‘We (humans) are the universe becoming conscious of itself.’” (“Welcome to the Ecozoic Era,” UU World, Spring, 2006, p. 28.)
However, instead of merely reporting how the cosmos came to be, The Great Story reflects on its overwhelming immensity, on its tremendous variety, on its awe-inspiring splendor. And it explores what its meaning might be for humans—we who are the consciousness of the cosmos.
Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow are Unitarian Universalists who gave up their professions and possessions to travel the United States in a RV and teach the Great Story. They suggest that instead of the metaphor of the Clockmaker God, we consider a new metaphor. “A better metaphor for the universe, they say, is a set of Russian nesting dolls, made up of levels of what they call nested creativity; subatomic particles within atoms, within molecules, within cells, within organisms and so forth. Each level is uniquely creative, that is has the power to bring something new into existence.
Stars create atoms; atoms create substances like the oxygen we breathe; human cultures create art, religions, and technology. The largest nesting doll is God—or Allah, Adonai, Source of Life, Ultimate Reality, Nature, the Universe, whatever name describes the divine whole for you, the ultimate creative reality that in-cludes and transcends all other levels of reality. God is not outside of creation, God is an integral part of it—in fact, is it.” (Ibid.)
We humans are within this creative whole. We are part of the divine creativity, and contribute to it. We are not separated from the rest of creation. The atoms of our bodies are stardust, eternal stardust. And we have the knowledge and power to shape the continuing evolution of life on this planet, as well as the power and knowledge to bring death to all that we cherish.
This is a story with power to move our hearts, and it does not require us to check our brains at the door. It is a story that can be embraced by theists and human-ists, pagans and mystics. It avoids the either/or conflict set up by our conflicted society. Evolution and Charles Darwin can co-exist with the Divine, however you image it.
Our faith has always emphasized the power of reason in determining the truths by which we live. We liberal religionists are unafraid to embrace the facts un-covered by the use of the scientific method. We know that we cannot jettison science and evolution, if we wish to retain the best in our civilization.
However, we also recognize wonder when we see it. A starlit sky and the open horizon of Lake Michigan move our hearts. Each photograph of outer space shows us that it is indeed “queerer than we thought, indeed queerer than we can imagine,” as the astrophysicist said. While the world of the unimaginably big evokes awe, the world of the unimaginably small is proving to be as complex, as awe-inspiring and challenging to our minds. It too, fills us with wonder, and we are called to praise the wonder of the universe.
We know about these wonders because we have learned about the nature of the universe through the scientific method. This method posits a theory that rests on logic. The theory is tested rigorously. It is considered true, until and unless it is disproved. Our scientific knowledge is based on a few master theories. One of them is the theory of evolution. Through years of testing, it has never been dis-proved. In fact, more and more evidence supports its basic premise. This is science.
The Great Story is a philosophical story. So is Creationism. So is Intelligent Design. Philosophy explores questions of meaning. Science explores questions of fact. Philosophy does not belong in a science classroom, or vice versa.
It appears that some legislators in Michigan may try to mix the two. It appears that they wish to use the scarce resources of the state to try to disprove the theory of evolution as well as global warming. They want high school students to take up this project. House Bill 5606, introduced by State Rep. Brian Palmer would set up such a statewide curriculum.
I believe this to be a waste of critical resources. In a time of scarce money, I resent using the children of our state to make political points. When schools are cutting programs in an attempt to balance budgets, forcing them to teach one faith’s viewpoint at the expense of others is not only unconstitutional but bad eco-nomics. I believe it to be unnecessary and counter-productive. If you are inter-ested in the future of education in this state you might want to look at this bill, and explore what it means. One place to start is a recent editorial in the Muskegon Chronicle.
I have no small children. Even my grandchildren are mostly grown. However, when I see Tatiana and Weslee, I wonder what kind of schooling they will re-ceive. When I see the older children in our program, I hope that they have well-trained teachers in a school that teaches facts instead of wishful thinking. I hope that you do too. The education of our children shapes the future of our com-munity.
I hope they are taught science in science classrooms and philosophy in philoso-phy classrooms. If the philosophy classrooms include teaching on the meaning of how the universe functions and humanity’s place within it, I hope The Great Story is part of the curriculum.
I don’t demand it be the only thing taught for there are other philosophies in which people find meaning. However, I hope it is there, for it is our story. It resonates in many ways with our history and our faith. It contains reason and feeling, science and mysticism.
Victoria Safford paints a beautiful picture of the universe and the “blue-green world so beautiful that learned clergymen could not even speak of it cogently, and brilliant scientists, with their physics, their mathematics, their empirical impressionistic musing, in trying to describe it would begin to sound like poets.”
She lifts up the beautiful presence of red-winged blackbirds and whales and cro-cuses. She speaks of wind and Mt. Everest and coyotes. And she concludes by asking those of us with imagination and minds and minds’ eyes how we respond. “What song would come out your mouth, what prayer, what praises, what rever-ential gesture would you make to greet that world, every single day that you were in it?”
We are called to praise the wonders of the universe. We are called to tell The Great Story. We are called to praise the wonders of the universe. How will you respond?
Shalom and Saalat. Blessed Be and Amen.