Tuesday, November 23, 2004

The Ultimate

In our History Book Club mailing today is an ad for The God Gene, the new book purporting to identify genetic reasons for spiritual belief. (I say purportedly not because I find the premise troubling--why wouldn't God design to believe in him?--but because I doubt it is yet entirely proved.)

What I did find troubling, however, was the quote from Publishers Weekly in the ad: "This gracefully written book may intrigue people of all faiths--or no faith--who wonder about the ultimate connection between science and religion." This quote implies that the ultimate connection between science and religion exists in our heads. No doubt science and religion connect and intertwine at many points in the universe of reality, but the ultimate connection between the two is most definitely not in our heads.

The ultimate connection between science and religion is in the place of ultimate reality. And if that place is in my head, then neither science nor religion are more important than my preference for Peanut Butter M&M's. But if the place of ultimate reality is in the mind of God, then we have hope that both science and religion--and our lives--have meaning.

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