A couple weeks ago, I attended the funeral of my dear friend and occasional writing partner Donna Royston. I knew Donna from the Hourlings writing group, which meets weekly, Sunday mornings online and at the Barnes & Noble in Ashburn. It was a lovely service in the Church in Winchester, VA. Needless to say, the service inspired me, and has brought me to love Jesus.
I feel that accepting Jesus, as my mother did in her final years (I was raised Jewish), is the path the Lord has set me upon and I embrace it as what I need right now in my life. That said, I will still run the science book club, still not say under God during the Pledge of Allegiance because I see my beliefs as personal and support the separation of Church and State, as spelled out in the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
Of course, I was fortunate to have a very dear and very close and dear friend, Krystyna, tell me all about her congregation, The Antioch Church. Because she’s in Woodbridge, I’ve started attending the services of Pastor Ray, who has his own Podcast. I thoroughly enjoyed Pastor Ray’s service and feel I’ve made friends with my fellow parishioners and may even start carpooling on Sundays to attend his services.
The only issue is Church is at the same time as The Hourlings. But I have faith that when the Hourlings is without topic, Pastor Ray’s sermons will fill my heart. May whatever faith you believe fill yours.
In any case, Leonard Mlodinow‘s book was more of a personal journey rather than a hard science book. Which is to say, it does have a history of scientific discovery and a brief story of human evolution, but none of the details were particulary new to me and so, for the most part, I read it for the assides with his father and how he related his personal journey of discovery to his conversations with his father.
After all, how many stories have I read describing Evolution? Of course, humanity advanced to where we are through our inquisitive nature. However, I was unfamiliar with Göbekli Tepe temple and that story that started us on the journey to urban life was interesting. I was bothered by Mlodinow’s assumption that Chinese and Mayan scripts being derived from cuneiform. I don’t know why he could assume that writing developed independently, which seems to be the case for these scripts.
From there we investigate the Greek golden age of discovery and early science. It’s always interesting how the ancients were sometimes kind of correct, often very wrong, and sometimes on the right path. Then, we have the fascinating story of the 150 years that overthrew that millennium old superstition from Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton.
I was fascinated how Antoine Lavoisier was actually quite charitable yet lost his head to La Terreur. Then, to add insult to injury, when, in the turn of the Twentieth Century they erected a statue to him with the wrong head. Also fascinating was how despite his near perfect predictions Dmitri Mendeleev, with, among others, the exception of Praseodymium and Neodymium being lumped into Didymium as an element. The main reason for these errors was that Mendeleev sorted by Atomic Weight, not Atomic Number.
However, the most touching part of the book is when Mlodinow discusses the last days of his dear father. The fact that he dedicated the book to him was very endearing, and all the stories in Poland were touching and very enjoyable. Even more for his father’s experience as a Jew under the Nazis.
The Upright Thinkers: The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos
Overall, not a terrible book, if a bit unoriginal. Next up, The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization. Until we meet again my fellow sapiosexuals! Shalom!
