Under Six Eyes

J Valenza Robert

Description

A mind drawn to and trained in mathematics and science meets a mind drawn to and trained in religion. Both are fascinated by the other''s worldview and see the chance for a reciprocal expansion. A long conversation takes place with relentless questions exchanged--not to win an argument, but rather to find the truth. In this exploratory dialogue, scores of great images and ideas are brought to bear from both the scientific and religious worldviews, adding depth and color to a conversation that is as organic as it is profound. New ideas and new convictions arise, and where there cannot be resolution, there is at least clarity. This is a living dialogue between Rev. James A. Pike and Prof. Robert J. Valenza on the presence of God in a world that for the last century has seemed to need Him less and less. Or is it more and more? Readers who care about the world are invited to listen, to learn, and then to ask their own questions.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528987196
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Under Six Eyes
A Dialogue on God in the World
James A. Pike and Robert J. Valenza
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-10-30
Under Six Eyes About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgement Preface Chapter One The Pragmatics of Religion: Orthodoxy and Self-Expression Chapter Two The Art of Science: Beyond the Measuring of Experiences Chapter Three Why Is God Silent? Chapter Four Freud Chapter Five The Reluctant Divinity of Science Chapter Six Theodicy Chapter Seven The Veil of Heaven: Visions of Eternal Life Chapter Eight God and Beauty: Artistic Creation and Artistic Truth Chapter Nine Theism, Naturalism and Romanticism Chapter Ten Circling Back: “I Believe…” Supplementary Material Further Thoughts and Further Readings Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten
About the Author
Rev. James Pike is pastor of Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Huntington Beach, California. He received his M.Div. from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. He also works with non-profits helping victims of violence and those with developmental disabilities. For over a decade he performed live sketch, improv and stand-up comedy in Los Angeles.
Prof. Robert J. Valenza is the Dengler-Dykema Professor of Mathematics and the Humanities at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. He received his doctorate in mathematics from Columbia University and has published works in pure and applied mathematics, stylometry and philosophy (including metaphysics, aesthetics and the philosophy of science).
Dedication
For my wife and children
For Brenda
Copyright Information ©
James A. Pike and Robert J. Valenza (2020)
The right of James A. Pike and Robert J. Valenza to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Austin Macauley is committed to publishing works of quality and integrity. In this spirit, we are proud to offer this book to our readers; however, the story, the experiences, and the words are the author’s alone.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528987165 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528987172 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528987196 (ePub e-book)
ISBN 9781528987189 (Audiobook)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
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Acknowledgement
We thank the editorial team at Austin Macauley, without whom this book would not have been published. Many thanks, also, to the entire production staff for their sterling work.
We are especially grateful to Brenda DeFazio (Rob’s wife) for her two patient proofreadings and many stylistic suggestions. Her part in shaping and grooming our manuscript was valuable beyond measure.
Preface
The two friends sat on a rectangular and slightly cushioned bench, looking through a thick glass window as robotic processes silently performed their work in the mass production of microchips. Less than a minute ago, the room had been crowded; there had been a dozen or so people on a tour of this gleaming yet austere facility. Then the tour leader led the way out of the observation room. The two looked at each other, and a nearly imperceptible smile met a nearly imperceptible twinkling of an eye. The room emptied, except for them, and as the door closed, they had detached themselves from the tour in a miniature act of industrial disobedience.
One of the two had been worried about the cold temperatures that such a factory was likely to maintain, but this concern was only made clear from the waist up: he wore shorts, running shoes and a thick fleece top over a t-shirt. The fleece top was blue with the embroidered logo of a famous European nuclear research lab. The other suffered from no such dissociative thermal disorder and sat comfortably, wearing black slacks, black shoes and a lavender shirt open at the neck. He had never given a thought to the internal climate conditions.
The man in the blue fleece turned slightly towards his friend, diverting his gaze just a notch from the hypnotic activity of the robots at work. “Look at this,” he said. “Here, some of the most complex engineering designs in the history of the world are manufactured by the products of equally complex designs. Their literally incomprehensible intricacy in turn allows them to function in ways that would have been nothing less than magic about a century ago. All this black and white and gray precision is the result of technological advances in consequence of scientific developments all made by human beings. I could say many things about science, but at this moment, all I want to say is that this science does not allow God into its explanations. And yet here we are, watching the impossible. So, where is God, and who needs Him?”
His friend in lavender gave the slightest of frowns but said nothing. His eyes remained, as always, peaceful and optimistic.
Some months later, these same two friends spent several hours in a small, but well-funded art museum, one that housed several works that had been reproduced in well-respected art history texts throughout the world. Later, they rested from the artwork on a rough wooden bench in the middle of a garden that was entirely consonant with the artistic lushness of the museum’s various galleries. Delicately textured flowers in lemon yellow, speckled pinks and the vermillion of a soft evening grew among glossy leaves, both silver and muted greens; seemingly handpainted birds contended with small furry creatures for territory; insects hung, veered and darted in air that seemed itself to share the radiance of life. The partial shade from the overarching trees left the impression that these living things were illuminated from within, and both men inhaled this intoxicating sense with every breath.
The lavender man began to speak but did not shift his gaze in the slightest from the garden. (Much to the delight of the narrator, he had chosen the same shirt for the second outing.) “Look at this,” he said. “I might remark on the scientific complexity of the scene, but all I want to say is that to see all this, as well as to appreciate and be moved by it, is to see meaning made real. Does it make sense, then, to deny this meaning in the world, works and lives of humankind and to proclaim that all of this is for nothing? That there is no all-pervasive maker of meaning?” He gestured grandly as if to include the entire world. “And yet here we are, watching and feeling this story unfold in every petal, leaf and wing. So, how could you possibly fail to find God in this place? How could you not need Him to make sense of it all?”

While these six preceding paragraphs are the cloth of fiction and neither of us is Lavender or Blue, this exchange presages everything we are trying to do in this book and how we are trying to do it. We are James, a Lutheran pastor, and Rob, a professor of mathematics and humanities, and we have vastly different backgrounds in education and experience. Yet, with these differences, we each have a sufficient overlap in the goals and interests of the other—and even more importantly, a presumption of good faith in seeking the truth —that we have undertaken here the task of transforming this collision of worldviews, as seen in our polarised and fictionalised lavender and blue selves, into something that would be much more aptly described as a process of cross-fertilisation.
As in this opening story fragment, we believe that far more is to be gained by non-specialist readers by approaching the project as an extended conversation rather than an academic exposition, and so we have chosen a dialogic format. Moreover, it is real: these conversations are organic and spontaneous with only a minimum of editing for clarity. Anyone who has read both Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility might be asked from which book she or he learned more. We suspect that Austen’s ethical challenges played out on the ground of human events are generally far more compelling than Aristotle’s Jovian dispensations of wisdom, even though both of these geniuses often reached the same conclusion. Not far from this question, we could ask about the relative effectiveness of Plato’s dialectics versus Aristotle’s didactics, and for those who see more engagement in the former, we will make a good fit. Speaking most broadly, this book explains the characteristics of the respective scientific and theological worldviews and allows them to question and speak to each other. To the extent that this implies conflict, we stress that it is a purely intellectual one that never bleeds into animosity. Each speaker lays out a personal perspective on the tenets of these worldviews and then, chapter by chapter, we work through the real or alleged inconsistencies. In some cases, we reach a reconciliation based on a new understanding of the problems of secular and religious thought. In other cases, we may only reach a point of clarity in the more profound conflicts that underlie the obvious inconsistencies appearing nearer to the surface. The conclusion of the work addresses what each of us believes at the end of the conversation, what he has learned and possibly how he has changed or sharpened his beliefs.
Our title phrase, Under Six Eyes , has been taken from the German idiom, unter vier Augen (literally, under four eyes), which expresses the idea of two persons speaking in private. That