Chet Raymo’s Science Musings column appeared weekly in the Boston Globe for 20 years, with meditations on science as a creative activity and celebration of the mystery and grandeur of the natural world. Postings continued online until 2015, and an archive with...
Much as entering a church or temple prompts attention to the divine, encounters with nature can shift focus from daily life. As they offer lessons and reminders and affect our focus and mood, encounters with nature can be parts of a personal sense of something...
“How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are...
Despite major advances in science and all efforts to understand, much remains unknown, and some things may never be known. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why are natural laws as they are? How do thoughts and feelings come from neurons in our brains? It...
…… Some people fear that, without belief in God, there is no basis for values, no source of moral guidance, and no incentive for ethical behavior. Based on this, they may be suspicious of non-believers. One way of responding is to look at results. Naturalists...
“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever.This is a somewhat new kind of religion.”Albert Einstein As is contained in its name, religious naturalism has two central aspects. One is a naturalist view of how things happen in the world – in which the natural world is all...
