Einstein's God
By Krista Tippett
This book is immensely interesting, informative and thought provoking. The writer calls it Einstein's God even though, besides an interview with two scientists on Einstein, Krista Tippett includes a number of interviews with other renowned people connected with science, medicine, theology and literature. In her own words, "the book is a conversational introduction to an interplay between scientific and religious questions."
Tippett interviewed Freeman Dyson, a theoretical physicist, about Einstein's thoughts on God. Dyson said, "Einstein did not believe in a personal God. He did believe in nature as some sort of universal spirit or some kind of universal mind . Einstein understood science and religion to be separate realms, but joined by kindred impulses . the human sense of mystery."
In an address at a conference in 1941, Einstein concluded: "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." Further, he wrote in a letter in 1927: "I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals." He also wrote: 'A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude; in this sense, and in this sense alone, I am truly religious man.' Krista Tippett then interviews Sherwin Nuland, a surgeon and author. He has been through deep clinical depression, and attributes his religious belief of punishment of some kind to it. Nuland has turned his attention to the infinite variety of processes that maintain human life, and finds the source of his greatest wonder within the body. He holds that over time human beings, alone among living creatures, have become aware of the cost of decay in the world, and of their own mortality. "In response", he writes, "our brains developed a capacity for spirit, for seeking lives of integrity and equanimity and moral order." The human brain evaluates what is best, not only for just survival and reproduction but beauty, an aesthetic sense. In spite of the havoc in the world Nuland finds life endowed with a transcendent quality. He also believes that "there isn't a reason in the world that the religions have to explain their faith on a scientific basis. What is needed between science and religion is not a debate but a conversation."
Dr Mehmet Oz, a well-respected, dynamic doctor who takes medicine and treatment to new spiritual as well as technological heights, tells Tippett in an interview that by introducing meditation, prayer, acupuncture, yoga, massage etc into the operating theatre and recovery room, he has taken down some of the barriers that existed before. "I see integrative medicine as a mutually enriching encounter of the best practices from Western and Eastern cultures," Oz states. The aim is not just the absence of illness but the
wellness of health. Healing has always involved more than what science alone can address. When patients do not feel better after exhausting the last medical therapy available, a doctor has to look elsewhere in other areas like spirituality and alternative therapies. His job is to heal.
Krista Tippett interviewed James Moore, Darwin's biographer, and discussed with him whether in the observation of the natural world, Darwin found a rejection of God and of creation. "The people of Darwin's time believed that every condition of plant, animal and man was static, brought into being all at once at the beginning of time," Moore explains. Darwin, by contrast, saw creation as an unfolding reality. "Once set in motion - the laws of nature sustained a self-organizing progression driven by the needs and struggles of every aspect of creation itself." Darwin was once asked what it was that impressed him most about his trip to South America. His response: He had seen the power of life in the rain forests of Brazil, and also the decay and death in Tierra del Fuego - '"both temples filled with the productions of the God of nature. No one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body."
John Polkinghorne, a physicist and Anglican priest, told Krista Tippet, "scientific research gives a sense of wonder when the beautiful structure of the world is observed. If the world were clock-work, then . you'd have to hope that God designed the clock-work and wound it up in such a way that things wouldn't turn up too badly.. at the sub-atomic level, quantum events are not precise." He believes in prayer and God, and thinks that God allows creatures to be themselves. Human beings have a destiny beyond death. "The real me is certainly not just a matter of my body, because that's changing all the time."
Krista Tippett's book of interviews shows that a conversation between theology and science is now afoot - that even those scientists most wedded to hard truths find spiritual enlightenment in the life of experiment and, in turn, raise questions that are richly theologically evocative.
Find this work in the non-fiction area of the Bob Harkins Branch.
- Reviewed by Bal Sethi, trustee for the Prince George Public Library Board
A History Of Violence
By John Wagner and Vince Locke
It's not as good as the book, goes the familiar refrain when seeing a movie based on characters and stories that started life on the page.
Still, there's lots of examples where that's simply not the case. I'd argue that the Harry Potter movies and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings are as good as and possibly better than their source material. Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club was a fantastic debut novel that David Fincher somehow improved with a sharp cast and the nerve to make the ending even bleaker and grittier than the book.
And then there are the movies that are much better than the book and there are a handful of examples of those. With apologies to Mario Puzo and Thomas Harris, the film adaptations of The Godfather and The Silence of the Lambs were far stronger and more nuanced than their books were. Same goes for A History of Violence, the John Wagner and Vince Locke graphic novel later turned into one of the finest movies of the last 10 years, with David Cronenberg making the best film of his career, starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris and William Hurt.
The black-and-white comic art of Vince Locke is thick and brooding, its lines heavy and coarse, particularly around the action scenes.
Unfortunately, they don't make up for John Wagner's story, particularly the dialogue, which is weak, stereotypical and filled with way too many clichs.
The premise is sound, which is why it still made such a great movie - what happens when the mild-mannered owner of a small town coffee shop is forced to kill two murderous robbers in self-defence, revealing to the world his talent for violence and unveiling his hiding place to the men whose lifestyle he so desperately hoped to escape from?
In Wagner's hands, Tom and his family are two-dimensional cutouts. Tom is the caring husband, his wife supportive, his son devoted, even when they discover Tom's secret past. Wagner spends the entire middle part of the graphic novel in a detailed retelling of the events that led to Tom's violent background.
Cronenberg keeps the story in the present, refusing to dwell too much on how Tom became violent, but focusing on Tom's constant efforts at redemption, particularly when it appears his son has the same talent for effective, deadly violence, even in self-defence. The relationship between Tom and his wife Edie is much more complicated, sexual and ultimately satisfying. Edie feels betrayed by Tom but her anger and hurt is mixed in with confusion. She still loves the decent and devoted man she married but she also finds herself attracted to the protective and passionate warrior he had buried for so long.
The comic ends as definitively as the movie does not. The look on Viggo Mortensen's face in the final second before the abrupt cut to black suggests hope but only after a protracted penance to earn his family's trust and acceptance, something he will do as willingly as kill any man who would threaten him or the ones he loves.
A History of Violence by John Wagner and Vince Locke is in the graphic novel section on the second floor of the Bob Harkins Branch; the film adaptation of A History of Violence can be found in the DVD section at the Prince George Public Library.
- reviewed by Neil Godbout, Administrative Communications Coordinator at the
Prince George Public Library
