letters

UU World: The Magazine of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Summer 2006

THE GREAT STORY

Thank you for the beautiful cover and Amy Hassinger's article about the exciting work of Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd ("Welcome to the Ecozoic Era," Spring 2006). Spreading the "great story" involving both science and religion is especially important just now, when creationism/intelligent design proponents are challenging the teaching of evolution in our public schools.

Readers may like to know that a new organization, Unitarian Universalist Religious Naturalists, is being formed to bring together all who resonate with Barlow and Dowd's message. To learn more, write to Jgoodbrook@aol.com.

JOAN GOODWIN

Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts

"Welcome to the Ecozoic Era" referred to Julian Huxley's book Religion Without Revelation as an inspiration for Connie Barlow. Well and good, but I couldn't help wondering how her husband reconciles the contradiction of being led to science by two revelatory religious experiences. Huxley, as I read him, seemed to be calling for a new humanism that rejected the irrational aspects of religion. Your story illustrates the difficulty of such an undertaking; more than seventy-five years after Huxley wrote his book, for many people, revelation is still a source of inspiration.

SHEILA CARMODY

Lake Mills, Wisconsin

Hassinger asserts that Barlow and Dowd appealed to her because they supplant the "cold-hearted vision of the universe" implied by scientific accounts of evolution with a hopeful, utopian vision. But happier stories from either left- or right-leaning religions do not help science. They ignore and discount the suffering entailed in natural processes like evolution. They also undermine the moral lessons we might learn from the bleaker aspects of our history. If natural processes are positive agents, we are relieved of some responsibility for our fate. If nature places no particular value on human life or the good, we must choose to help one another.

LORNA WOOD

Auburn, Alabama

I applaud the effort to reconcile science and religion, and I agree that we need to change the way we see ourselves and our place in the universe. But a new creation myth, no matter how scientifically accurate, is not the answer. Do we really believe that embracing a new story will bring about a more peaceful, caring world? When are we going to stop trying to intellectualize our spirituality? When are we going to stop looking outside ourselves for understanding, meaning, and the way to a better world?

HAL SCHNEE

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

The Transcendentalists believed that humankind is the measure of all things. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The power which resides in [man] is new in nature. . . We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents" ("Self-Reliance").Yes-in fact, we were so ashamed of it that we threw it out altogether. We insisted that we are not divine. We are merely a part of nature, no better than the other animals, in some ways worse.

Emerson may or may not have been right about the divine idea. We can't know that. But we do need to give ourselves credit for accomplishing something truly remarkable on this planet. For too long we've disparaged ourselves as the naked ape. We need to re-read Emerson. He said it all.

LOIS WELLS SANTALO

El Cajon, California

How one wishes that science and religion could indeed "stand together" as equals and partners in the perennial quest for human knowledge and understanding! However, regarding the most profound questions of existence, scientific truths have been elevated above religious ones. Science, by its own standards, can offer no verdict concerning such questions. It may brilliantly analyze the nature of matter, but must remain silent on what really matters: life's origin, purpose, and meaning.

THE REV. ROSEMARIE CARNARIUS

Tucson, Arizona

My mother often said that there had to be some great intelligence, like God, to create such a complex and beautiful universe-her own pre-intelligent design theory. She admired Albert Einstein for his awe at the universe's wonders despite his rigorous scientific mind. Naturally, her ideas influenced me; I thought this was the way to reconcile the seeming opposites of science and religion. Now perhaps, with a new way to tell the ever-unfolding story housed in our cells, we can evolve toward a more unified world spirit.

CAROL CAQUETTE

Stillwater, Minnesota

I was disappointed in the cover art on the Spring 2006 ("The Wonder of Evolution") issue of UU World. Why depict a lone human-the very species on the planet that seems bent on destroying it? Why not a depiction of the various and amazing plant and animal species (including humans) that have evolved over millions of years? Indeed, a montage of "this wonderfule life," as Darwin put it, would have had more impact and meaning.

LYNN DEMUTH

Chandler, Arizona

Biologists have not found a benign director of evolution other than chance or natural selection. The fact that the universe was not made for humans and is totally indifferent to their fate is hard for people to accept. I glory in it. When I go out in the woods and hear mostly silence I know I soon will be gone except in the memories of a few people who will also be gone. This is my source of wonder. How a small individual in one species of animal could have evolved even so limited an appreciation of existence.