twilight of the Clockwork God

 

Twilight of the Clockwork God, John David Ebert, editor, Council Oak Books, 1999

From the inside cover: “A fascinating look at the rapidly changing landscape of contemporary thought, [this book] represents a profound shift in the way we look at the once colliding cultures of science and religion and our own place in the universe. Ebert demonstrates that we can no longer conceptualize our universe as a mechanical thing- a machine, a clockwork. It has revealed itself as a living entity, unpredictable, sentient, and bursting with creativity.”

This is a book that- for me- quickly achieved the status of a walk-around book; i.e., I read it, even as I am walking from one place to another. I don’t want to put it down because it is shouting truths at me. It resounds with expressed ideas that I’ve been unable to process on my own but which have been thumping against my mind and soul for years.

Our cosmologies mean everything. If we see a person, a river, an animal, a tree, or our planet as a duplicable part of something larger, something we might even improve upon, then we have usurped the role of the Spirit. If we see the role of Spirit as unmysterious, knowable, and reducible to chemical and mathematical equations, then we have flattened the very creative vitality of the universe which it is our role as humans to report on, and safeguard.

If Science is regarded as a threat to moribund and antiquated mythologies that do nothing more than preserve the status of their human power brokers, then we will never know about the brushstrokes and palettes of the Spirit beyond our own limited ability to imagine. And if we are ignorant of them, we will continue to tread upon and ruin them.

The re-marriage of science and spirituality, centuries after an increasingly messy divorce, is necessary. The consummation of that relationship is imperative.  If it doesn’t happen, we will all be screwed.