According to Krista Tippett, science is in the midst of a “renaissance.”
“Things like the Human Genome Project and the Hubble telescope, which brought amazing images of the galaxy into our living rooms, have contributed to our sense of awe,” said Tippett, creator and host of the “On Being” radio program, during an interview with Jenara Nerenberg. “We’re morphing to this place where science and scientists and scientific ideas are much more celebrated at the heart of our lives together, and everyone’s intrigued by them.”
Religion, on the other hand, appears to be in decline.
This is ironic, says Tippet, given that contemporary scientific exploration of things like awe and mystery and compassion – what Tippet singles out as “an urgent practical necessity” – is rooted in theology.
I suppose in some ways my own life mirrors this trend. Growing up I always thought that biblical teachings like the Golden Rule – “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” – were pretty compelling, if not downright awe-inspiring. Even better, the more I made an effort to put these teachings into practice – to be genuinely compassionate, grateful, forgiving, and so forth – the more natural they became and the better I felt….