Stephen Jay Gould: “We can unite the patches built by our separate magisteria (of Science and Religion) into a beautiful and coherent quilt called wisdom.

But why?

Why should we regard these as two patches which should be united into a beautiful and coherent quilt?

Should the Super bowl excitement be united with string theory to see beauty and coherence in each?

Should Bach be united with Bohr to see beauty in music and in physics?

Should multiculturaliism become a messy mélange of countless cultures for different languages and races and religions to be respected and regarded by awakened humanity?

Why try to replicate the physicist’s obsession for a unified field theory into every aspect of sane and robust life?

Is this a relic of the monotheistic conviction that there can be only one God, or the articulation of the fantasy that only mono is meaningful?

Can’t we celebrate multiplicity in the marvelous world of human thought, experience, and pursuit?

Do we need a unified field theory to enjoy the rainbow, study the K-meson, or appreciate Shakespeare and Shankara?

August 14, 2012