Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life

139 Pages·2002·0.94 MB·English

by  Stephen Jay Gould

More praise for Rocks of Ages
“Meticulous and evenhanded, Gould explores in turn the history and the
psychology of conflict … with respectful and compassionate portraits of
the players, heroes, and villains. Loving them for their greatness as well
as for their human frailties, Gould brings his interlocutors to life with
humor and compassion.”
—Los Angeles Times
“This is an ambitious synthesis, but it neither intimidates nor does it
seem too far-fetched. Gould appeals to common sense.… This small book
is heftier than the volumes of inaccessible, jargon-wrapped material
produced every year by some academic historians and philosophers.
Rocks of Ages should be read not only in all our colleges, it should be
read in our temples and mosques, in our churches and synagogues.”
—Nature
“An intriguing volume … which should tickle the intellect of the strictly
scientific, the strictly devout, and those with membership in both clubs.”
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“[Gould’s] got a chatty, easily read writing style that he wraps around
some amazingly sophisticated concepts in biology.”
—Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (GA)
The frontispiece shows the title-page illustration (modified only by a different title and author!) of the
greatest geological treatise ever written by a scientist who also held holy orders—the Mundus
subterraneus (Underground World) by the great Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, published in 1664.
I regard the figure as a beautiful illustration of science and religion working together in their different
ways. God holds the earth in space, but twelve winds in human form control both motion and climate,
while the banner cites a famous line from Virgil’s Aeneid, ending mens agitat molem, usually slightly
mistranslated as “mind moves mountains” (moles, accusative molem, refers to any massive structure).

A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1999 by Stephen Jay Gould
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing
Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random
House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published
material:
Henry Holt and Company, Inc., and Jonathan Cape Ltd.: “Design” from The Poetry Robert Frost
edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright ® 1936 by Robert Frost. Copyright © 1964 by
Lesley Frost Ballantine. Copyright © 1969 by Henry Holt & Company. Reprinted by permission of
Henry Holt and Company, Inc. and Jonathan Cape Ltd., on behalf of the Estate of Robert Frost.
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., and Random House UK Ltd.: Excerpt form Bully for Brontosaurus:
Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould. Copyright © 1991 by Stephen Jay Gould.
Reprinted by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., and Hutchinson, Random House UK
Ltd.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001119181
eISBN: 978-0-30780141-8
v3.1
For Jesse and Ethan,
who will have to hold on beyond their father’s watch, and who will surely improve a world with a
future so honestly described by John Playfair, a great scientist and writer, who closed his Outlines of
Natural Philosophy (1814) by stating (in the old subjunctive mood, where his “were” equals our
“would be”):
“It were unwise to be sanguine,
and unphilosophical to despair.”
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
1. The Problem Stated
Preamble
A Tale of Two Thomases
The Fate of Two Fathers
2. The Problem Resolved in Principle
NOMA Defined and Defended
NOMA Illustrated
Coda and Segue
3. Historical Reasons for Conflict
The Contingent Basis for Intensity
Columbus and the Flat Earth: An Example of the Fallacy of Warfare
Between Science and Religion
Defending NOMA from Both Sides Now: The Struggle Against Modern
Creationism
—Creationism: A Distinctively American Violation of NOMA
—Trouble in Our Own House: A Brief Legal Survey From Scopes to Scalia
—The Passion and Compassion of William Jennings Bryan: The Other Side of
NOMA
4. Psychological Reasons for Conflict
Can Nature Nurture Our Hopes?
Nature’s Cold Bath and Darwin’s Defense of NOMA
The Two False Paths of Irenics
About the Author
A Note on The Library of Contemporary Thought
Other Books by This Author
1
THE PROBLEM STATED
Preamble
I WRITE THIS LITTLE BOOK to present a blessedly simple and entirely
conventional resolution to an issue so laden with emotion and the
burden of history that a clear path usually becomes overgrown by a
tangle of contention and confusion. I speak of the supposed conflict
between science and religion, a debate that exists only in people’s minds
and social practices, not in the logic or proper utility of these entirely
different, and equally vital, subjects. I present nothing original in stating
the basic thesis (while perhaps claiming some inventiveness in choice of
illustrations); for my argument follows a strong consensus accepted for
decades by leading scientific and religious thinkers alike.
Our preferences for synthesis and unification often prevent us from
recognizing that many crucial problems in our complex lives find better
resolution under the opposite strategy of principled and respectful
separation. People of goodwill wish to see science and religion at peace,
working together to enrich our practical and ethical lives. From this
worthy premise, people often draw the wrong inference that joint action
implies common methodology and subject matter—in other words, that
some grand intellectual structure will bring science and religion into
unity, either by infusing nature with a knowable factuality of godliness,
or by tooling up the logic of religion to an invincibility that will finally
make atheism impossible. But just as human bodies require both food
and sleep for sustenance, the proper care of any whole must call upon
disparate contributions from independent parts. We must live the
fullness of a complete life in many mansions of a neighborhood that
would delight any modern advocate of diversity.
I do not see how science and religion could be unified, or even
synthesized, under any common scheme of explanation or analysis; but I
also do not understand why the two enterprises should experience any
conflict. Science tries to document the factual character of the natural