Guy Consolmagno - Gods mechanics: how scientists and engineers make sense of religion

Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J.

Copyright 2008 by Guy Consolmagno. All rights reserved.

Published by Jossey-Bass

A Wiley Imprint

989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741www.josseybass.com

Wiley Bicentennial logo: Richard J. Pacifico

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986, or fax 317-572-4002.

Anecdote about the Saint Joseph statue in Chapter Six contributed by Bruce F. Emmer

Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Consolmagno, Guy, date.

Gods mechanics : how scientists and engineers make sense of religion / Guy Consolmagno.1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-7879-9466-2 (cloth)

1. Religion and science. 2. Consolmagno, Guy, 1952- I. Title.

BL240.3.C68 2007

201'.65dc22

2007019067

IT WAS AFTER a long, exhausting day at a science-fiction convention that an old friend of mine from my MIT student days and her husband caught me up with a surprising question. Could you explain, they asked me, how this religion stuff in your life actually works?

Now, I had already written about my life and work in a book called Brother Astronomer. After hearing endlessly about the eternal war between science and religion, I figured that merely demonstrating the existence of a lot of people like me, who flourish as scientists while practicing a religion, should be proof enough that science and religion can be perfectly compatible. Indeed, this empirical evidence ought to have been far more convincing than any drawn-out philosophical argument.

But that didnt go far enough for my friends. They already understood that a person like me could exist. They knew I did exist. But what they wanted to know was how. What were the nuts and bolts of how I actually made it all work together?

Theyre interested in religion, now, in a way they never were when they were young punk MIT engineers who knew it all. Theyre getting older; theyre raising a family. And theyre asking me, because along with my being a Jesuit brother (and a friend), I am also, like them, a techie.

Thats what makes my answerthis bookdifferent from a typical book of apologetics. This book explains a techies religion.

Whats a techie? Someone who makes his or her living as an engineer or a scientist, yes; but its broader than that.

To a lot of nontechies, the word techie might imply nothing more than a computer geek, but thats missing the whole point. For one thing, techies interests are broader than computers; theres a whole world of technology-related activities, from aeronautics to zoology, that techies might be engaged with. But more important than that, techies do more than just make a living off of technology. They actively enjoy the stuff. Its their source of play. (And while some of us still cringe at the word geek, nearly every techie I know is proud to wear the techie tag.)

Who is a techie? Anyone whose Christmas list includes tools. Anyone who spends more time fiddling with things attached to their TV than actually watching TV. Anyone who still has a bit of the kid inside and still wants to take Dads watch apart.

A techie is someone whose orientation toward the world is extremely pragmatic, logical, andmost of allfunctional. Where an artist might ask, Is it beautiful? or a philosopher would ask, Is it true? the question behind a techies worldview is How does it work? Techies see the world in terms of processes to be understood and jobs to be doneproblems to be solved. We want to know where to find the gears and levers and why they are arranged that way. We also ask, Does this arrangement of gears and levers do the job it was designed to do?

Think of that famous photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing on the moon. You could be inspired by the symbolism of humankinds quest for adventure or impressed with the courage (and cleverness) of both the astronauts and the whole raft of people who got them up to the moon. But if, in addition to all those other emotions, you find yourself wondering why that dry lunar soil is sticking to his knees, youre a techie.

Im a techie; I know my tribe. I spent seven years at MIT (earning two degrees and spending three years as a postdoc), and I loved every minute of it. I have worked with scientists and engineers all my adult life. My friends are the kinds of people who break codes for fun, go camping with telescopes, build home-brew rockets and homemade robots. For Christmas they give their kids rocksreally cool rocks.

My friends didnt want me to try to convert them to my religion. Nothing turns us techies off faster than proselytizing; wed just as soon figure things out for ourselves, thank you very much. But like me, theyre fascinated with the ways people live their lives and how they make things work. Technical people recognize the value of seeing sample problems worked out, and they value having concrete data on which to work. So an unabashedly honest description of how religious techies have figured things out, when it comes to our religions, can be accepted as grist for their data mill. Not this is how you must live but rather this is how we liveheres how the parts fit together.

But theres more to this book than simply a description of how religion works for a scientist or an engineer. Seeing how a techie understands religion can provide some very revealing insights to the rest of the world about how the techie mind works.