“These conflicts [between religion and science] have all sprung from fatal errors” — Einstein
I. Walk in the Footsteps of Genius
A year or so ago, New York City endured a brutal snowstorm. Unfortunately for me, I had to jog that Sunday night.
In case you’re wondering why I “had” to jog, ahem, just know I take Aristotle’s insight to heart: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act — but a habit.”
(*Note: Aristotle’s maxim forms the core of Covey’s classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.)
For the above reason, scrawled across the front of my favorite workout T-shirt reads the message:
Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
In short, armed with “success is the only option” as a mindset, my mind was set on jogging three miles, the blizzard notwithstanding.
About 15–20 minutes into the jog, I knew my character was on the verge of being tested.
“Success is the only option,” I mumbled to myself. But unfortunately, slogging thru the snow left me feeling like B-Rabbit in Eminem’s song — “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.”
Like an exhausted boxer in the final round, the jabs of wind and flurries of snow battered my face. Blurred my vision. I could see my foot but couldn’t see beyond a foot.
In short, upon making my return slog back home, I simply let reason be my guide:
Step after step, I put my feet in the footprints left for me in the snow.
Sure, those footprints were my own, yet so far as it concerned the present moment — the trail belonged to the past.
The more I followed the path, which had been carved out for me, the more I came to appreciate why Socrates advised this:
“Use your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.”
At once it dawned on me I’d uncovered a beautiful metaphor hidden in a snowstorm!
“No wonder I love reading Einstein so much,” I mumbled to myself. After all, common sense, which takes us further than any other trait, suggests reading arguably the smartest person in history is a good idea.
In short, just as when lost in a blizzard I wisely follow in the footprints left for me, when lost in ideas — I wisely follow in the footsteps of genius personified — Albert Einstein.
II. How Einstein Paved the Way for my ‘Religious-Science’
One morning while at his Berlin home, Einstein received an urgent telegram. It was from Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein.
“Do you believe in God?” Rabbi Goldstein wrote. Apparently he expressed concern that Einstein — history’s most famous scientist — had been somewhat undermining religion.
Ahem, though Rabbi Goldstein expected an answer long and sour, Einstein kept it short and sweet:
“I believe in Spinoza’s God . . .” Einstein wired back.
For those initiated into the mysteries, “Spinoza’s God” is merely a code-word. For what? For mathematical theology. You see, such views derive from the ancient Greeks. Pythagoras and Plato in particular.
And my, oh, my did Albert love those philosophers of ancient Greeks! Heck, he read them every night before bed after all.
It’s not by accident the first philosopher was also the first mathematician (Pythagoras). Perhaps Lord Kelvin best summed up Einstein’s insight when he called “mathematics the only true metaphysics.”
(*Note: quick rule of thumb — anytime you see the word “logical,” you’re also seeing the word mathematical.)
From archeological to zoological, each instance of logic is inherently mathematics. This explains why today — logic is treated as a subfield of mathematics/philosophy.
The above insight reveals the core of Einstein’s grand insight: if science deals with the cosmological and religion the theological, well, could it be:
“Conflicts between science and religion have all sprung from fatal errors[?]” — Einstein
Bingo!
In Einstein’s eyes, without religious legs — science forever remains Stephen Hawking. As for religion, without scientific eyes — religion forever remains Ray Charles…
III. The Socratic Method → the Scientific Method
“The beginning of wisdom is a definition of words”
— Socrates
Armed with the Socratic method, Einstein revealed the true nature of the scientific method.
“Logic will get you from A to B,” he noted, “[but] imagination will take you everywhere.” What Einstein figured out about his beloved was this: science never extends beyond accounting for how related facts condition each other.
Notice what’s being suggested here…
…Those quantum leaps of imagination, which propelled Einstein to almost superhuman levels, he attributed to a mysterious “cosmic religious feeling.”
Because the scientific method is inherently logic, G.K. Chesterton famously pointed out why “you can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.”
When viewed in a true light, science can be likened to a GPS device: though the system can navigate its user to a given destination, it can’t input itself with a destination.
Bingo!
Einstein rebuked his own profession, going so far as to confess “it is equally clear that knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.”
Science, then, when left to its own devices proves “lame” indeed.
In Einstein’s view, religion/spirituality alone can tell science where to go, not how to get there per se. And vice versa. Notice how the “Master of Those Who Really Know” draws a sharp line in the epistemological division of labor.
In short, Einstein’s following classic passage sheds light on one of history’s greatest insights:
Mere thinking cannot give us a sense of the ultimate and fundamental ends. To make clear these fundamental ends and valuations, and to set them fast in the emotional life of the individual, seems to me precisely the most important function which religion has to perform in the social life of man.
IV. The Allegory of the Siamese Twins
“You don’t see something until you have the right metaphor to let you perceive it”
— James Gleick
Of each person’s 60,000 daily thoughts, researchers estimate roughly 80 percent occur in pictures.
“See what I mean?” goes the saying.
Excellent!
For this reason, Aristotle concluded mastery of metaphors is a sure sign of genius. After all, a metaphor reaches for the heavens . . . strips a metaphysical idea of its “meta” . . . and then brings it back down to the physical.
In short, let’s try a hand at playing the part of Prometheus. Of course, we’re venturing not to defy the gods by stealing their fire, but instead — we long for a firey metaphysical truth. And then once snatched from the heavens, let’s then bring it back down to Earth…
…Abracadabra!
Once upon a time there lived Siamese twins conjoined at the heart.
Due to the condition, Dr. Necessity split them apart! So each brother had to go thru life with only half a heart.
The surgery left one twin with the Herculean half of the heart; the other inherited the half with exceptional vision. Each asset, however, came with a liability.
Attached to the gift of vision was paralysis. Stamped on the gift of strength was blindness.
The brothers hated each other due to this unfair trade-off.
Everyone around town knew them by their nicknames “Rel” and “Sci.”
Both had reputations that stretched far and wide:
Rel’s fame grew due to having the greatest vision and Sci’s popularity soared due to having the greatest strength.
And so, quite naturally — each brother strove to compensate for his birth defect. How? By maximizing the natural advantage.
Sci adopted a “scientific method” to bodybuilding. “What better way to elevate myself above my paralyzed twin,” he reasoned, “than to become the most powerful body [of knowledge] the world has ever known?”
Rel, on the other hand, religiously sharpened his vision to a god-like point. “What better way to elevate myself over my blind brother,” he envisioned, “than to become the greatest visionary the world has ever known?”
Clearly, such a split by the twin brothers — who were first split at birth — only served to heighten the animosity.
One morning a fire alarm woke up the twins.
Sci caught whiff of the smoke…
Rel caught glimpse of the fire…
Unfortunately by the time each recognized the smoke and fire, the entire home had been filled with flames.
As fate would have it, though, the only place without fire was the room shared by the twins since birth. But clearly this posed a major problem.
Unlike prior cases in which each twin’s strength compensated for his weakness, not this time around.
Sure, the visionary Rel could clearly see the approaching fire — and thereby gauge its distance. Ahh, but unfortunately Rel’s wheelchair had been burnt to ashes. Rel was stuck!
As for Sci, though he was more than capable of escaping by foot, his blindness meant he could no more see the exit than could Rel run to it.
This left the twins with only one possible solution.
Fortunately the invisible hand of necessity nudged Sci to sprint in the direction of his brother’s cry for help.
Upon arrival, Sci lifted Rel onto his massive shoulders. Aww, finally Rel could fulfill his dream of imitating Newton by sitting on a giant’s shoulders.
“Run here, brother!” Rel cried out. “Turn there, dear brother!”
With Rel in the driver’s seat and Sci serving as the vehicle, together they climbed out of the window.
Lo and behold:
The answer to the riddle lay hidden in a partnership.
As the smoke cleared, Rel and Sci finally embraced.
Both cried tears of joy.
“I guess, one hand ‘watches’ the other,” Rel joked.
Sci smiled. “And one hand ‘lifts’ the other.”
With the heart separated at birth restored to its original oneness, Rel’s vision combined with Sci’s strength amounted to a match made in Heaven. And on Earth too.
The twins lived happily ever after…
Here lies the Allegory of the Siamese Twins!
The End.
V. The Takeaway
According to legend, Jesus of Nazareth is said to have been a Pisces…
Perhaps this explains why a fish symbolizes Christianity, why Jesus fed the masses with “two fish” and why his disciples were called “fishers of men.”
Armed with the above insight, perhaps Einstein (born on Pi Day) and Genius Turner (born on Leap Day) have far more in common than merely being born under the sign affectionately known as the “genius/weirdo.”
Perhaps…
As part of the initiation into the mysteries, the wise men of old used to teach the true geniuses of the world carry on silent conversations between the ears and pages alike.
Logan Smith went so far as to say what he prizes most “in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers.” Hence it’s long been said two people can’t possibly read the same book.
As Emerson once put it:
We are always reasoning from the seen to the unseen. Hence the perfect intelligence that exists between wise men of remote ages. A man cannot bury his meanings so deep in his book but time and like-minded men will find them.
Plato had a secret doctrine, had he? What secret can he conceal from the eyes of Bacon? of Montaigne? of Kant? Therefore Aristotle said of his works, “They are published and not published.”
In short, Einstein had a secret doctrine, had he?
What secret can one fish conceal from the eyes of another?
On many a night, I’ve wondered how Einstein — a century ago — foresaw the coming of Religious-Science.
And sure enough from the grave, dear Einstein whispered in my third ear: “Religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling.”
Perhaps the key to unlocking this cosmic religious feeling, to which Einstein alluded, calls for mastering the following technique:
individuals intrinsically inclined to instinctively inspect inwardly inborn, invisible instruction indispensable to innately inspire indescribable insights informally indicative of ingeniously intellectual interpretations of information!
Armed with the above superpower of genius, Einstein made the following prediction: “Science not only purifies the religious impulse of the dross of its anthropomorphism, but also [will] contribute to a religious spiritualization of our understanding.”
Initially a lowly patent clerk, Einstein dared to be great. He contested the immortal Sir Isaac Newton. Scathing criticism ensued.
Of course, Einstein countered by arguing how could critics “punish me for my contempt for authority [when] fate made me an authority myself”?
And it is in such a spirit of truth that I, the lowly student, dare contest the master. After all, millions daily quote Einstein’s famed maxim that “science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
Ahem, perhaps Einstein had it backwards…
…It’s religion who, without scientific legs, is Stephen Hawking. And science — without religious vision — is Ray Charles. The cosmic religious feeling can best foresee the goal of life, but science alone has the power to realize it.
Bingo!
Genius Turner’s painted word-portrait The Heaven on Earth Code merely reflects my humble attempt to finish what “the Master of Those Who Know” started.
Today’s genius is tomorrow’s common sense. Perhaps future generations will look back at today’s folly — regarding our attempts to split these Siamese twins — as do we now frown upon yesterday’s attempt to place Earth at the center of our solar system.
(*Wink, wink to the fellow Pisces, Copernicus.)
Future generations will embrace a scientific religion or Religious-Science.
In short, “The Master of Those Who Really Know” put it best:
“The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity”
— Albert Einstein