I can hear in Christopher Hitchens some greater distinction between his religious foes and it is becoming evident to my ears that he understands that he cannot afford to alienate the devout by failing to distinguish between reactionaries and radicals. As one who shares his fondness for the intricacies of well-chosen phrases in English, it indicates to me that he's making significant intellectual distinctions that he might not have considered a few years ago, though it's difficult to tell through the noise of the cheerleaders.
Hitchens has managed, through his mastery of history and his witty pique, to center himself in the interminably lively debate about the existence of God, the role of religion, the duty of moral men and matters of war and peace. Such a space has quite a bit of traffic - even on YouTube. Not a bad place to be if you've got some literary skills and enough media savvy not to get squished.
Down here among the pigs and sheep, we get similar debates and I've found something to consider at length which I haven't bothered to before. That is the religious faith and consequent moral demeanor and discipline of men of great liberal character. And I invent the phrase 'great liberal character' because I cannot make quite the epistemological fuss over scientists so much as their science. Nevertheless secular liberal foes tend to make that fuss and concurrently assert something fundamentally askew in their contemporaries as if religious duty and faith crowds out all the logic of any value in the minds of the devout.
So one must ask if such pesky skeptics have ever heard of the scientific exploits of one James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell is one of those greats whose achievements come top in any number of surveys. He is the architect of electromagnetism without which the modern world would depend a great deal more on the sorts of devices available to Victorians. Not that I would mind so terribly, given the proximity such Maxwellian contrivances give crabby atheists to my electronic earshot.
So I shout back:
Two great British scientists dominate the intellectual landscape of electrical science, and indeed all of physics, in the nineteenth century, Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell. It would be hard to imagine two more contrasting personalities.
Faraday was English; Maxwell Scottish. Faraday was the son of a poor blacksmith; Maxwell's father had inherited a substantial estate and hardly needed to practice the law in which he had been trained. Faraday had no formal education; Maxwell had the finest education available. Faraday never held a university position; Maxwell held professorships at three of the major British universities. Faraday was one of the most popular scientific lecturers of his day; Maxwell gained a poor reputation in the class-room. Faraday knew practically no formal mathematics; Maxwell was one of the finest mathematicians of his time. Faraday's research dominated electromagnetic experiments; Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. The contrasts between these men could be multiplied on and on. Yet they had one experience in common. Both were committed Christians. It is the purpose of this brief study to outline how the faith of James Clerk Maxwell and his science were combined and how they may have influenced one another.
There's likely some series of seminars such as this lovely one at MIT and elsewhere, where thoughtful Christians, for one, may revel in their passions over the false dichotomies of their foes. So have at the ammo.
Looking after my own soul takes the greater part of my effort. However, with that calm and collection I feel some obligation to share my peace. My purpose here is not to be an apologist for Christianity, nor an evangelist. Rather I am perturbed by the overconfidence of those who dismiss religious thought and seek greater control over our lives. The scientific animists are at it again, and their slavish devotion to secularity is rude and short-sighted. Plus, someday I'd like to rise about the pigeons and sparrows to soar like Hitchens, who despite his arrogance, I think is inevitably bound to make the proper distinctions.
Recent Comments