The Meaning Of It All
May, 2005
Who hasn't at some point contemplated what the poet Shelley called the "palace-roof of cloudless nights"? For centuries humans have stared into the sky and tried to figure out how it (and they) got where they are. Myths have given way to science, yet, as recent school board battles over Darwin show, rationality is often confounded by parochialism. No wonder. Evolution challenges religious beliefs, and cosmology--with its cold, indifferent universe--forces us to alter how we think about...
