The God of the Gaps

Today, with all our technological and scientific knowledge, have we finally managed to lay the myth of God in the ground? Many aeons ago when man finally emerged as a fully developed conscious being called Homo Sapiens, at some point he developed or found religion. In fact some studies show that the Neanderthals, a separate species (some say subspecies) to Homo Sapiens also developed religion as evidenced by their burial rituals. The Neanderthals died out leaving mankind to shape the future. Whatever the case may actually be, religion developed incredibly early in the evolution of Homo Sapiens.

Everything was religious to him. There were gods everywhere. Gods of the wind, the trees, the sun, the moon. You name it, there was a god for it. As man emerged, he understand practically nothing of his environment. So somehow the idea of gods who controlled the elements came about. And this was thousands of years before the bible was even written. Modern humans evolved around fifty thousand years ago while the bible was probably written only about three and a half thousand years ago.

And even when the earliest books of the bible were being composed we can see that man still attributed everything to God. As the shift from polytheism to monotheism took a lot of time, even early biblical tales include more than one god. The first commandant, which talks about God being the Lord and God of all and you must not put other gods before him, implies that people believed in other gods which were inferior to their God. Even today the belief in angels and saints implies lesser gods.

It wasn’t till the 16th century that modern experimental science began to develop. Before then many philosophers like Aristotle, Plato or Socrates made logical assumptions with no basis in fact. For example Aristotle said that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects, a statement repudiated when Galileo performed his famous experiments. Aristotle and company did not use empirical evidence. Science changed all that by demanding that experiments be done and only on the outcome of the experiment could theories be developed. Even then it took some considerable time for the scientific method we know today to develop. Astrology was believed in by many scientists and much science was really a mixture of magic and experiment. Giordano Bruno, one of the men credited with the realisation that the Sun rather than the Earth was at the centre of our solar system, was basically a black magician.

However, by the time of the 18th century and the “Age of Enlightenment” science was well on the way to hard-nosed experiment which had been spear headed by such luminaries as Newton, Descartes, Pascal and Leibnitz during the 17th century. The majority of these scientists, it should be pointed out, were deeply religious people and they considered their science only confirmed their beliefs. It was only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries where more and more scientists began questioning these religious ideas that religion began to take second place to science and belief in a deity began to decrease.

It could be argued that Charles Darwin was the main instigator in the withdrawal of science from religion. He began to question the historicity of the bible, especially after his return from the famous voyage of the Beagle where he had studied the natural history of the places he visited and collected many specimens. However, his theory of evolution for the first time seriously questioned the whole idea of man being created directly by God. Instead he had evolved from lower mammals. A great mainstay in the whole theology of God had been shown to rest on shifting sand.

Now things changed and as the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche announced that “God was Dead”, those who would not let God die were being forced back into a smaller corner. Of course they didn’t just lie down and give up. In Tennessee a law was enacted making it illegal to teach the theory of evolution. This was in 1925. John Scopes, a teacher, was brought to trial for disobeying this law and was found guilty but got off on a technicality.

And even further back, in 1860, a debate took place at the Oxford University Museum on the theory of evolution. While a number of prominent scientists and philosophers took part it is best remembered for some remarks which in all probability were never uttered, but it’s a good story and sums up the mood. Bishop Samuel Wilberforce spoke against evolution and asked Thomas Huxley who argued in defense of evolution whether it was through his grandmother or his grandfather that he considered himself descended from a monkey. Huxley retorted that he was not ashamed to have a monkey for his ancestor, but he would be ashamed to be connected with a man who used great gifts to obscure the truth.

Even today, the argument rumbles on with Creationism and Intelligent Design as two theories purporting to prove that God created man exactly as it says in the bible. I actually heard to my astonishment a Creationist scientist on a television program some time ago stating while science can prove or disprove certain things, once it disagreed with the bible, then the bible won hands down. At this point the mind boggles.

However, many theists today are happy to accept that evolution is the way God progressed his creation. Also most people no longer believe the Earth is only 6000 years old, so now we can go back to the beginning of the universe itself. In the first half of the last century two theories held sway, the Big Bang which said that the universe exploded into existence about 13 or so billion years ago while the Steady State said that the universe had always existed. Unfortunately for the latter theory, in 1964 the faint echo of the Big Bang was detected. Even Pope Pius XII celebrated this fact as it gave credence to the possibility that God perhaps lit the touch paper.

Is this the last gap that God can inhabit today? Unfortunately not. He has been squeezed out of that position as well. It used to be thought that for every effect there had to be a cause. What caused the Big Bang? Well, obviously it had to be God, hadn’t it? Well, not really because you can go on to ask what caused God. So what is more logical, the big bang somehow caused itself, or God caused himself. Or slightly differently, the big bang came out of a previous universe which had its own big bang with these cosmic events going back infinitely in time. So again with a hint of the steady state theory raising its head, the universe was always there. Or God was always there. Why take that extra step? We don’t need God to explain it.

But if that’s the case why do we find that the constants in the universe like the ratio of an electron to a proton, the strength of gravity, the strength of the other forces like electromagnetism, are so finely tuned. If any of these constants or forces were slightly different we could not exist. The universe would be empty. In fact, the universe as we know it could not exist. Doesn’t this look like some sort of designer at work?

No, because what we like to call the multiverse today, that is, universe following universe infinitely back in time will each have had their forces set up in different ways totally at random. It just happens that finally we get an universe which has just the right ingredients to allow the existence of us. The laws of probability; it just had to happen at some point.

So at last God has nowhere left to hide. There are no more gaps left to fill which He might squeeze into. He’s gone. We’ve dealt him a mortal blow. Well, actually He was never there in the first place. Science has triumphed and can explain everything and goes marching off into the sunset.

Yet some will still ask why, if God does not exist, do we have this hunger for Him. This need. And, of course, what about the soul?

Michael Persinger, a neuroscientist from Ontario has the answer to that question. And he thinks he can prove it too. When early man first realised that he was doomed to die it must have come as a bit of a shock. In order for him to be able to accept this, evolution contrived a neat little trick which caused our brains to sometimes have hallucinations and make us believe we were privy to an apparition from the heavens. Yes, God came down to us and told us it was all right, because when we died, we would not cease to exist, but continue on in an afterlife. We had a soul. This eased the apprehension of death, not only in early humans, but in mankind today as well. In order to demonstrate this, he uses what is called a God Helmet. A volunteer dons this helmet and is isolated in a completely dark room. His eyes are covered and there is absolutely no sound. After a while a magnetic field is applied to the helmet which activates a part of the brain called the temporal lobe. When volunteers are questioned afterward, they report that they entered a mystical state, felt a presence or had visions of one or more figures. Persinger claims these can explain all the reported instances involving the appearance of God, angels and saints down through the ages.

I think, just because volunteers using the God Helmet may experience these visions or whatever you want to call them, doesn’t necessarily prove that somebody who went through a religious experience or theophany simply had exactly the same experience. Schizophrenics can hear voices in their heads, but this doesn’t mean that the voices you and I hear every day are coming from our minds. They are, in the sense that the mind interprets the vibrations from our ear caused by another human voice, but the source is another person speaking to us. Similarly a mystic may have a vision of God which could be a real vision. Because the God Helmet may produce a similar sensation doesn’t negate the possibility of the other.

There are those who also suggest that we are living in a computer simulation and once again they have proof! Well, a reasonable suggestion as to why we might be in such a simulation. Science has found that everything in this universe is digital. We are made of atoms, so there is either an atom at this position or there isn’t. Digital. Even space itself is made up of virtual particles. So in essence a virtual particle can appear here or not. Digital. But as space is really combined with time in a space-time continuum, then time itself is made up of discrete bits. Once again digital. In theory it is possible for a very powerful computer to simulate a complex universe with life in it. So perhaps we are exactly that.

Once again a very interesting idea, but personally I don’t buy it. Why? Because it means that if this is true, then there is someone or something running the simulation – our creator. Or maybe even a human from our future. The speculations can be endless, but it still leaves that damnable question. Maybe we are a computer simulation, but what about our simulation operator. Is he also a simulation in an even bigger simulation? And if so, what about his operator. This sounds very familiar territory. Just like who made God.

The bottom line is, why is there something rather than nothing? Of course that still doesn’t mean there is a God! So we’re simply going around the mulberry bush again.

One thing which has always struck me is the fact that today we think we know so much. Actually, we thought we knew everything about a hundred years ago. In fact, going even further back, Pierre-Simon Laplace, a French mathematician and astronomer, had famously replied when questioned as to what God’s place was in the universe that he had no need of such a hypothesis. And in the early 20th century some scientists were of the opinion that all that remained for science to do was to calculate out to the next few places of decimals and everything would be sown up. Then relativity and quantum mechanics arrived to blow that idea right out of the water.

Today we still struggle with our theories and have the audacity, some might say, to theorise about the beginning of our known universe and even what went before. Whatever our theories heading into the future will be, one thing is for sure. Our past theories were wrong. Our present theories are wrong. And no doubt our future ones will be wrong too. Maybe we will hit on the right ones in time. Maybe we won’t.

So, to sum up, I guess science has answers, rightly or wrongly, which have now squeezed God out of existence. There are other explanations which may or may not be true. Maybe the universe just popped into existence or was always there. Maybe God was always there.

Whatever the truth of the matter, I think if there is a God and another existence in a spiritual world, I don’t think we will ever find proof of it in this life. Physical matter and spirit are two very different things. But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there is only physical matter and no such thing as spirit. Perhaps science is our only hope.

But I don’t believe it is quite so simple. I have a niggling feeling that there has to be something more than a universe which was always there, something more than a computer simulation, something more than our minds making us think there is something else there rather than have us face the bleakness of death. Do not go gentle into that good night. Then again, maybe I’m engaging in wishful thinking. I guess that is why I’m an agnostic and proud to be such.

Ardglass – A Reminiscence

When I was a kid in the 1950’s my parents took my brother and myself to Ardglass, a little fishing village in County Down, every year for our holidays. This lasted a month and was something we looked forward to throughout the year. School over, summer holidays begun and Ardglass. Excitement mounted as the great day dawned when we packed our bags and took the bus into Amiens Street station in Dublin to board the Belfast train. I grabbed the seat nearest the window while my brother grabbed the seat opposite. Our smiling mother happily sat in the aisle seat. Now we could settle back, watch the black smoke from the steam engine pulling our carriages drift through the air as we hurtled by fields and hedges on our way.

At Dundalk the customs men boarded and we had to open our suitcases for these agents of the Queen. After a brief rummage, the customs officer gave us a smile as he closed over the case, marked it with chalk and moved on. This was just a part of the journey, I didn’t question it and I didn’t care about it.

Our Uncle Billy usually collected us from the Belfast station. My mother insisted we called him Uncle Noel but we called him what he wanted us to call him and that was Uncle Billy. He was always a cheerful man and talked in his thick Northern accent all the way to Rosetta Park where he lived with his parents, Granddad and Grandma, his sister Auntie Eithne and our two cousins Michael and Gerald.

Here we would stay for a night before being whisked off to Ardglass the next day. We always travelled in one of those big black cabs typical of London and in later years I often wondered if my mother really paid for such a mode of transport as Ardglass was about 30 miles from Belfast. I only found out in later life that my grandfather was a director of O'Kanes Funerals and we got those trips for free travelling in one of their limousines. You learn something every day, I guess.

At last we entered familiar territory and pulled up outside the house my grandfather owned. I leapt out of the taxi and hurried along the crazy type paving from the old iron gate to the front door. Naturally I then had to wait for my mother to catch up with the key. Once inside the house I had to do a full inspection as if to remind myself of its layout and to make sure everything was as it should be. Off the little narrow hallway the first door on the right led into the main living room which stretched the length of the house right to its magnificent bay window at the back which overlooked the bay, the harbour, the lighthouse and the large grassy knoll on the far side of the waters called Ardtole.

Then across the hall to the door on the left which led into the dining area and kitchen. Upstairs there was a small landing with bedrooms on either side. Two large front bedrooms and a smaller one at the back opposite the bathroom. This smaller room was the scene of my ghostly experiences as related in my article of November 2010 “Ghosts”.

Halfway up the stairs was a little window where on a sunny morning I would come down in my pyjamas and bare feet, to sit and feel the heat of the sun pouring through the window as it danced its way across the sparkling waters of the bay. At the bottom of the stairway was an imposing door with a large key. Turning the key and entering forbidden territory with creepy steps leading down into a cellar, against one wall of which lay a massive wooden beam. This was the beginning of an adventure when I was a little older where my Ardglass friend George, my cousin Peter and myself hauled this piece of wood out of the cellar into our backyard and down to the back wall over which the sea lapped at high tide. We turfed the wood into the water in hopes of making some kind of boat which proved impossible as the damn thing kept turning over. So we let it go and forgot about it. Until some days later while walking along the harbour we noticed a group of men staring down at something in the water. It was our massive log which some other men were dragging out of the sea. We said nothing but surreptitiously walked on.

I must mention the little backyard over which the great bay window stood. It was sort of crazy paved like the front and led down to a little wall. Over this wall were the rocks which I often ran over, swift as a mountain goat as my mother used to say. At high tide the water covered these rocks. And even better, on a wild windy day, waves would crash into our yard spreading their foam every which way to our great amusement watching from our vantage point safe inside the bay window.

But first things first. After the house inspection and my mother’s attempt to get me to eat something, I quickly donned my swimming gear and ran out the front gate, past the house next to us and straight down to the beach. Into the water where I happily jumped up and down, splashing furiously and trying to dog paddle. I hadn’t any idea of how to swim properly, but I didn’t care. This was the life.

Then it was time for my first visit to the local shops to spend some of my holiday money. Wallace’s, the newsagent, was my first port of call. Here I could purchase some comics from Mrs Wallace, the kindly old lady behind the counter. Then a door or two down I could buy a cool ice cream from Charlie Mulhall, who appeared to sell everything from fishing tackle to bubble gum. Mulhall’s also had a little place where teenagers could congregate and listen to the latest pop tunes on the jukebox. Here, one year, was where I convinced my cousin to spend half of his holiday money on Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock, a record I loved. My aunt gave out hell to me for getting Tim to spend his money, but as far as I was concerned, he had spent it. I might have urged him on, but I didn’t make him do it. Honest!

Moving around the end of the town by Jordan’s Castle, brought you up to the High Street. Here was a nice little shop, called Rooney’s. Mrs Rooney had farthing, halfpenny, penny, threepenny and sixpenny boxes. Every sweet in these delightful containers cost exactly what its name suggested. I remember once finding a farthing on the beach and running up to Rooney’s and asking for the farthing box. I choose a single item and proceeded to pay for it with my new found farthing. But Mrs Rooney wasn’t having any of it. I had to choose at least two items from this box and pay a halfpenny for them or get nothing. I therefore came away with naught. I hadn’t heard of such a thing as legal tender and the apparent fact that farthings were no longer members of this financial milieu. My father explained it to me, muttering something to my mother about the mean old biddy. I flung the farthing over our back wall into the sea.

The first day almost over, it was time to retire to one of the chairs set in the bay window and read some comics before bed.

The month went slowly by, day after glorious day, no school, swimming and playing on the beach, making new friends and doing what young boys do on holiday. I tried fishing from the harbour once, but found I wasn’t very good at it and a fishing career came to a grinding halt. My mother was better as she caught two herring. Sometimes my father would give me some money and an empty bucket and haul me out of bed at the crack of dawn (something you don’t mind when on holidays) to go down to the harbour as the fishing fleet returned from a busy night and ask the fishermen for some of the catch. They’d fill the pail with mackerel and herring and I’d hand over the money. Probably enough for a few pints. Somehow I don’t think you’d find that happening today. Once one of them called me over and showed me what looked like a baby octopus.

“Watch,” he said as he dropped it into the water.

I watched, fascinated, as it vanished with incredible speed darting into the murky depths.

Every Sunday we went to mass in the little church on the High Street. One memorable Sunday in July 1961 the parish priest Father McKee said the mass. Earlier that week, the American astronauts had returned from a space mission and landed in the Atlantic Ocean. However, the capsule hatch blew off prematurely, but luckily nobody was injured or drowned as could have been the case. Anyway, Father McKee during his sermon mentioned the incident using words to the effect that the top popped off his egg. This, for some reason, sent me into uncontrollable fits of laughter which I couldn’t control, despite the stern finger of my father digging me in the ribs. Coming out of mass I overheard one old guy saying to another, “Sure, did ye hear the young lad from Dublin laughing?” That was the funniest mass I have ever been at.

One incident I’ll never forget happened one summer evening when we went to the pictures. Milligan’s, a family who according to my mother owned half of Ardglass (unlikely I suspect) and also ran a shop on the High Street, sometimes used a hall they had to show films. My friends were all going and it was a cowboy film which was always something to look forward to. In those days, the main film was never shown on its own, there was also a B movie beforehand. So, settling down in my seat with a bag of sweets in my hand, the lights went down and the B movie began. “The Mummy” with Boris Karloff. I had never seen a horror film before and sat with fear mounting slowly at first as one of the characters found himself walking through this creepy cave, dark and very eerie. With the music getting louder and scarier, he came across a tomb containing a mummy. This horror suddenly moved and began crawling out of its sarcophagus. Bag of sweets went flying, I leapt up bursting into tears with the terror and literally ran out of the cinema. I tore down the High Street, down by the steps which led to the lower street, looking neither left nor right till I arrived home and was able, between gasps of breath, to relate the sheer abomination I had just witnessed. It took me years before I could watch another horror film.

Another day, my friend George, my cousin Peter and myself headed up to the Ardglass golf club. We had decided to do a bit of caddying to try and bolster up our summer finances. Unsure of how to go about it, we hung around outside the clubhouse for a while. It wasn’t long before a number of cars pulled up and out stepped four men who looked like golfers. This was confirmed as they opened the car boot and took out two sets of golf bags. This was our cue and up we ran and asked them if they needed any caddies.

“I suppose we do,” smiled one of the men, “how much do you charge?”

“Whatever you can afford,” I replied.

The golfers laughed, “Well, there are only two of us playing and therefore we’ll only need two of you.”

“But maybe one of us could just hold the flag pole,” I suggested hopefully, “We won’t charge for that.”

They laughed again, “Well, okay then.”

So George and myself grabbed a golf bag each, while Peter became the honorary flag pole man. It was an easy job, the sun was shining and the wind was minimal. The golfers would call out the number of the golf stick they wanted and we would hand it to them. And when we reached the point on the green where the flag pole would need removing while they took their shot, Peter duly performed his duty.

One strange incident occurred. Around the ninth or tenth hole, the two guys quickly ushered us into a small copse of trees while the other two mystery men accompanying them started running around in an odd fashion.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We just need to take a rest here for a few minutes,” I was told, “So let’s do that, and be very quiet.”

“Is this part of the game?”

“Yes,” came the whispered reply.

A few minutes later everything resumed as if nothing had happened.

When I got home that evening I proudly told my mother that George and I had earned a half crown each caddying and they even gave Peter one and six even though he didn’t do very much. My mother smiled and asked me who it was I caddied for. I told her I didn’t know, just some nice men. One of those men, she told me, was Mr Brian Faulkner, a very important man in the government. I shrugged my shoulders as the name meant nothing to a twelve year old boy. Of course, today I wonder about that. How did my mother know? And was that the reason for the strange goings on among the trees? Had there been a security incident? Unfortunately, I’ll never know.

So Ardglass afforded me great holidays mixed with a little espionage! And suddenly I was sixteen years of age and no longer wanted to be seen dead with my parents in a little sleepy village in Northern Ireland. So that was the end of my idyllic holidays in Ardglass. Looking back, teenagers appreciate nothing but girls and music, but that I suppose is how it should be.

Last year I went back to Ardglass for a long weekend. It was strange to think, as I walked its familiar streets and stood outside the old house, long sold, that it was nearly fifty years ago that I spent my last holiday here.

So I walked the length and breadth of the place. Milligan’s hall, the scene of “The Mummy” is falling down now. Rooney’s shop, with its farthing boxes, is also gone. But Charlie Mulhall’s shop is still going strong, run by Charlie’s two sons. One of them, Willie, paints a lot and is very well known, especially for his portraits of music stars. You should check out his website. We had a long conversation with him, and I purchased a painting of Ardglass which is now proudly displayed in my house.

The rest of the place looks remarkably as it did, except with a few new shops and other bits and pieces. The biggest change for me was at the back of the old house. The bay window is gone and there is a new marina, so running over the rocks is no longer an option.

But the harbour and bay look much the same with Ardtole still nestling across the water. Jordan’s castle keeps its ancient watch and the golf links attracts its patrons as it did in my day. The graveyard at the back of the church has filled up some more, including some of my relations, sad to tell. But for all the time lost between then and now, it still retains its strong attraction for me. I feel strangely at home in this little village. But maybe as a man gets old, he starts to think on his youth, and no more happier times were spent but right here, in Ardglass, County Down.

What Next for Mankind?

About 5 billion years ago, our solar system was formed from the gravitational collapse of a giant cloud of dust, molecules and atoms, much of which was left over from the Big Bang itself. A small amount, however, was generated by the death of giant stars as they blew themselves to pieces in what is called a supernova. When things began to settle down from the violence of the creation, the solar system consisted of our Sun with 8 attendant planets (the ninth, Pluto, has been demoted to a dwarf planet), an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, comets, meteors and other sundry bits and pieces. Initially the Earth was awash with volcanic and earthquake activity as it cooled down, but eventually it became relatively stable although even today volcanic and seismic activity continues.

So, how long more can mankind continue to live on the Earth? Baring the possibility of humanity blowing itself to bits or destroying the environment, we must consider our Sun as the most likely cause of Earth’s demise. The Sun will continue to burn at its present rate for another 5 billion years. It will supply all our energy needs during that time and assuming we don’t do something daft, will also continue to sustain us. However after that time has expired the Sun will begin to go through a number of changes where it will eventually expand into what is called a red giant. This means that its outer surface will expand almost to the distance of the Earth. If we are inside that expansion the complete planet will be utterly destroyed. If we remain outside it, the atmosphere and oceans will be boiled off and everything on the surface will be burned to a crisp. We had better be gone by then.

Of course, we have only been around on this planet for about 200 thousand years and while we made some pretty major advances early on (discovery of fire, the wheel etc.) our technology has really only taken off since the late middle ages. Since that time it has progressed in leaps and bounds to our electronic computer age today. We have managed to send a man as far as the Moon, which is less than a quarter of a million miles away, a dot in the ocean in comparison to the distance to our second nearest star, Proxima Centauri, a mere 25 million million miles. And that was by putting him in a little capsule on top of a massive rocket and hurling him upwards into space.

Looking on the bright side we still have a long, long time to figure out how to get permanently off of this planet. We have already taken the first steps, by building the international space station. But it is a tiny step, and the worry is that with the world in a financial mess, there’s not much money around where people are prepared to invest in long term projects. Of course, the whole idea that we should run our affairs tied up in money and power is ridiculous but that’s another article. In the meantime we have to have an optimistic outlook that we’ll get to our goals eventually.

Wrapped up with the idea of leaving planet Earth is the concept of reaching another planet and colonising it. Or even terraforming Mars. That in itself is an interesting concept and certainly a tremendous challenge. How could we transform the hostile atmosphere and environment of Mars into an Earth like state? The main changes required would be the building up of the atmosphere to make it breathable for humans, increasing the temperature and preventing the atmosphere leaking away into space. We could start by importing a very large quantity of water which in theory could be obtained from ice asteroids or the icy moons of Jupiter or other planets as there does not seem to be enough of the substance frozen in the Martian poles. Once there was enough water to form an ocean or two, plant life such as plankton could be introduced into the newly formed sea. This would start converting the atmosphere from its present format to oxygen. These things will be possible in the future even if the technology is a little beyond us at present.

But we don’t need to go to another planet. Why shouldn’t we use the concept of O’Neill cylinders? Gerard O’Neill was a professor of physics at Princeton and in a 1976 book he proposed the idea. Using materials from the moon he envisioned building a huge cylinder in space about 5 miles in diameter and about 20 miles long. This would rotate in order to create an artificial gravity while humans could live on its inner surface. This could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. Other designs could house even more people. And not only would these massive space stations of the future be able to hold so many people, they would not have to stay in the one place, or even orbit one star. They could travel slowly through space which would mean that after many generations the descendants of the first intrepid space farers could reach planets orbiting distant stars. In the meantime the inhabitants of these colonies could live their lives exactly as they did on Earth, working and raising their families.

So this may be the way we will visit and perhaps colonise other planets, assuming of course nobody is already living there. We won’t have to invent the warp engine or any of the other extremely futuristic projects to travel between the stars. While I do believe the application of science will one day be able to overcome the light speed barrier, it will take a very long time in my estimation. One of the ideas on how the warp engine actually operates is that of bending spacetime. The spaceship stays in a bubble of normal space while the space in front and behind is stretched and condensed. In this way the ship rides this wave so to speak. As it takes massive amounts of mass or energy to bend space (even Earth bends it by an incredibly tiny amount) it will be many centuries before we even begin to develop that sort of technology. Of course all this bending of spacetime is only theory. We have no clue if it can ever work in practice. In the meantime all we need is patience as we slowly move through space in our O’Neill cylinders.

Other ideas like moving through the universe involve the use of wormholes. Regions of space light years distant from each other could be connected by a wormhole. Going through the wormhole takes us pretty well instantaneously between the two regions. The analogy is with an apple. To get from one side of the apple to the other, an insect for example, would have to go around the surface. However, if a worm bored a hole through the centre of the apple, this would be a much shorter path between two widely separated areas of the apple. Scientists like to give exotic names to their ideas. Again we would need to be a highly advanced technological civilisation before even attempting such a feat.

And of course we mustn’t forget the old Star Trek favourite, the transporter. The idea that a machine can take your body and send it through space and time to another machine in a different place is quite mind boggling. This to my mind is an even more advanced concept than the wormhole. There are two ways it might work. First, the machine reads the precise position of every atom in your body. Immediately we run into the uncertainty principle, but let’s ignore that. This transporter has a computer with massive memory capable of recording where every single atom in your body belongs, that’s 7000 trillion trillion atoms, more than there are stars in the observable universe. That’s some computing power. Of course with clever algorithms we need remember much less than that, but it is still an awesome feat. Then the machine teleports this information to its sister machine some other place and hence reconstructs you, with all your atoms in the correct position. Now the first transporter has to kill you otherwise there will be two copies of you. The other method is to deconstruct you in the first place (it could still be called murder), send your actual atoms as energy to the other machine and reconstruct you. The question also arises whether the reconstructed you is really you. Of course a more advanced transporter doesn’t need a second machine to work. It can put you down anywhere. Notwithstanding that some scientist recently said that a device like that in Star Trek could be invented within the next 100 years, I think that is rubbish. This technology won’t be invented within the next 1000 years. Then again all guesses as to what the future may bring are usually wrong.

So what will it be like living in an O’Neill cylinder? As the cylinder is spinning an artificial gravity, equivalent to that on Earth, will be created due to the centrifugal force generated by the spin, much like on fairground rides. Therefore, living on the inner surface, you will feel weight, objects will fall if dropped and everything will behave as if on the surface of a planet. However, if we look up we won’t see a normal sky. Instead we will see the buildings, open spaces, fields and so on in use by the people on the opposite side of the cylinder, just as they will see us on our side. Probably in strips along the length of the cylinder will be massive glass windows through which we will see the stars outside although only when the lighting system within the cylinder will have been shut down. We will need to have light and dark cycles to simulate the pattern of day and night on Earth. We will have to have seasons with artificial sunshine, and we will need to fabricate our own wind and rain. The dream of controlling the weather will become reality here. We will need to have sufficient space devoted to farming with real seeds producing real food. We will even be able to take holidays to other parts of the cylinder. Perhaps we can have mountainous regions, forested regions, vast savannahs all populated with their own animals.

O’Neill cylinders may be well and good but others see a different future for mankind. They cite evolution and the fact that we are still evolving. And with the rise and progress of genetic engineering it is not inconceivable that we can nudge our evolution forward and in ways we ourselves may wish. In theory we could increase our intelligence, enhance our bodies so they become disease free, become stronger, faster, live longer. In effect there is probably no limit on our capabilities. Some people may say that is messing with nature and it should not be done. Making ourselves likes gods. But all I can say about that is if it can be done, now or in the future, we’re going to do it.

We could evolve our bodies to be able to survive in different atmospheres which would mean we won’t have to try terraforming Mars or other planets. We could even survive in the cold vacuum of outer space itself. This would mean we don’t have to create artificial atmospheres in our O’Neill cylinders. Make ourselves to fit the environment rather than making the environment to fit us.

What about incorporating some machine parts into our bodies? Of course that is already being done with artificial limbs, hips, pacemakers and so on. But what about a radio transmitter and receiver made of bio material inserted into our brains? This, for example, would allow connection to a massive knowledge bank where anything we might want to know would simply require thinking about it. Sort of being wired up to the internet without having to use a computer.

However, the main challenge we have as a race of humankind is the ability to be able to put wars and hatred to one side. We need to grow up. And fast. The Earth is not going to be able to support us as we are. We simply cannot continue to plunder its resources and pollute its environment. We cannot continue to overpopulate it. We have to sit down and take a long hard look at ourselves. Do we want to head for the stars eventually? And that urge is in our blood. After all we came from the stars. Most of the atoms of which we are composed were cooked inside a star long ago. So let’s put our puny differences aside, stand together and head for the great unknown. Otherwise we might as well blow the planet to pieces right now.

Theophany

I’ve always enjoyed dreaming. I’ve had some beautiful dreams, some mediocre dreams, some frightening dreams, and some nasty dreams. With the exception of the nasty ones, I enjoy them all.

Nothing, however, prepared me for the dream I had last night. I suppose you could call it a theophany, a type of dream where God himself appears. Now, being an agnostic and not a particularly good sort of guy, I was sort of surprised that he should bother his head to appear to me. The famous old question pops to mind, why me? But I guess I have to accept it. He just came walking into my dream, long white hair and beard flowing, looking exactly like Michelangelo portrayed him in the Sistine chapel.

“I want a word with you,” he said.

Well, I certainly wanted a word with him. I’d often thought that if the God thing were true, on my death I would love to be able to sit down and ask him questions. Hard questions. So now it looked like I might get my chance.

Turns out that he wanted the same thing, the chance to explain himself a little. Why and why to me, he wouldn’t answer. Just smiled and said, “Why not?”

I suppose different people might have different questions they might want to address to the creator of the universe, but I wanted to ask him the really basic ones. Like who made God?

The argument of cause from effect is one of the more convincing arguments about the existence of God until you look a little more closely. Everything has a cause. Your existence is caused by your parents, whose existence in turn was caused by their parents. And on we go. So what caused the universe itself? Surely it had to be caused by something. Well, we can say it was caused by God who is the unmoved mover. But the logical step is surely to ask what caused God? Why stop at God and assume he is uncaused? So basically it is as absurd to say that the universe was uncaused as it is to say that God is uncaused. Does that imply if I don’t believe in God then I have to accept that the universe is uncaused? It just is, so to speak?

This is a question where the issue of infinity comes into play and humans can’t get their heads around that. Therefore, why should we even begin to think we can get our heads around the whole area of where the universe came from, not to mind about God?

Of course with current advances in cosmology and physics, there are opinions about how exactly the universe came into play. One idea is that the Big Bang, generally thought to kick our current universe off was in turned caused by the collapse of a universe which came into existence before our own. Quite possibly a universe which was not as complex as ours and probably didn’t harbour any intelligent life. This in turn had a universe preceding it which was even simpler. And so back to a time when an initial quantum disturbance (whatever that might mean) just popped into existence. This simplest of universes collapsed on itself giving birth to a slightly less simple universe and so on.

But come on, what caused the initial quantum ripple to appear? And we’re back to the same old roundabout. It reminds me of the story of a wise old sage who was asked the question what holds the earth up. He said the earth rested on the back of an elephant. But what holds the elephant up? The elephant stands on the back of a giant turtle. The sage knew, of course, where the questions were leading, and continued that it was turtles all the way down from there.

I think, says God, you just have to accept that I am!

Not very satisfactory at all, but he wasn’t budging from his position. I wondered if God himself really knew the answer to this greatest of mysteries. Maybe there are things even he doesn’t know.

So I suppose the next best question was why did he make the universe?

You try sitting in eternity with nothing else to do and see what happens. A rather terse answer I thought, but I guess it was easy to see his point of view. Wouldn’t making a universe and seeing how it turned out be a really challenging thing to do?

So what about us? Humanity? Well, says he, something like that was at the back of my mind, but I was a little surprised how it turned out. Evolution began on some planets which eventually led to life and intelligence.

So we’re not the only intelligent species in the universe? He replied with a smile, of course not. Wouldn’t it be an awful waste of space if the whole shebang was created just for you? You haven’t managed to contact any of them yet, but you can take my word for it that the universe is teeming with life, intelligent and otherwise.

What about evil and suffering? Why all this suffering?

Ah, I knew you’d get around to that. I know the existence of evil is one of the greatest reasons why people reject me. I could say it was a toss-up between you having free will or not having free will. But that’s a rather lame answer. I could also say unless you experience evil you can never know good. But then you’ll say why do I allow children to suffer. Let me assure you, I don’t allow anybody to suffer. I don’t will any of the bad things to happen either. I created this universe and allowed it to run its course. You do know that many scientists say that even a tiny adjustment to any of the constants in the universe, such as the ratio of the proton to the electron, would cause it to be lifeless? In fact, it’s the only way I could have created the universe. You have to remember God can’t do things which are impossible. Further you should consider the ratio of a little bit of pain over a minute time span in the great scheme of things as against an eternity without pain. I realise this isn’t satisfactory, but it’s the best I can offer.

No doubt it’s tied up with the suffering bit, but why death? Couldn’t you have made us immortal and live in happiness all the time? Like angels, although I doubt they exist.

Well, angels do exist but not as you imagine them. You don’t have a guardian angel, for example. They were not created by me but have been around as long as I have, which in your mind you might call eternity. While they are almost equal in every way to myself, they simply lack one power and that is creation. However, when you die they will help you to adjust to the next level and so on, but I’ll speak about that shortly.

I can also tell you that devils don’t exist. It would be a pointless creation. So no war in heaven, I’m afraid. In fact, the only rebellious creatures are made of flesh and blood. And as I mentioned earlier, you are not the only creatures to inhabit the universe. As a flesh and blood being, you go through a life of learning in order to prepare for a life beyond. And yes, that means going through death. But death is nothing to be afraid of. It’s a preparation for the next life but you’ll only see that from the other side. And I know that many people learn nothing in this present life, but there are very many who do. They are simply further on the road to their final destination. I’ll speak more about this later when you ask me about heaven and hell.

Well then, I guess there’s no time like the present. What about heaven and hell? Do they exist?

Yes and no. Listen, a lot of religions believe that if you are good in this life you go straight to heaven in the next life. But think about it. You cannot go from this extremely limited life straight into eternity. The transformation would be too much to take. In fact it would spiritually kill you. When you leave this life you do enter an afterlife but this is only the first of many. This afterlife which can last a short or long time depending on the person, is a time for contemplation of your time in what I like to call your earthly life. This earthly life is the first of many lives you will experience. The second life is what you call the afterlife. This is where you might experience heaven or hell, but it is not physical. Imagine you have done something very wrong to somebody and you are genuinely sorry for it. You experience remorse. This is what the afterlife is like as you look over what you did with and in your own life. You will feel remorse for the things you did which hurt others. So for example a really bad person will experience huge remorse, maybe almost unbearable. While a really good person will not experience anything like this. Nobody is perfect of course, and all will go through this process. But it is not all about dealing with your earthly life, it is about preparation for further lives to come.

I reminded him that he had already said there were no devils. So who was responsible for evil? He replied that evil was simply the negation of good. Some people do choose evil and we shouldn’t try to blame evil on some being like Satan. We are ourselves to blame for evil. Just look around at the wars going on even today. Look at the history books and the human race has been busily killing for centuries. No wonder the bible wisely says that when the Jews were defeated and hauled off to Babylon, they had only themselves to blame. Like the Americans today have only themselves to blame for 9/11. That is not to say they deserve it, but look what they have done in the third world and elsewhere. You can’t do what you want and get away with it.

But this might be well and good, but what about the evils of an earthquake, or a tsunami? Surely man can’t be blamed for them. Of course not, but as I’ve pointed out before, the universe is as it is. There was no better way to do it. Remember this world you are living on is far from stable. It is only about four and a half billion years old. It is still cooling down from its birth pangs and will continue to suffer earthquakes and volcanoes and other natural phenomena well into the future. In fact, I can tell you that mankind will have long left this planet for outer space before the planet cools sufficiently to be totally stable, and then it will die.

Does science contradict religion? This whole area has been a bone of contention for many long years. Scientists seeming to line up on the atheist side with theologians and their comrades lining up on the theist side. This has been going on since the days of Galileo if not longer, but has come into prominence particularly since Charles Darwin and others introduced the idea of evolution. This rumbles on today with the creationists and literal interpreters of the bible insisting that the earth is only about six thousand years old while the scientists saying the earth is four and a half billion years old. Unfortunately for the creationists they are wrong. It is strange that they accept the literal words written in an ancient book. The bible was written by men trying to make sense of the universe they found themselves in. They knew nothing of modern science. And neither could you expect them to.

If you look carefully enough you will find that when men used their intelligence to consider and discuss the difficulties faced by scientists and theologians, they often found themselves in close agreement. After all if two disciplines are searching for truth, and there is only one truth, they both can’t find different things.

One of the most famous cases of religion going against science is the story of Galileo. He said that the earth revolved around the sun. This contradicted certain passages in the bible which implied that the earth was stable and the sun revolved around it. Well, in those days that’s what everybody thought and the writers of these particular sections of the bible were no different. Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer, first proposed the theory of heliocentricity in the early sixteenth century. Johannes Kepler, another astronomer and mathematician, published a work which expanded on Copernicus’ work which found a welcome reception among some Jesuits known for their scientific achievements. Of course, the heliocentric theory seemed to contradict the bible which was a very sensitive issue for the church. Besides the protestant reformation was in full swing and when Galileo went to Rome to see Pope Paul V, he turned the matter over to the Holy Office (in other words, the inquisition). They issued a condemnation of the theory, but that was all it was. No further action was taken or expected to be taken. Unfortunately Galileo was a stubborn man and at his insistence Cardinal Bellarmine, one of the most influential Jesuit theologians of the day, issued a certification which forbade Galileo to hold or defend his theory, but did allow him to conjecture it. In fact, he was granted permission to write a book on the subject. And a new pope, Urban VIII, advised him to simply present arguments for and against heliocentricity. Unfortunately Galileo wrote the book using two characters to argue both sides of the case. Arguing the case against the theory was the character Simplicio. The pope thought he was being made fun of. Besides Galileo attacked one of the Jesuit astronomers to boot and hence the famous trial took place where Galileo was placed under house arrest. Contrary to some opinion, he was never tortured and was looked after very well for the rest of his life. Not that that forgives his treatment, but at the end of the day it was all a bit of a misunderstanding really.

I was reasonably happy with God’s answer as I know there are many religious people who are very open to science. Unfortunately there are many who have closed minds. But that’s the nature of people and you’ll find people who are very open to new ideas and people who are closed to them in every strata of society.

So I thought I’d get a glimpse into some current scientific investigations. For example, are there extra dimensions to our universe? Is time travel possible? But he wasn’t having any of it. He said that it is for us to find out and that the seeking of knowledge is one of the greatest gifts we have and which actually plays a very large part in keeping the human race going. It is one of the defining characteristics of the human race.

So I asked him about free will. I told him I was pretty sure we didn’t have it. Maybe we can make a choice between going for a walk and not going for a walk but after that there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it. I mean we don’t get to choose where we are born which has a huge effect on our lives: what religion we are, what colour we are, whether we are rich or poor and so on. We don’t really get to choose what our likes and dislikes are: I didn’t decide one day to read up on science and religion rather than politics or business. I just like those subjects and don’t like the other ones. Also, do really evil people choose to be evil? Can a child molester help himself? Does he even know it is wrong. We’ve all heard about people who have no conscience. Surely that’s not something they can help.

He looked at me and said, with what I can only describe as an authority and wisdom beyond my understanding, ultimately each individual knows what is right or wrong. And even a man without a conscience knows deep down. He may choose to ignore this, but he knows. And that is probably the most important aspect of free will which you all have. True, you don’t choose your birthplace or circumstances but in the great scheme of things this is not important. You are a human being made in the image of myself. Of course when I say image, I am not speaking physically but spiritually.

So why do you keep yourself such a secret? Why don’t you tell people you exist? He smiled and said that if he were to stand on a mountain top and proclaim his glory, half the world would still not believe. Besides, this is a journey for each and every man. Each person must take this trip alone. People ask who they are. Well, they know who they are. They are humans descended from other humans who in turn are standing at the head of a long chain of evolution stretching back more than 3 billion years when the first one-celled creatures appeared. And even they are products of a molecular evolutionary process stretching even further back. You are only at the very beginning and as I pointed out earlier, your quest for knowledge and understanding are one of your main driving forces. But you have to give it time. To understand everything now would simply destroy you. Your minds simply couldn’t take it. You must be patient. Knock and it shall be opened to you, but I never said how long it would take.

Tell me about Jesus Christ. Was he your son? Did he have to suffer so much? Did he actually rise from the dead?

Forget all about the holy trinity stuff. That again was something thought up by the early church in an attempt to understand. In order to show mankind a glimpse of the way he should be going, you could call it a clue, I myself came upon this earth as a man and I was called Jesus Christ. I preached basically that the kingdom of God is within all of you. You don’t need God to tell you how to live your life, you already know it, but many of you ignore it. Look, it’s the most logical thing in the world. Do unto others what you would have them do to you. If only everybody would follow that simple concept, think how much better things could be. I realise that in itself won’t stop earthquakes, illness, disease and so forth. But these things are in your own hands. Look how far you have come in the few millennia you have been on this planet. You can now cure many ills, you are living much longer, your science has taken you far and to the moon. On the other hand you should be ashamed that you have not cured hunger and starvation for 13% of humanity which is an estimated 925 million hungry people. You still seem incapable of settling serious disputes without killing each other. You still seem to have an incredible lust for money and power. Do you not stop to think that all this ends at the grave? You can’t take it with you. You ignore what is more important. And don’t say it’s just the other fellow. Take responsibility for your own actions. Think about what you do. You’re not as innocent as you think. But I’m not here to castigate. I’m here to teach.

I suffered as a human as many humans suffered in the name of justice throughout history. Today in western countries I would be ignored as a rabble rouser. In less democratic countries I would just vanish. But 2000 years ago the world didn’t have human rights organisations. A troublemaker in Jerusalem was simply crucified by the Romans. Problem solved. I didn’t choose to die in that way, but I knew it would be like that. But the most important thing was for me to get my message through. It has reached some of you, but sadly has missed too many. And yes, I did rise from the grave. It’s no big deal. But it wasn’t as effective as when I came into a little room among a group of terrified men and women and gave them the courage to get up and go out and preach fearlessly my message to the world. Of course, as with everything in human hands, it kind of got out of control. Paul was one of the hardest working of my followers, making my name known far and wide, but it was really the Roman emperor Constantine whose decision to embrace Christianity, as my sect became known, which converted the entire Roman world. Some centuries later the catholic church became so powerful that they really moved away from my simple gospel and became as corrupt as any group could be. In the twentieth century the only pope to come even close to where he should be was John XXIII. Unfortunately John Paul II put paid to that and hurled the church back into the middle ages once again where it has become stuck.

But I don’t really want to go down that road now, besides it’s time for me to take my leave and let you wake up and think on what I’ve said.

And that was it. I woke up filled with thoughts about this most unusual of dreams. Questions which I hadn’t asked but should have, came flooding into my head. But then I started thinking about the answers I had actually got and thought maybe I didn’t do so bad after all.

So what do you think? Did I ask the questions you might have asked? But you know the whole thing is made up. I never had such a dream. I would like to have such a dream. I would like nothing better than to put these questions to God. But, he doesn’t exist, does he? If not, I’ll never be able to question him. Then again, I’m not an out and out atheist. I’m agnostic. I don’t know if God exists or not. I sure hope he does and if he does exist, then maybe one day…

A Trip to Israel

In February 2009 myself and my two sons went on the trip of a lifetime to Israel. Over the previous 10 years or so I had become fascinated with the study of the bible from a historical point of view and to my surprise I was treated to a week in Jerusalem for my 60th birthday. In one sense the timing was good as the war in Gaza was raging and hence the influx of visitors to the Holy Land had considerably diminished allowing us easy access to all the usual sites without them being crammed with visitors like ourselves.

We landed in Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv at about four o’clock in the morning. As it was the Sabbath day, all normal modes of transport were not operating and so we had to take a special taxi from there to Jerusalem. These taxis take about 8 people and they just wait till full before starting their journey. We sat for about half an hour before the final passenger boarded and then we took off out of a very normal looking, modern day airport, back into history. I have to say I felt great excitement and anticipation in this land about which I had read so much. It was here that King David (the most famous of Jewish kings) had killed the giant Goliath (that most famous of Philistine warriors) with a single shot from his sling. Here the Ark of the Covenant had resided until finally lost sometime during the 6th century BC. Here the Jewish people were conquered many times over throughout their history, but especially by the Babylonians. Here in this land their great temple was destroyed not once, but twice. First by the Babylonians in the 6th century BC and then by the Romans in 70AD. It has never been rebuilt. Here we have the complete destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the fall of Jericho (when those walls came tumbling down). The stories of Samson and Delilah, the wisdom of Solomon and the visit of the Queen of Sheba. Some of the stories may not be true and even some of the characters may not have existed, but many of them did. David certainly did and was king of his people whether or not he killed Goliath. The Ark existed and was carried around by the Israelites for many years before finally ending up in the great temple in Jerusalem. The Babylonians inflicted a great defeat on the Jews and brought them into exile for many years. Jericho is a real city, existing today as in the past, although the story of it’s walls crashing to the ground at the sounding of trumpets on Joshua’s order is surely apocryphal. Not to mention the fact that Jesus Christ, the most famous character in western civilization, also walked on this soil.

But no matter, separating history from legend is fascinating and the strange thing is that quite a lot of what is spoken about in the Bible and which many scholars shrugged off as not historical has turned out to be fact. For example many assumed Sodom never existed but now excavations have shown evidence of this ancient city, that at least it existed. In fact, a similar tale can be related about the city of Troy from whence came the famous Helen. Initially it was thought to be a fictional city in the story by Homer, but subsequently was actually found.

Anyway, here I was, in a taxi travelling through the land of Israel towards Jerusalem. Brought to mind the lines from Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming”:

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Then I saw the signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English pointing towards Jerusalem. At this point I knew I was really in this fantastic land. That may seem strange to say, but no matter what way you look at it, my whole Irish Catholic culture, whether as a believer or atheist, comes directly from this place. Maybe it took a slight detour via Rome, but it’s origins are right here.

Then suddenly we were stopping outside our hostel, the YMCA, right opposite the most well known hotel in Israel, the King David, a part of which was blown up by a militant Zionist group in 1946. But we were too tired to care, having being travelling from early morning the day before. We got to our room and crashed out.

However, later that morning we rose, eager to hit the old town of Jerusalem. We couldn’t see it from our window as the King David Hotel was in the way. After consulting our map and finding the route to the old city, we headed out of the hostel and crossed the road. Deftly dodging the taxi drivers touting for business, we made our way round the side of the King David and down a seriously hilly road. At the bottom we were rewarded with a first view of Jerusalem. For this we had come so far. It was magnificent even though we could only see one of the main walls and the Jaffa Gate across the valley. It reminded me forcibly of the woodcut I reproduce above of the pilgrims’ first sight of Jerusalem under the escort of the Knights Templar.

We entered by the Jaffa Gate, which had been built by Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century. At this time Jerusalem was ruled by the Ottoman Empire and it was due to Sultan Suleiman that the present walls of Jerusalem were built. So passing through this gate we passed by the original brickwork and mortar built by the Moslems nearly 500 years ago. The first thing we did was to breakfast at a little café inside the old city. So now we had to decide what to do next. There was such a choice, but we thought the best idea was to walk the walls themselves and so get an overview of the city. There are a number of different walks you can do, but we took the route from the Jaffa Gate round by the Damascus Gate to the Lion’s Gate. In hindsight this was the better of the two routes we could have chosen as it indeed gave us a great overview of the old city, including the Church of the holy Sepulchre which contains Calvary and the tomb of Jesus. Also the beautiful golden Dome of the Rock, one of the most iconic sights of Jerusalem, the Islamic shrine built on the Temple Mount.

It was a hot sunny day and remarkably few people were on the wall. We were able to take our ease and take in the sights. At the Damascus Gate we paused, listening to and watching the hubbub of people shopping in the market below. Much to our surprise we also noticed some Irish graffiti on a building “Tiocfaidh ar lá o saoirse”. I don’t know what it means but guess at something like “Our freedom will come one day”. Continuing along the walls we could see the Garden of Gethsemane in the distance across the Kidron Valley and the Mount of Olives, one of the places from which Christ is supposed to have ascended into heaven.

And suddenly right in our path comes a snake. He must have been about two feet long, a big guy. We managed to get one photo of him before he vanished over the edge of the wall.

We came down from the wall at the Lion’s Gate which is close to the point where the Via Dolorosa begins, the traditional path of Christ from where Pilot condemned him to death and ending at Calvary and his tomb. Of course, as modern scholars now point out, this is in the wrong place, but as with most things from the gospels there is more than one place commemorating where these events are supposed to have occurred.

No matter, after passing by the Church of the Condemnation and the Church of the Flagellation (what fantastic names) we came upon an intriguing little sign which simply pointed to the house of Mary, the mother of Jesus. This was at the side of the Church of St Anne which is a beautiful 12th century Crusader church erected over the traditional site of the birthplace of Anne who is the mother of Mary. Descending a flight of narrow steps I arrived in a small grotto type place which is supposed to be the house. A small little place, I guess it could have been anybody’s, but tradition has it as being the house of Anne and Joachim, the parents of Mary.

The church itself is supposed to have been designed for Gregorian chant and the acoustics are so perfect that many pilgrim groups come to sing in the church. We were privileged to be there during just such a performance by a group of black Americans. Their rich voices soared in that place and boy, was it a treat.

The church itself is next to the Bethesda Pool, believed to be the site where Jesus healed a paralytic. Here can be seen the ruins of a Roman temple to the god of medicine and also the remains of a Byzantine church built over the temple as well as the pool itself.

Afterwards we continued along the Via Dolorosa and spotted a group of pilgrims praying the Stations of the Cross. We decided to join them as they would surely lead us directly to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Which is exactly what happened. The present church houses both the Hill of Calvary and the tomb of Christ.

This is a fascinating building with a long history. Sometime after the crucifixion the site became a place of Christian veneration. However, after the Jewish revolt in 70AD the city of Jerusalem was totally destroyed by the Romans. Hadrian then rebuilt the city calling it Aelia Capitolina around 135AD but forbade Jews or Christians to enter it. He even constructed a pagan temple on the site of the present church.

However, all this changed after the emperor Constantine became a Christian. Legend has it that he was exposed to Christianity by his mother, Helena, but it was only before an important battle that Constantine, looking at the sun, saw a cross of light with the words “By this win”. He therefore commanded his troops to wear a Christian symbol on their shields and hence won the battle of Milvian Bridge, which gave him the emperorship of the West. Sometime afterwards he instructed Helena to go to Jerusalem, destroy the pagan temple, begin excavations and build a church on the site. She is alleged to have found not only the Hill of Calvary but also a tomb close by which was declared to be the tomb of Jesus. The church was built on the site but was damaged by fire in 916 and again in 966 during a riot. Finally it was completely destroyed in 1009. However it was rebuilt in 1048. Later the church was renovated and added to in the 12th century by the crusaders and again renovated by the Franciscans in the 16th century. It was severely damaged again by fire at the beginning of the 19th century and to this day is continually being excavated and renovated.

At present the principal custodians of the church are the Eastern Orthodox, the Armenian Christians and the Catholic Church. Others have a share in smaller areas. Unfortunately these groups continue to squabble and fight each other. In 2008 a fist fight broke out when a monk was ejected by some rivals.

However, the day we visited all was peaceful and calm. There is a strange palpable power in the place (perhaps wish fulfilment, I don’t know) and sitting quietly in one corner I noticed several people being overcome with tears. All reason and logic goes out the window and one sits and contemplates. Could it all be true? Was the Son of God really crucified only yards from where I sat? Whatever the theology, a human man was certainly crucified and buried here and whether he wanted to or not, it is because of him that the vast edifice of Western Christianity has shaped our history for more than two millennia. So there is an atmosphere of potent energy within the church, felt by believer and non-believer alike.

After a while I got up and went down some steps which led to the tomb. I queued for a short time as it only holds about three or four people and the priests like to keep things moving. But I was able to remain inside for a few minutes once again immersed in the great questions. After that we headed back to our hotel for a nice evening meal and some scoops.

The next day we decided to take a taxi up to the Mount of Olives and walk back down across the Kidron Valley to Jerusalem where we had a tour booked along Herod’s wall. Even though the driver tried to get us to change our minds and take a trip to Bethlehem instead, he turned out to be a very friendly character, a Palestinian and gave us advise on how to mind our money. I was actually touched when he shook my hand and gave us a blessing as we left his cab. Compared to him the surly curator of the Chapel of the Ascension which we visited first was most unfriendly as we paid our small entrance fee.

As with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, there is quite a history behind this small round structure, but the present building is from Crusader times. Not an impressive place, the most interesting part is a small stone frame surrounding a rock with the supposed impression of the last footprint of Christ before he ascended to heaven. I have to say, it looked nothing like the shape of a foot to me.

After that we started to walk down the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane. On this sunny warm day, the garden looked very serene, belying it’s terrible trauma of the night before Christ died. Today it is fenced off so you can’t walk through it, although you can stretch your hand in to touch the rough bark of the olive trees. Some say that it still contains olive trees which are approximately 2000 years old. But that is unlikely although they probably are descendants of the original trees. We continued our journey visiting the Church of All Nations which is very modern having been built at the beginning of the 20th century using funds donated by many countries around the world, hence it’s name. Being right beside the Garden of Gethsemane, it claims to contain the place where Jesus is supposed to have prayed on the night of his arrest.

From the Mount of Olives, it is possible to take in the whole panorama of the old city of Jerusalem surrounded by it’s walls and dominated by the golden cupola of the Dome of the Rock. The old city is surprisingly small, it’s surrounding walls stretch only for about 2.5 miles. But looking at it stretched out in all it’s glory, the most amazing thing about it is the mass of history it encapsulates and the fact that it is a most sacred city to three of the world’s largest religions: Jews, Muslims and Christians.

We walked down into the Kidron Valley which separates the Mount of Olives from the old city itself. Walking through this valley we came upon some very ancient monuments, more than two thousand years old and it struck me forcibly that Christ must have seen these too as he was dragged to Jerusalem from the Garden of Gethsemane as this is the only route he could have taken.

Entering into the old city, we headed for the Western (or Wailing) Wall. It is the remains of the wall which surrounded the Jewish Temple and is one of the most sacred places for Jews today, as it is the closest they can now get to the Holy of Holies where God himself was supposed to have dwelt before the total destruction of the temple by the Romans around 70AD as mentioned above. One part of the wall is sectioned off for women, while we entered the men’s section (orthodox Jewry being very male dominated, even today). We were given a little skullcap made from cardboard to wear as a mark of respect and were allowed to go anywhere we wished. It is daunting to think that this wall was erected by King Herod the Great about 19BC. Some of the stones weigh up to 8 tons each with one in particular weighing in excess of 500 tons. How the builders moved and positioned them is just incredible. Of course I had to touch the wall itself and again the shear weight of history comes through. And crammed into every crevice were scraps of paper which hold prayers and petitions from devout Jews.

A large part of the wall continues underground and as we had booked a tour of this area in advance, we headed for the entrance to this fascinating historical guide. Suffice it to say that the walk took us through thousands of years of history in the footsteps of Herod, Solomon, David and others. At the end of the tour we exited into the Muslim quarter of the old city. This exit was only opened in the late 1980’s and caused a riot at the time. I remember walking along the street and had been one of the last to leave the tunnel. I noticed a young guy walking quite closely behind me and didn’t particularly feel at ease with it. I stopped and motioned for him to go ahead which he did, although giving me a funny look. Next thing I notice he was in conversation with my sons up ahead, so I caught up wondering what was going on. It turns out he was a member of Israeli security, part of whose job is to make sure that the visitors are safe on leaving the tour. I have to say I didn’t feel particularly unsafe, but I guess nothing is taken for granted in Israel.

Either that same day or the next day, I can’t remember which, we paid a visit to the Dome of the Rock. This is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount one side of which is the Western Wall. This is a magnificent building, octagonal in shape with a massive golden dome on the roof. The gold was added by King Hussein of Jordan in 1993. Unfortunately, due to the Gaza war, we were not allowed inside the building. The Muslim curator explained, almost apologetically, that only Muslims could enter the building at this time. This was a great pity.

Another day we headed out of the old city and went to Mount Zion. Here, besides lots of churches commemorating one thing or another, we found a crusader built castle which houses the room of the last supper. Of course this cannot be the actual site as this was only built in the 12th century, but many scholars say it is probably the correct area. But it’s something for the visitors to see. Coming from this we came to another building which supposedly housed the tomb of David. We were stopped on the way in by a little man indicating that we needed to wear a skullcap, which were available from him for a small fee. We proceeded to enter the room with the tomb of David which a lot of scholars say is not where David rests at all. Anyway, once inside the door we were amused to find a box full of skullcaps which could be borrowed for free. So the little guy had taken us for a ride. Well, we didn’t lose much and it looked like he needed the money. Then he started telling us about the place, and we said we didn’t need a guide but found it difficult to get rid of him. At last when we were leaving he put his hand out for money and I told him we hadn’t asked for his services and he could take a hike. He turned quite nasty and called us filthy people. I just laughed and shrugged my shoulders but he sure as hell wasn’t getting another penny out of us.

Overall in the holy land we weren’t bothered by guys trying to get hired. Mostly we just ignored them and they quickly got the message. A few would persist trying out different languages on us, but we usually started speaking the little Irish we knew and they soon went away. Once I saw a taxi driver really hassling these two old folk and as I passed I noticed that they looked quite frightened. I stopped and said to the man, under my breath, “Just ignore him and walk away”. He took my advice and they walked with me a short way leaving the taxi driver shouting something after us. They turned out to be an American couple and they thanked me for my help. I said it was nothing and advised them to just keep walking if anybody bothered them. I have to add that I found the vast majority of the people we dealt with very friendly and even though there were soldiers walking around with guns hanging out of them all over the place, I never felt safer in a foreign city.

While visiting Mount Zion we also took the time to visit Oscar Schindler’s grave. It is a custom in Jewish graveyards that visitors place a stone on the tomb of people they visit. Schindler’s grave is packed with stones which is a mark of the respect the Jewish people felt for this German “Nazi” who helped so many of their people during the war.

As with many other places in the Holy Land, there is a second site which purports to be the room of the last supper. This time it is inside the old city of Jerusalem. It is not a place you can just walk into and we had to find ourselves a guide. I think our guide turned out to be an Armenian nun and she opened up the place for us. It was a beautiful old church in the Armenian quarter. The nun began to regale us with miracle stories and eventually we had to ask her if we could see the last supper room. She brought us downstairs and turned on the lights, explaining that the street level was lower in those days and while this room was below ground now, in Jesus’ time it was on the second floor. It was a small room, sparsely furnished with some pictures and a small altar. Going back upstairs I asked her if she could speak Aramaic, the language that Christ spoke. She said yes and offered to sing the Our Father in Aramaic, which she did. Although interesting, I would have preferred if she had simply recited it as I wanted to hear what the language itself sounded like, although I suppose I could just watch Mel Gibson’s film, Passion of the Christ, to hear it.

During our week in Jerusalem we hired a car for one day. While tourists are not allowed to drive hired cars in the Palestinian areas, we are allowed to drive on one designated Israeli controlled road through the West Bank. On our way, we were flagged down by an Israeli soldier weighed down with a heavy automatic machine gun. He couldn’t have been more than twenty years of age and asked us where we were going. We told him, Masada. “Okay,” he says, “Can I have a lift? I’m going as far as Qumran which is just down the road.” Well, what do you say to a guy asking for a lift who’s toting a machine gun? I guess you say yes. So he got into the back of the car, hauling his automatic with him. He turned out to be a very nice guy and we chatted in general about Israel and tourism. We thought it mightn’t be a good idea to ask him for a go of his gun!

Having left our guest at Qumran (where the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered) we continued on to Masada. This is a fortress built by Herod the Great and sits on top of a massive rock plateau which rises out of the surrounding landscape to a height of about 1300 feet on the side closest to the Dead Sea and about 300 feet on the other side. It is an ideal place for defence as access is difficult and dangerous. A few years before the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD the small Roman garrison at Masada was overcome by a group of Jewish rebels and their numbers were much enlarged after the destruction of the city by more rebels fleeing from the battle. For about two years these rebels raided and harassed the Romans until Flavius Silva, a Roman general marched against Masada. Well defended and almost impossible to attack directly, Masada held out against the Roman siege. Eventually the Romans built a ramp up the side of Masada and hauled a battering ram up to the walls where they eventually gained entry. However, when the Romans entered Masada, they found all the men, women and children dead. The Jews had decided to commit mass suicide rather than be taken by their sworn enemy.

My two sons braved the hour long walk up the side of Masada along the so called Snake Path. I, on the other hand, took the cable car. The view from the top is stunning, the Dead Sea below (it’s the lowest point on Earth at 1200 feet below sea level) and the land of Jordan in the distance. The remains of Roman siege camps are also easily seen in the landscape below. The basic structure of the fortress can still be seen today, the walls, the remains of the houses and storerooms, the massive water cisterns, and Herod’s palace. Of course the ramp built by the Romans is still there, but it doesn’t look as impressive as it must have done originally as a lot of it looks to have collapsed.

After a few hours walking around the Masada fortress we got in the car and drove to one of the areas where you can take a dip in the Dead Sea. As this is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world it is impossible to actually swim in it. You simply wade out and sit down. You cannot sink. It is a most amazing experience, as your arms, upper back and legs are pushed above the surface and you can sit quite happily in the gently undulating current. Very relaxing indeed. Of course you are strongly advised to take a good cold shower on emerging as the salt can sting badly.

After this somewhat exhilarating experience we drove to Ein Gedi, an oasis in the Israeli desert, which is also a sanctuary for many types of plant, bird and animal species. It is a wooded hilly area with at least one river flowing through it where we sat and watched the hyrax (rock badger) jumping from rock to rock, sometimes in groups of five or six. Here we also saw the hoopoe, Israel’s national bird, a most colourful character with a beautiful crown of feathers on it’s head. Here it was, in old testament times, that King David hid from King Saul.

On another day, we walked around the more modern city of Jerusalem. Here we visited the Garden Tomb. Because some doubts were raised during the 19th century about the authenticity of the traditional sites of Golgotha and the tomb of Christ, some scholars searched for other possible places. A number of them suggested what is now referred to as the Garden Tomb as a more likely spot. This is situated outside the old city walls near the Damascus Gate. Here was found a rocky escarpment which resembles the face of a skull. A rock hewn tomb was found close by. While this is a beautiful and serene place, the majority of scholars today do not think it is the site of Christ’s crucifixion or tomb.

Moving on we walked through an ultra-Orthodox Jewish area. Visitors to this part of Jerusalem, while welcome at certain times, are asked to respect the values of the people living here and to dress and act appropriately. It was an interesting place to visit as we saw no other tourists there that day and everybody else was dressed in the traditional black coats and hat, with their long bushy sideburns and beards. We didn’t notice any women either.

Finally on one of the days, we split up and went our separate ways. Andrew went to visit the botanic gardens and then the Knesset, the Jewish parliament. Unfortunately for him the Knesset was closed that day so he went to the Israel Museum instead. Daniel went to the zoo and got some great photos. I went to the Jewish Holocaust Museum, Yad Vashem. This is Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the holocaust and comprises a history museum, a museum of holocaust art, memorial sites, a synagogue, as well as an education centre, a research centre, library, archives and a publishing house. The history museum was very impressive (if you can give such a description to pictures and videos of death). It contained thousands of pictures, film clips, testimonies of survivors including condemnations of those countries (including the Vatican) who stood by and did nothing while the concentration camps at Auschwitz and elsewhere carried on their evil work. One of the exhibits outside in the grounds which affected me most was the Cattle Car Memorial. This is an original working German railway cattle car which actually carried Jewish victims to their deaths in one of the concentration camps. Over a hundred people were crammed into this car so tightly they couldn’t sit down. The journey could last days and they had no food or water. If they needed to relieve themselves they had to do it on the spot. It was hell on earth. I stood for a long time just staring at this railway truck and tried to imagine the horror but could not. What I could conjure up in my mind was indeed horrible, but I’m sure nothing like the pain and terror these people must have suffered. I came away unable to grasp fully how inhumane man can be to his fellow beings. A very sad place, but a powerful reminder of a period of history we should never forget.

Finally, bidding the holy city farewell, we took a train to Tel Aviv, a modern bustling city founded in 1909. Even here you cannot escape the grasp of history as, while strolling on the beach, I came across and read the monument in memory of the Altalena, a ship shelled by the Israeli provisional government in 1948.

And even today Israel is still a troubled land. For more than two thousand years the Jewish people have been persecuted and mostly by so called Christian peoples. For how much longer must that terrible curse in Matthew “His blood be upon us and our children” reverberate and give excuse to anti-Semitism? I pray it won’t be long.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French Jesuit priest and scientist who worked mainly in the field of palaeontology (the study of prehistoric life, it’s evolution and environment). He was born in France in 1881 and ordained in 1911. While his initial scientific study was rooted in physics, chemistry and mathematics he went to work in the palaeontology laboratory of the National History Museum in Paris and hence more or less devoted his life to this field in conjunction with a mystical and religious worldview.

While his interpretation of evolution from a deeply religious viewpoint became his life’s main work, he is also remembered for his involvement in both the Piltdown Man and Peking Man discoveries.

Piltdown Man is probably the most well known of these two, because it was later exposed as a hoax. One of the great mysteries of the theory of evolution was the so called missing link, that skeleton which would show the change from our previous known ancestor to the human species, Homo sapiens, today. Anthropologists are still not sure of our exact lineage and our immediate ancestor is not the chimpanzee. He is our nearest relative. Both chimps and humans evolved from the same ancestor but not from each other. In the early days of evolution it was assumed that man evolved from the ape or similar creature and hence a missing link was necessary to bridge the gap. When Piltdown Man was discovered around 1912 in a gravel pit at Piltdown, a small village in southern England, many thought that this might be the missing link. And in fact scientists were fooled for quite a while that this was a genuine find. Although it bred a lot of controversy it wasn’t till the 1950’s before it was finally exposed as a forgery. While the identity of the forger was never discovered some of the main people accused included Teilhard de Chardin himself as well as Arthur Conan Doyle, the man responsible for the wonderful fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. However the case against Teilhard de Chardin, as is true with all the suspects is very circumstantial and cannot be upheld.

Peking Man, on the other hand, discovered in the 1920’s in China was thought to be an ancestor to humans and was a genuine discovery. However today, he not considered to be a direct ancestor.

I was very much drawn to Teilhard de Chardin’s books because he was the first person who argued strongly that science and religion were compatible. For many years these two disciplines were considered to be at odds with each other. The famous example of which moves in the sky, the sun or the earth sent a number of men to the stake, most notably Giordano Bruno in 1600, although I would think the Church condemned him more for his other views (he was, after all, a practising magician, whose rites often bordered on black magic). Galileo, perhaps, is a better example. He followed the teaching of Copernicus who developed the heliocentric cosmology which basically said that the Sun was at the centre of the universe and the Earth revolved around it. He even went to Rome to try and convince the pope not to ban these ideas. Eventually he was summoned to stand trial on the suspicion of heresy. After all the bible says that the earth does not move, therefore Galileo had to be wrong. The result was that he was put under house arrest where he remained for the rest of his life.

It was only in 1992 that Pope John Paul II apologised for the treatment of Galileo at the hands of the Catholic Church. Far too late, as usual.

And of course the greatest wedge which appeared to be driven between science and religion came with the theory of evolution introduced by Charles Darwin in the 1850’s although he was not the first to suggest such a point of view. This controversy still rages today. Although the Catholic Church at long last accepted the theory, others still do not, including the so called Creationists in the United States. However, that said, evolution, although bolstered up by a lot of evidence, still remains a theory with some holes to plug. For example many point to the lack of transitional evidence, i.e. there are no missing links. Further, life is so complex that there has not been enough time to evolve from random groupings of molecules to the breathtaking wonder of DNA. However, as regards missing links, we just haven’t found any yet, although we have come close (i.e. archaeopteryx, which fossil clearly shows a type of dinosaur/bird). Besides, not every species may have left a fossil record. And the argument that life is too complex can be answered by pointing out that not every possible combination of molecules needed to be formed before something worthwhile was achieved. All DNA is subject to mutation. These changes can be beneficial, harmful or neutral. If harmful then it is unlikely that any offspring will reproduce and the mutation dies. If beneficial it is likely that the offspring will be improved and so reproduce more. It is through reproduction that beneficial mutations spread. This is natural selection at work. Over billions of years all this evolution has led to us, and as the Earth is 4.5 thousand million years old. I think that is enough time.

At the end of the day, religion and science are both searching for the same thing, i.e. the truth. At least that is my belief and in the final analysis, while not everything in religion or science today is necessarily true (a massive work in progress) they have to converge to the correct answer eventually. This does not mean there is a God. I don’t know the answer to that, no more than science or religion does. So it was nice to discover the writings of somebody who did believe that science and religion are compatible and I was glad to read his works. Since those halcyon days I have discovered many others scientists, religious and non religious people who are also convinced of that viewpoint, though not all would concur with Teilhard de Chardin’s view.

Of course Teilhard de Chardin also ran into problems with the Catholic Church, of which he was a member. Luckily, while they had done away with the Inquisition, they still forbade him from publishing his works and from teaching. As Teilhard de Chardin was a faithful member of the Jesuits and the Church, he acquiesced to the wishes of his masters, even though it caused him a lot of pain and anguish. He did consider briefly leaving, to work freely as a scientist, but decided against this course of action.

Why was he so obedient to a stupid decision by men who simply had no grasp nor understanding of his scientific and religious mysticism? I cannot answer that. I can only suggest, not only did he need to belong as a full member to his Church, but even though he regarded it’s ideas as somewhat outmoded, he was still convinced it was the true Church of his Lord, Jesus Christ. He never lost his faith in his own ideas and philosophy, but felt it better to remain within the fold, flawed and all as it might be. Today he may well have left, but this was during the first half of the twentieth century and so he stayed.

His works were only published after he had died, which gave the world a most interesting philosophy to read and digest.

I first came across Teilhard de Chardin from reading the novel “The Exorcist” by William Peter Blatty. For some reason I found this to be a fascinating book, so much better than most of the horror and ghost stories I had read before. Here was a book which took on board the whole idea of demonic possession yet went at it in as scientific a way as possible. For much of the first half there was a lot of doubt that such things could happen in the 20th century in which the story was set. Demonic possession belonged in the 16th century as Father Damian Karras, the priest in the story who is initially approached to perform an exorcism, said. Karras does not believe in the devil and is convinced there is a medical or psychological reason for the victim’s symptoms. The novel is very interesting in it’s discussion of the whole area of the real scientific reasons for seeming possession and although it leaves one in no doubt during it’s second half that demonic possession is real and the girl, Regan, is actually possessed by a demon, it is only a good fictional story. Certainly I do not believe in demons and doubt very much that they exist.

In fact, the film of the same name which was released in 1973 remained faithful to the book and portrayed evil very convincingly. I remember going to the first showing in the Adelphi cinema in Abbey Street. The theatre was packed and people were full of anticipation as this film was supposed to be really scary. And it was. It scared the hell out of us. I clearly remember at the conclusion of the first really frightening scene where the bed was shaking like mad under the girl, strangers turned and spoke to each other out of sheer relief. I certainly recall the guy beside me saying a few words and me replying although I can’t remember what we said. Never before in mainstream Irish films had we been subjected to such sheer evil on the screen. Gone were the Vincent Price type films where the orchestra started strumming up a storm, the violins rising to a crescendo as the hapless character moved closer to where the monster or whatever would leap out at him. But we were ready for that although many still jumped with fright. And then the second even more terrifying scene where the slip of a girl suddenly jumped up, smacked the doctor who was trying to inject her, her throat swollen, her face contorted and growled in a deep and guttural voice, “Leave the sow alone, she is mine”. Or words to that effect. That was a heavy scene, although looking at it today, it is more funny than anything else.

However, the main exorcist in the story is called Lankester Merrin. At one point he quipped that he had been named after a bridge. I discovered somewhere that his character was loosely based on the Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. This piqued my interest for some reason and I tried to find out something about him. In those days not as easy as today where you can trawl the internet. However, I found that his most famous book was called “The Phenomenon of Man” and I purchased same quite easily in one of Dublin’s bookshops. As part of the blurb on the back, it mentioned something to do with a philosophy which would reconcile religion and the scientific theory of evolution.

Boy, was it a difficult read. I read it with a dictionary beside me and even then there were some words in the book which my dictionary didn’t contain. In hindsight I should have had a dictionary of palaeontology beside me. However, I managed to finish it and became deeply interested in the ideas in so far as I could understand them.

Basically, he regarded evolution as the correct theory for the emergence of mankind. He relegated the story of Adam and Eve to tales made up by men trying to come to terms with the world they found themselves in. Trying to make some semblance of sense of it. However, Teilhard de Chardin saw evolution as gradually moving from the basic cell to animals to humans. The arrival of humankind was a major stage in this development as we could bring our own consciousness to bear upon ourselves. Now a collective consciousness begins to develop as we learn from each other and move throughout the whole earth. He termed this collective consciousness the noosphere. The development of science and technology is one of the enablers of this movement. In those days (early 70’s) I thought that was a heady idea. Today I would say the noosphere smacks suspiciously of the world wide web, so I guess you could say Teilhard de Chardin was ahead of his time. However he went further and thought that evolution would culminate in what he termed the Omega Point. This was a sort of supreme consciousness and his ideas become very mystical from here. Frankly, he looses me here, but he sort of equates the Omega Point with the collective consciousness of mankind and brings it into a Christ-like being synonymous with God himself. And at this point I also think he must be nuts.

However, in his great synthesis he stated that the traditional interpretations of creation in the bible had to be abandoned. This immediately raised grave alarm with Vatican officials for it implied that Adam and Eve never existed. Without our first parents, there could be no original sin. Therefore did this imply there was no need for mankind to be redeemed, no need for Christ to die on the cross? God knows where all this would have ended up and hence the consternation among the cardinals of the Church can be imagined. Although in their usual heavy handed manner, they decided to ban him rather than open dialogue with him.

Of course, many people said his philosophy was mad and maybe it was, but what struck me most forcibly in those days was his insistence on the compatibility of science and religion. This was what I was looking for in my twenties, as I had just decided to become a fully fledged atheist and was struggling with belief. Teilhard de Chardin’s books helped me to make some sense of all of this and I always look on him as a great teacher, at least for me.

An amusing personal anecdote I’d like to relate now involved a Jesuit priest, Fergal McGrath. This kindly man used to come once a year to my parents’ house ever since I can remember. He would arrive around six o’clock in the evening and I would always be warned to be on my best behaviour as Father McGrath was coming for tea. So we sat around the table while the priest intoned the grace before meals and we would always bless ourselves with great solemnity and sanctity. Tea was a light hearted affair where we all chatted amicably. I always remember this as he never ever asked me whether I said my prayers at night or some other stupid priestly question. After tea another bout of holiness descended briefly as the grace after meals was said whereupon the good priest along with my mother and father removed themselves into the sitting room. Myself and my brother were banned from this room for that one evening in the year. God knows what they talked about, but we often heard the strains of an oboe being played, so it wasn’t all talk.

However, as I grew older I was no longer banned from the sitting room, other than by myself as I certainly didn’t want to spend evenings in theological discussion or listening to an oboe. However, shortly after my discovery of Teilhard de Chardin, I sat in the good man’s presence and asked him about the Jesuit who had upset the Church. I genuinely wanted to know what he might have thought about him, but Fergal McGrath was a very conservative, non-confrontational man who only smiled knowingly and refused to be drawn.

Damn! My first serious attempt at dialogue with the Catholic Church failed miserably.