Of all the self-deprecating lines I read this Yom Kippur the one that had the most resonance with me was "I am dust in my life and will surely be so in my death". I like the line. As I understand it it is supposed to make you humble before god. I do find it humbling. Not because I fear god, but because its simple truth. We all start life as a pair of cells with a couple of really long chains of amino acids (DNA, or essentially dust) and we all return to dust after we die. Gives one pause.Genetics and survival of the fittest has been on my mind for a while. (Maybe brought on by the baby?) As a result I was recently talking with my friend O about evolution. (O is on his way to becoming a world-famous biologist). He recommended reading the book The Making of the Fittest by Sean Carroll . I picked it up from the library before Yom Kippur.
Carrol is a biologist, and a geneticist. In his book he makes the case for evolution based on DNA evidence. The book breaks down the literal nuts and bolts (DNA) of evolution. In straight forward language Carroll explains the math behind genetic mutation, how natural selection works at the molecular level and other ideas. He shows how concepts like "fossil" DNA, genes we no longer use but remain in our genetic code, can be used to prove our relation to other simians. The evidence is fascinating and irrefutable. It's like "A Brief History of Time" but for genetics.
At shul Friday night I scanned the seating chart for empty seats and found a couple in a back row. I just sat back there and read Carroll the whole time. It was one of the best Yom Kippurs I can remember.
More on YK tomorrow.
4 comments:
Ahhhh, the closet skeptic's dilemma.......what's innocuous enough to read in shul while the rest of the herd is mumbling its apologies, promises, and overweening praises to the Almighty. Yours was a good choice. I'm sure that if there's a God, He would be pleased to see His subjects taking time to figure out His handiwork
Do u have problems reading these books in your shul? Where you a stranger at this shul?
I still have this dilema, and must choose my books appropriately, depending on which shul I attend.
Maann, you are lucky you can read that while in shul.
A great easy book that I'd recommend is Francis Collins - The language of God. He was like the head of one of the Genome projects and just about proves Evolution thru genetics. He tries to build a case for ID, but it's just based on Jesus.
IIRC, it's also a primer on some basic physics.
do over,
I didn't have any problem reading the book in shul. I actually was at my own synagogue. I've come to find that people don't really look at what book you have in your hands when you're "davening". I think they just assume you're holding a siddur. I was also sitting in a back row and not sitting immediately next to anyone.
baal habos,
thanks for the tip!
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