several days in April<\/a>, in connection with the public display of full-scale replica of Moses\u2019s \u201cTabernacle in the Wilderness,\u201d addressing (among other things) the concept of \u201csacred space.\u201d \u00a0So the following passage from Dr. Grandy\u2019s book has come to my mind. \u00a0He\u2019s just been discussing the orientation of Jewish prayers to Jerusalem and of Muslim prayers to Mecca, Jacob\u2019s experience at Bethel (on which, see Genesis 28:10-22; 35:9-15), and the idea of . . . well, sacred space:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This sensibility, that some places are intrinsically sacred, now seems quaint to Westerners who live in the thought world of Newtonian science. \u00a0In that world, space is a neutral scaffolding for the occurrence of events, but the events themselves do not bleed over into the scaffolding. \u00a0We consequently are inclined to insist that whatever meaning attends a place is that which we bring to it \u2014 our<\/em> devotion or reverence. \u00a0We alone, not the rocks or trees that were there at the time, memorialize and remember events. \u00a0When therefore we read of the Pharisees\u2019 attempt to quiet the jubilation that accompanied Jesus\u2019 triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we may find it hard to embrace the literal meaning of the Savior\u2019s rejoinder: \u00a0\u201cI tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIn ancient Israel, people were open to the idea of non-human nature being caught up in sacred events. \u00a0\u201cIn the Psalms,\u201d Jeanne Kay points out, \u201chills are girdled with you, valleys shout for joy (65:13-14), floods clap their hands, the whole earth worships God and sings praises to his name (66:1-4; 89:6).\u201d \u00a0Granted, some of these expressions are unmistakably poetic, but the poetry acknowledges nature\u2019s desire to cry out. \u00a0As Mircea Eliade put it \u201cWhat we find when we place ourselves in the perspective of religious man of archaic societies is . . . that the existence of the world \u2018means\u2019 something, \u2018wants to say\u2019 something, that the world is neither mute nor opaque, that it is not an inert thing, without purpose or significance. \u00a0For religious man, the cosmos \u2018lives\u2019 and \u2018speaks.'\u201d \u00a0(29-30)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A deeply contrasting view is summarized (but not accepted) by the great Anglo-American philosopher-mathematician Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) in his book Science and the Modern World,<\/em> and quoted by Dr. Grandy:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
These sensations [color, sound, etc.] are projected by the mind so as to clothe appropriate bodies in external nature. \u00a0Thus the bodies are perceived as with qualities which in reality do not belong to them, which in fact are purely the offspring of the mind. \u00a0Thus nature gets credit which should be reserved for ourselves: the rose for its scent: the nightingale of his song: and the sun for his radiance. \u00a0The poets are entirely mistaken. \u00a0They should address their lyrics to themselves, and should turn them into odes of self-congratulation on the excellency of the human mind. \u00a0Nature is a dull affair, soundless, scentless, colourless; merely the hurrying of material, endlessly, meaninglessly. \u00a0(cited at 62-63)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Back in January 2018,\u00a0David Grandy, now an emeritus professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University and the author, previously, of books on such topics as\u00a0Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization\u00a0(2003),\u00a0The Speed of Light: Constancy and Cosmos\u00a0(2009), and\u00a0Everyday Quantum Reality\u00a0(2010), dropped off at my office a new, self-published book of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>