52 books #7: A Short History of Nearly Everything-Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson

When I was in elementary school I loved science. It was my favourite subject and if you asked me then what I was going to be when I grew up, I would have said “detective”, but my second choice would have been doctor. I didn’t realize at that point that I was way more interested in the stories than the science.

When I got into junior high and high school science became less interesting. You had to memorize stuff and there where all these numbers and formulas, and it was more like math than anything else. I managed to get all the science credits I needed to graduate (thanks to the generous inclusion of oceanography and conservation) and declared I would never take another math or science course again. Thus far in my life, that has been my easiest commitment to keep.

I’m still fascinated by the natural world and how it works, and I love to bring my completely uneducated brain to the wellspring of scientific information and Bryson’s book is a perfect read. His bias, I believe, turns to the stories as well, and this book unfolds as the story of our planet and how it came to be floating (or more accurately, falling) in this part of the universe made up in this particular way inhabited by this particular gathering of plants and animals over which homo sapiens happen to be dominant. It is also the story of the strange batch of persons who dedicated their lives to discover bits and pieces of this story and trying to make sense of them.

So, what do we know about the history of the universe and our planet and ourselves. Well, it appears the most accurate answer is not much. We don’t know nearly as much as some would claim we do, and even what we do know is often educated guesswork. And often, what we know at one point in time with the greatest of certainty, turns out, upon further review to be completely wrong. And the interpretations of the data that is discovered seem influenced as much by the personalities and situations of the discoverers as a thirteen year old girl is by her peers. If the sum of what there is to know about the universe and our place in it fills the Grand Canyon, what we know is a grain of sand.

But that’s okay. Though  we’re often put in opposing corners, the pastor and the scientist have much in common. We are trying to discover the nature of life and how it works. We want to influence the way the world around us is seen. Sometimes we just interpret the data differently.

The way I interpret the data, I believe that everything was created by a powerful creative force.  I believe the story of Jesus and the Bible make sense of my life and the world with which I engage. In this I may be a silly and naive person who ignores the overwhelming lack of verifiable evidence that there is a God who is in any way involved with the planet we live on.

Whatever

I’ve always liked the stories better anyway.

“If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here… To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course. We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only begun to grasp.” (p. 478)