Three Devotees of Nature's God
(Albert Einstein, Lee F. Greer III and Raymond Fontaine)

by Raymond Fontaine, Ph.D. - February 28

E-mail no. 28: Lee F. Greer lll - dated February 13, 2006

Dear Dr. Fontaine,

Thank you for your website about Nature's God whom I also reverence and before whom I also stand in awe as I see the amazing laws and structures of the natural world, and also for your wonderful book which I read last year entitled: My Life with God in and out of the Church. I am finishing a PhD in Biology.  All the best to you and to your wife Minh. Lee Greer.
 

E-mail no. 29: My Response - dated February 28.

Thank you for your e-mail. I especially enjoyed your opening words in harmony with those of Albert Einstein, my favorite scientist. He wrote: "I don't try to imagine a God; it suffices to stand in awe of the structure of the world. It is enough for me to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in Nature.

"The scientist is possessed by the sense of causation. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."

In the above words, Einstein said that the human senses can grasp phenomena in nature, like color, shape and sound and communicate what they observe to the human brain. This organ is structured to rationalize that information, e.g. where did it come from; what can be done with it; et cetera.

When Einstein's mind analyzed the information gathered by his senses, he observed the intricate structures and laws of nature. His mind wondered how those structures, designs and laws came about. All of these, which amazed very intelligent people, required an intelligent source - a supremely intelligent agent.  

Many centuries before Einstein, some humans imagined that many superhuman beings, deities, were responsible for the forces of nature. Later, several prophets preached that one superhuman Being accounted for the course of nature and frequently intervened in human affairs. Today millions of Jews call him Jehovah; billions of Christians name him God; and a billion Muslims call him Allah.

Einstein did not attribute the structures of nature to any of these but simply to the Supreme Intelligence presupposed by the structures of nature.

What is all important in Einstein's words on this issue is that the great scientist was not afraid to go beyond merely observing the structures in nature but also recognizing that those structures required Supreme Intelligence.

That's where Einstein stood; that's where I definitively stand; and apparently so do you. If so, congratulations and best wishes for a successful career in biology. The world needs you and awaits your enlightenment. Ray.    

To return to the list of E.-mails, click here.