The Sacred Depths of Nature

by Ursula Goodenough

For many of us, the great scientific discoveries of the modern age--the Big Bang, evolution, quantum physics, relativity-- point to an existence that is bleak, devoid of meaning, pointless. But in The Sacred Depths of Nature , eminent biologist Ursula Goodenough shows us that the scientific world view need not be a source of despair. Indeed, it can be a wellspring of solace and hope.
This eloquent volume reconciles the modern scientific understanding of reality with our timeless spiritual yearnings for reverence and continuity. Looking at topics such as evolution, emotions, sexuality, and death, Goodenough writes with rich, uncluttered detail about the workings of nature in general and of living creatures in particular. Her luminous clarity makes it possible for even non-scientists to appreciate that the origins of life and the universe are no less meaningful because of our increasingly scientific understanding of them. At the end of each chapter, Goodenough's spiritual reflections respond to the complexity of nature with vibrant emotional intensity and a sense of reverent wonder.
A beautifully written celebration of molecular biology with meditations on the spiritual and religious meaning that can be found at the heart of science, this volume makes an important contribution to the ongoing dialog between science and religion. This book will engage anyone who was ever mesmerized--or terrified--by the mysteries of existence.

Genres: Science, Spirituality, Nature, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Religion, Biology

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Amy Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

as someone who identifies as a religious naturalist, I consider this book to be canon; it is one book of my bible. While I am hopelessly inept at articulating the deep and transcendent reverence for nature that keeps me warm all through these winters of our cultural discontent, the unjustly named Goodenough gracefully conveys -- and celebrates -- the soulfulness of the spiritual scientist. if there is anyone on earth I share a worldview with exactly, it's ursula goodenough, and her explanation of this viewpoint is triumphant in its clarity.

[TAP · Rating 4 out of 5]

A meditation on scientific facts and on how cells are as holy as gods.

[Laurens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ursula Goodenough's ideas and thoughts are very similar to my own. One big difference between us might be that she was brought up in a family and community where religion played a major role. I was not, and for a long time I have considered myself to be an atheist. Or more accurate, what I would call myself if people asked whether I was religious. In my teen years I was an especially active member of a discussion group about religion and non-religion. It says something about what I (don't) believe about a personal God, and that I've found the subject fascinating since my early life. But "atheism" doesn't say a lot about what I dó believe, or dó value. Some terms might describe me: humanist, skeptic, openminded, scientifically-minded, curious, etc. But does that say anything about how I experience this world, this existence, this Universe?

Probably not, since it can't get more personal than this. I am Nick, with my personal thoughts and feelings about this world. There is no need to categorize myself, to use an ultimate term to describe me, but spiritual naturalism comes as close as possible. In my whole life I've always been in awe of The Universe. The grandness of it, the tiny parts that it constitutes of. The complexity of systems and all countless interactions. Between life and non-life (and proto-life?). Deep space. Deep time.

Life has always made me feel connected and hopeful. Science and philosophy have been my ways to research this complex world, to somehow praise the beauty and intricacies of it, and even to give great meaning and enjoyment to my life. It's both an "intellectual" love for our existence, but also an "experiential" love. Like with romantic or brotherly love, we can understand and describe different aspects of this phenomenon, yet in a way it is ineffable. The experience can be overwhelming, just as a beautiful piece of music can capture you completely, make you tear up, create musical frissons (skin orgasm) all over the body, and give you a feeling of being obliterated and whole at the same time. Now I am just trying to think of ways to express it, but the attempt will always fail. The manner in which I look upon our existence and our Universe is one of reverence, and a very broad and deep experience of love. The Greek(/Christian) term of "Agape" would probably be the best term to describe it.

The remaining mysteries excite me, existing knowledge attracts me to learn about it without end, existential questions keep me up at night, music and art make me feel more alive than just my biochemical interactions what life is made out of. And all of this, all the emotions, experiences, thoughts and concepts take place in my personal "thinking organ" called the brain, evolved out of billions of years of biological evolution, evolved out of billions of years of cosmic evolution and the ordering laws of Nature. All these emergent functions... It's simply amazing.

Apart from that I have thrown myself into philosophical and spiritual traditions, though preferably not too much pseudoscience or New Agey gobbledygook, to put into practice my experience of and love for our existence. There is possible a naturalistic way of experiencing and practicing spirituality, similar to what Sam Harris talks about in his book Waking Up. We need to take back the word and monopoly of "spirituality" from the dogmatic religious and New Age types.

Whether you would call me an atheist or spiritual naturalist... I don't mind. All I can say is that I am a person with both feet on the ground who's deeply in love with The Universe.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am somewhat ambivalent about this book. I was expecting a book of Deep Ecology, featuring the author's personal spiritual reactions to scientific epiphanies. Instead, Goodenough takes it upon herself to organize all human spiritual and cultural traditions around that set of scientific epiphanies in an effort to create a unifying Global Ethos. Instead of responding personally to things, she merely collects a few random scraps of sacred text and waxes briefly on how different spiritual traditions responded to the biological concepts she's describing. Since much of the scientific material is old hat to most people, much of the book ends up being fairly innocuous light reading. What bits of science held more interest for me did so by virtue of their novelty to me personally. Those few things definitely did make me more excited to take Intro Bio next fall.

What I did find very positive and valuable about this book, however, was the way it inspired me to respond with deep and reflective thoughts. I found myself writing a lot in response to her ideas, and thinking and reflecting even more, even though I didn't find her ideas or the way she articulated them very interesting in themselves. Therefore, I definitely found it a worthwhile read, and would probably recommend you follow through and read it if you're interested. But it's not vital.

The best part of the book was the final chapter or epilogue, and this passage in particular:
"Reproductive success is governed by many variables, but key adaptations have included the evolution of awareness, valuation, and purpose. In order to continue, genomes must dictate organisms that are aware of their environmental circumstances, evaluate those inputs correctly, and respond with intentionality.
And so, I profess my Faith. For me, the existenec of all this complexity and awareness and intent and beauty, and my ability to apprehend it, serves as the ultimate meaning and the ultimate value. the continuation of life reaches around, grabs its own tail, and forms a sacred circle that requires no further justification, no Creator, no superordinate meaning of meaning, no purpose other than that the continuation continue until the sun collapses or the final meteor collides. I confess a credo of continuation."

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm quite sad about this book. For several years, fellow naturalistic and pantheistic Pagans have told me it's a must-read for religious naturalists of all stripes, but I've only now gotten around to reading it. I think I waited too long.

If I'd read this book at the beginning of my path toward naturalism, it might have touched me more deeply. As it was, after years of reading and listening to Sagan, Suzuki, Tyson, and Lightman on the science side, Abrams and Starhawk on the spiritual side, and Newberg, Livingstone, and Raymo straddling the realms, Goodenough's book didn't do much for me. I found her scientific explanations needlessly oversimplified and her reflections–the really interesting bits that I wanted to know more about–disappointingly short.

And when I discovered that this book, this alleged beacon of religious naturalism, ends with Goodenough's assertion that, while our spiritual inspiration comes from Nature, our best option for religious observation comes, not from meaningful ceremonies we create ourselves, but in the religions of origin that most of us left behind, I was crushed,

Many place this book near or at the heart of the religious naturalism canon, and I'm glad it speaks to them. It's just not speaking to me.

[Arjun V · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty good finished in 1 sitting
i will warn you if you already know a lot about biology this book will probably all be review through a slightly new lens

anyways i really liked the start's focus on how molecular biology is very sacred
specifically the meditations on the molecular language that calls itself into being and cell differentiation that creates a "self" were very up my alley
the end was more about ecology which is fine but not really my thing

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I really was hoping for more from this - I had heard the author speak on a podcast. It was fine and it was short - so I'll likely read it again for the evolutionary biology - but the reflections were too short and as someone else said she just threw in a lot of quotes from other sources without really explaining them (plus she used a lot of Christian hymns to, I guess, try to explain the religious feelings she gets from nature - but that really didn't fit with the whole premise of the book to me - frankly I hated it). I'm not saying I got nothing from it beyond the biology - It just promised much more than it delivered. There were a couple of takeaway reflections but I wished she had spent more time on them overall.

[Carla]

A little too deep for Jane Q. Public. Maybe even for some of us who have had courses in biology and physiology, genetics and chemistry. Maybe this reader been away from the sciences for too long. It's hard to make it relate to one's everyday life.

[Frank Jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ursula Goodenough is one of America's leading cell biologists and the author of a wonderful textbook, Genetics. She has served as President of the American Society of Cell Biology and of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science. She is the current president of the Religious Naturalist Association (RNA... and yes, it is a conscious pun) of which I am a member.

There is a growing movement of naturalists who find religious or spiritual experience within nature while rejecting the supernatural. Along with the Religious Naturalist Association, for instance, is the Spiritual Naturalist Society and the Sacred Naturalism Project spearheaded by my friend, Alice Andrews. And of course, I've been creating and teaching what I call Zen Naturalism for just over ten years now.

This little book from Goodenough is divided up into twelve chapters, each beginning with a story about the dynamic processes of Nature. The first, "Origins of the Earth" is one from physics, but staring with the second, "Origins of Life" her emphasis is on biology starting with the fascinating story of molecules, genes and cells. From chapter to chapter she walks us through what she calls the "Epic of Evolution" including the patterns of biological evolution and the arising of biodiversity; multicellularity, and the emergence of sex and sexuality and death (they are intimately related), to awareness, emotion, and value.

She shows convincingly how the arising of the deepest sense of meaning and value can be accounted for through natural causes, not requiring any supernatural "Creator" or given meaning to life. Each story is followed by a short "religious response" which may include some poetry or commentary on a re-valuation of traditional religious concepts such as the central importance of "fellowship and community" which she grounds in our common ancestry with all of life as understood through the mechanism of evolution.

I heartily recommend this book! If you are a lay-reader, you will learn more about biological processes and the working of evolution than you might expect -- all told in an engaging way that makes the science easier to digest and the religious experience via nature fully accessible.

[Adele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book did not inspire and resonate with me the way A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism did when I first started exploring Unitarian Universalism. This may be because I don't have the same perspective on the big existential questions as Goodenough. I got the impression the intended audience of this book is people who come from a theistic background, which I do not. With that said, I read this book looking for a starting point in my exploration of Religious Naturalism, an introduction or basic foundation of what it means or could mean to be a Religious Naturalist. Religious Naturalism 101, if you will. In that regard, this book met my needs.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this first in December of 2009 but was reminded of it again when I attended a panel discussion on science & religion. So, I read it again with a renewed interest in spiritual naturalism. This remains a special book I will pick up for inspiration and renewal.

Understanding how life works from a cellular biological perspective could result in confusion about religious beliefs but Ursula Goodenough makes sense of it all. Despite the technical discussion of amino acids, proteins, reproduction, evolution, etc. she can still experience and appreciate the profound and the sacred. She ends up with a theory of continuation or Religious Naturalism. I want to read it again.

[Mark Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a religious person that is finding traditional religion to be lacking, I greatly welcomed this book. The author is an atheist, but attends church regular. Her Dad, a former theology prof, and also an athist, says that, nonetheless, he stills prays and 'Jesus answers.' For me, this book accepts the scientific version of the world (as I do) but does not throw the baby out with the bathwater--that is, it still recognizes the spiritual nature of ourselves and hat we must have ways of touching that nd letting our 'souls' (which likely don't exit) express themselves.

[Anjie Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent book if you're looking for an easy to understand break-down of cellular biology and chemistry. It is indeed, a fascinating read, but, for me, it still lacks the depth of spirituality that I'm looking for and striving to understand. Pantheism is an extraordinary concept, and even given how well this book is written, it still lacks the close, personal experience that I want and crave. Great book...just not the book for me.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good to read scientists who appreciate the less quantitative side of life. See further comments at: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.

[Emily O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ursula Goodenough's worshipful descriptions of evolution were thrilling to read. I finished not only inspired by the awe-inspiring wonder that is each element of life, but with enhanced understanding of the science undergirding it all.
Goodenough refrains from assigning attributes to mystery. She explains that, in pinning down God with certainties, we limit what we might learn. She refers to her "covenant with mystery," which generates wonder and awe. In learning about science, she explains that she is not less moved by mystery, but grows in her awe of it. In this sense, she compares it to understanding the intracacies of one of Mozart's sonatas.

"What do I do with my yearning to be special in some ultimate sense? I have come to understand that the self, my self, is inherently sacred. By virtue of its own improbability, its own miracle, its own emergence.
"I start with my egg cell, one of 400,000 in my mother's ovaries. It meets with one of the hundreds of millions of sperm cells produced each day by my father. Astonishing that I happen at all, truly astonishing. And then I cleave, I gastrulate, I implant, I grow tiny fetal kidneys and a tiny heart. The genes of my father and the genes of my mother switch on and off and on again in all sorts of combinations, all sorts of chords and tempos, to create something both eminently human and eminently new. Once I am born, my unfinished brain slowly completes its maturation in the context of my unfolding experience and during my quest to understand what it is to be a person, I come to understand that there can be but one me.
...
"With this comes the understanding that I am in charge of my own emergence. It is not something that I must wait for, but something to seek, something to participate in achieving, something to delight in achieving." (60)

Although I may not have such a strong sense of my own independence in my emergence as does she, I do find this a compelling view of the "eminently human and eminently new," or unique, aspect of self. It is something that emboldens me and inspires me to actively nurture my own emergence and to encourage others to do the same.

"My body is some 10 trillion cells. Period. My thoughts are a lot of electricity flowing along a lot of memrane. My emotions are the result of neuro-transmitters squirting on my brain cells. I look in the mirror and see the mortality and find myself fearful, yearning for less knowledge, yearning to believe that I have a soul that will go to heaven and soar with the angels.
William James: 'At bottom, the whole concern of religion is with the manner of our acceptance of the universe.'
This is the manner of our acceptance. It can be disappointed and resentful; it can be passive and acquiescent; or it can be the active response we call assent. When my awe at how life works gives way to self-pity because it doesn't work the way I would like, I call on assent--the age-old religious response to self-pity, as in 'Why, Lord? Why This? Why ME?' and then, 'Thy Will Be Done.'
As a religious naturalist I say 'What Is, Is' with the same bowing of the head, the same bending of the knee. Which then allows me to say 'Blessed Be to What Is' with thanksgiving. To give assent is to understand, incorporate, and then let go. With the letting go comes that deep sigh we call relief, and relief allows the joy-of-being-alive-at-all to come tumbling forth again.
Assent is a dignified word. Once it is freely given, one can move fluidly within it." (47)

Albert Einstein: "The most beautiful emotion we can experiencer is the mystical. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead." (101)

William James: "It is as if there were in the human consciousness a sense of reality, a feeling of objective presence, a perception of what we may call 'something there,' more deep and more general than any of the special and particularly 'senses' by which the current psychology supposes existent realities to be originally revealed." (100)

"...When I am invaded by Immanence, most often in the presence of beauty or love or relief, my response is to open myself to its blessing. It is the path to the holy, taken by seekers before me and seekers to follow, and I give myself over to my mystic potential, to the possibility of being lost in something much larger than my daily self, the possibility of transcending my daily self....Even as I don't understand it, it is nonetheless vey immediate, and experienced, and known. It becomes a part of myself that I most cherish and value, the part that most deeply celebrates the fact that I am alive, the part that sustains me through discouragement and loss." (102-103)

"Does death have any meaning? Well, yes, it does. Sex without death gets you single-celled algae and fungi; sex with mortal soma gets you the rest of the eukaryotic creatures. Death is the price paid to have trees and clams and birds and grasshoppers, and death is the price paid to have human consciousness, to be aware of all that shimmering awareness and all that love." (151)

[Andrew Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I see the book sets out a quest for two kinds of questions: how does nature work (with us humans being creatures arising from it), and what insights this gives to our own meaning; the former being a question of scientific truth, and latter of the spiritual response to it (as a religious naturalist). This coincides with how the book is structured: each chapter is about a theme encountered through the epic of life, starting from the big bang to the life as evolved on earth, where Ursula first explores the driving natural mechanism and concludes with her musing and proses. At the end, I feel both ends of this quest fall a bit flat.

While Ursula does a great job explaining the concepts to someone who had basically forgot all about high school biology, there's a few places reading through where the connections of concepts felt bit handwavey to me; can't remember exactly what they are, but it's sth minor because this is not supposed to be a textbook. The bigger gap I felt the book had is how personal meaning, centered in the emotional sense of longings and belongings, can be fully discerned by the descriptive language of the lower layers (i.e. biochemistry/biophysics): what love amounts to in the biochemistry perspective certainly feels inadequate to what's experienced by individuals in actual life, just as much as the intuition of mathematics and computer machinery that goes into running a ML program would feel quite different from just observing the flow of electrons by say an alien. It's part of a general problem I have with reductionism, despite largely sharing those views in my engineery self: it's unfruitful to think of those "higher-level" symbolic meanings in terms of the "lower-level" set of language so to speak, esp. for an individual. The mozart analogy and the meditation in the chapter of sex addresses this gap but I feel more ink can be poured into it.

The book also has traditional religion/theism as a frequent reference point to draw similarities/distinctions from; some of the topics I found missing/can go deeper into are morality (where the is-ought problem would go along the above reductionism issue) and our tendency to anthropomorphize (why and how). I was expecting to read more on the latter given this is mentioned as something of an evolutionary trait; and I feel Ursula rightly points out that belief in an anthropomorphic/personal God is the crucial difference between theism and religious naturalism, with theism being (the way I use this umbrella word) a god/gods that actively involves in the world and us in the here and now dimensions, able to form a stable and consistent relationship with, and have traits that are almost like another human. It's a curious question to why us humans tend seek out other agency/humans/intelligences to derive meaning of our own, and views the world around us under those lens. In my opinion the belief in a theistic god is not necessarily premised on beliefs in the deity performing miraculous acts for u/for the world but in such general sense of agency in the vicinity.

Nevertheless, I still think this is a great book with many quotable prose that have me continue to muse on, my favorite being this on death (theme is "multicellularity and death", where it talks about the specialization of germ-line and soma cells, where soma cells function as guardian for the germ-line cells that transmit the genes)

"So our brains, and hence our minds, are destined to die with the rest of the soma. And it is here that we arrive at one of the central ironies of human existence. Which is that our sentient brains are uniquely capable of experiencing deep regret and sorrow and fear at the prospect of our own death, yet it was the invention of death, the invention of the germ/soma dichotomy, that made possible the existence of our brain"

and something super relatable personally:

"No question about it: I'm writing this book because of my father. He started out as a Methodist preacher but became absorbed-no, obsessesd-with a need to understand why people are religious. As Professor of the History of Religion, he poured out book after book on the ancient Jews and early Christians: their art, their texts, their motivations. And then he brought it all home, to me sitting there after dessert trying to look inconspicuous while he and the other Yale scholars drank a great deal of wine and held forth on Plato and Paul and Freud and Sartre.

Dad began his famous undergraduate course, The Psychology of Religion, by announcing 'I do not believe in God.' He endded one of his last books by admitting 'I still pray devoutly, and when I do I forget my qualifications and quibbles and call upon Jesus--and he comes to me.'"

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quotable:

Human memory, they say, is like a coat closet: The most enduring outcome of a formal education is that it creates rows of coat hooks so that later on, when you come upon a new piece of information, you have a hook to hang it on. Without a hook, the new information falls on the floor.

[L]ike Gregorian chants, the meaning of the words not mattering because the words are so haunting.

I take the concept of miracle and use it not as a manifestation of divine intervention but as the astonishing property of emergence. Life does generate something-more-from-nothing-but, over and over again, and each emergence, even though fully explainable by chemistry, is nonetheless miraculous.

So, all the creatures on the planet today share a huge number of genetic ideas. Most of my genes are like most gorilla genes, but they’re also like many of the genes in a mushroom. I have more genes than a mushroom, to be sure, and some critical genes are certainly different, but the important piece to take in here is our deep interrelatedness, our deep genetic homology, with the rest of the living world.

[W]e are uniquely religious. Anthropologists have given the name Homo religious to our forebears who first buried their dead and set flowers beside the graves. We need answers to existential questions. We need to believe in things, to structure and orient our lives in ways that make sense and offer hope, to identify values and ideals, to transcend and interconnect. And happily, we have the capacity to transmit our accumulated religious understandings to one another and to our children through our languages and our arts, allowing them to endure and evolve.

Humans need stories – grand compelling stories – that help to orient us in our lives and in the cosmos.

[dp · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sacred Depths of Nature is an incredible gem. It outlines religious naturalism, which is a naturalist worldview that doesn't disparage organized religions, and at the same time espouses a kind of spiritual-but-not-theistic gratitude and reverence for life and the natural world. Think pantheism (which is indeed non-theistic) - there isn’t a personal deity, but nevertheless, the world is - and by consequence, we are - “divine” in a sense. Goodenough wants to awaken in the reader a sense of connection with the universe that’s akin to a spirituality, a connection that has the power to leave one prostrate and weeping at the sheer beauty and fortuitous abundance of it all.

That’s only aspect of the book though - the other is Goodenough deftly and conscientiously walking the reader through what she calls, "The Epic of Evolution", the fully naturalist account of reality that is offered as an alternative to traditional religious narratives and mythologies. These two focuses of the book aren't separated, but smoothly weaved together throughout. Goodenough managed to generate in me a sense of awe and joy toward the universe, as I learned relatively complex biology in a spiritually compelling way, including a ton of concepts that went completely over my head in high school. She really outdid herself in this book, and I recommend it to everyone regardless of religious views.

[Erwin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ursula Goodenough’s The Sacred Depths of Nature is a fascinating introduction to biological science with meditations. 80 percent of this text was spent explaining how the Universe came into existence, life on earth, and its ramifications. It would have been most useful if the writer could have explained such phenomena without delving so heavily into physics and chemistry. But in reading this book it appeared it would take only readers grounded in science to understand much of her discussion, and the diagrams presented.
On the other hand the author’s reflections were helpful. A reader would be able to see more clearly her insights about God and nature. As a religious naturalist Goodenough stood in awe of the mysteries of creation. She unlike some scientists felt inspired by the religions of all faiths and their teachings. Nevertheless the author saw as imperative to love her neighbor as paramount and full of meaning. And she was comfortable with other faiths providing nature was incorporated in their beliefs. Yet Goodenough didn’t consider a Supreme Being as described by theists to be her cup of tea.

[Hannah MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was such a beautifully written book on science and the seemingly liminal space that exists between it and religion. the author was able to explain such complex and lengthy topics such as biochemistry or speciation in a way that anyone, even someone without a science background, would be able to understand. the analogies were also great, she was able to make an analogy between how we perceive the world and understand physics to how we listen and study Mozart which. this was very interesting to me and am curious to see how it would come across to someone without a physics understanding. this book also introduced me to many great poems and quotes. a few lines that stuck out to me from this book that i am documenting so i remember:
- “The religious naturalist is provisioned with tales of natural emergence that are, to my mind, far more magical than traditional miracles”
-“Life reduced to its component molecules is life demeaned”
-“At bottom, the whole concept of religion is with the manner of our acceptance of the universe”
-“My yearning to be Known is relegated to the corridors of arrogance, and I sing my own song, with deep gratitude for my existence”
-“My somatic life is the wondrous gift wrought by my forthcoming death” (<3)

[Adam Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book That Helped Me Fall in Love with Reality

The Sacred Depths of Nature didn’t just give me a new way of seeing the world—it gave me permission to feel awe without pretending to know things I don’t.

Ursula Goodenough writes like someone who has walked both paths: the yearning for transcendence, and the sober clarity of science. What she offers isn’t a compromise—it’s a reframe. She doesn’t argue for belief, or against it. She simply shows that wonder, reverence, and even a sense of the sacred are not exclusive to the supernatural. They’re baked into the story of life itself—if you know how to look.

For someone like me—someone who’s left behind theological certainty but still feels the pull of meaning—this book was a turning point. It helped me understand that religious naturalism isn’t a watered-down version of religion. It’s a grown-up spirituality that doesn’t ask you to lie to yourself.

Reading it was like being handed a compass after wandering through fog.

I’m not exaggerating when I say this book changed the trajectory of my life. It didn’t hand me answers—it taught me to ask better questions, and to fall in love with the questions themselves.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got part way through. Probably good for people faced with existential anxiety when they learn about science. That seems to be the author's experience. She reports having been unable to look at the night sky on a camping trip at some point, and instead burying her head in her pillow sobbing with anxiety (this after having learned about stellar evolution or the Big Bang, or something). Each of the chapters that I read (only 3 or 4) start with her basically saying "I'm going to explain some science to you here, and I know it is going to cause an existential crisis for you, but I'll help you feel better about it at the end of the chapter." Like I said, probably good for people who have that experience, but I don't.

[Environmental Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF

Having truly enjoyed the first portion of the book and learning about the formation of stars, by the next few chapters discussing RNA I started to loose interest and would not have been able to easily follow along if I had not just finished a General Bio 1 course for college.

While having a science background is not needed due to they way Ursula explains everything, it certainly helps to already have a basic understanding as this made it easier for me to follow the text and quickly comprehend what she was describing.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me and will not hold a spot amongst my shelf.

[Jeff Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

A blend of hard science and profound wonder at our origins, two ideas often at odds with each other but Ursula Goodenough is a prophet/ purveyor of a spiritual movement called Religious Naturalism. As a professor of cellular biology she sees a much bigger picture than her narrow research field.
"I have come to understand that the self, my self, is inherently sacred. By virtue of its own improbability, its own miracle, its own emergence … And so I lift up my head, and I bear my own witness, with affection and tenderness and respect. And in so doing, I sanctify myself with my own grace."

[Janet Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written 25 years ago this book still resonates. Goodenough, a professor of biology, gives descriptions of molecular biology and the origins of life on earth that are understandable to non-scientists, and her reflections on the meaning of life on earth - based on her belief in religious naturalism- are as relevant today as they were in 1998. Her statement “we should be able to figure out, with a great deal of good will, how to share the earth with one another and preserve its elegance and grace” is as true today as the day she wrote it.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really appreciate the central insight here, that the natural world, particularly in its biochemical details, provides fertile ground for theological reflection. The particular examples Goodenough uses and the reflections she provides were not always particularly resonant for me (despite the fact that I share both Goodenough's non-theism and membership in a Christian church), but as a model for doing this kind of reflection, this book is a valuable model.

[Anne McKeirnan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the reflections part. There is a lot of science in this book. I am a physician and took a lot of science classes so much of it was review. I did learn some from the evolution and physics sections. I wanted more philosophy and less science but it was thought provoking. It didn’t explain to me how life really became. Are we just machines dictated by DNA. I think we’re more than that and where did that spark of life come from? This book is definitely a conversation starter.

[Will Staton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful and poignant. Goodenough - who was a professor of mine at Wash U; I took her Epic of Evolution class - does an excellent job distilling complex and difficult topics down to their key points and infusing science with awe and wonderment. My only complaint is that some times she is forced to simplify certain evolutionary concepts in a way that felt incomplete. This is understandable given the complexity of the topic and the fact that her goal is not to explain evolution but explain how we can root our religious urges in a scientific worldview. Still, there were times when it felt like it would be a bit more helpful - and a bit more awe-inspiring - to have a slightly more complete view of our evolutionary history than Goodenough provides here.

Still, a job incredibly well done. Thorough yet digestible, serious yet joyful. Humanity would be well served if more people adopted Goodenough's worldview and respect for life and our world.

[Carol Naille · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is true! We are made of stardust…. Well, maybe not. A wonderful scientific approach to religious viewpoints and the absolutely intricate miracle that makes us who we are.
The natural world is amazing and so incredibly made. Loved this science in this book.

[ilikedots · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what I was expecting. A bit too heavy in high-level science for my complete understanding. I found myself varying from feelings of awe to being overwhelmed by complicated detail. This would be a perfect book for the college student studying biochemistry.