Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science

233 Pages·2008·0.8 MB·English

by  Robert L. Park

SUPERSTITION
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SUPERSTITION
Belief in the Age of Science
Robert L. Park
Princeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
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COPYRIGHT © 2008 BY ROBERT L. PARK
REQUESTS FOR PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE MATERIAL
FROM THIS WORK SHOULD BE SENT TO
PERMISSIONS, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS,
41 WILLIAM STREET, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540
IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS,
6 OXFORD STREET, WOODSTOCK, OXFORDSHIRE OX20 1TW
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
PARK, ROBERT L.
SUPERSTITION : BELIEF IN THE AGE OF SCIENCE / ROBERT L. PARK.—1ST ED.
P. CM.
INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES.
ISBN 978-0-691-13355-3 (CLOTH : ALK. PAPER)
1. RELIGION AND SCIENCE. 2. RELIGION AND SOCIOLOGY.
3. BELIEF AND DOUBT. I. TITLE.
BL240.3.P37 2008
215--DC22 2008014926
BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA IS AVAILABLE
THIS BOOK HAS BEEN COMPOSED IN UNIVERS AND SABON
PRINTED ON ACID-FREE PAPER. ∞
PRESS.PRINCETON.EDU
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
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CONTENTS
Introduction: Lessons from a Tree vii
CHAPTER ONE
A BIGGER PRIZE 1
In which we discover scientists of faith
CHAPTER TWO
THE SECRET OF LIFE 23
In which Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural
selection survives
CHAPTER THREE
MIRACLE AT COLUMBIA 56
In which we ask if prayer makes any sense
CHAPTER FOUR
GIVING UP THE GHOST 79
In which we search for the soul
CHAPTER FIVE
THE SILENT ARMY 93
In which we search for an afterlife
CHAPTER SIX
THE TSUNAMI GOD 104
In which the innocent suffer
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE NEW AGE 116
In which anything goes
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER EIGHT
SCHRÖDINGER’S GRAVE 129
In which quantum mysticism is found to be superstition
CHAPTER NINE
THE BARBARY DUCK 142
In which the body heals itself
CHAPTER TEN
THE DEER 161
In which the placebo effect is explained
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE MORAL LAW 188
In which we instinctively know right from wrong
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE LAST BUTTERFLY 202
In which there is no place else to go
Bibliography 217
Index 221
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INTRODUCTION
Lessons from a tree
Almost a year had passed since the tree had fallen, but it was
not hard to fi nd. A large red oak almost three feet in diameter,
its roots had pulled out of the soft ground on the steep slope of
the ravine after a week of heavy rain. It hit the ground with
such impact that the heavy trunk snapped in two. The broken
end of the trunk still pointed straight down the slope, reaching
almost to the edge of the trail. The rest had been cut up and
carted off to clear the trail. I had imagined that seeing the tree
might evoke some memory of that day, but there was nothing.
It was just a fallen tree, like all the other fallen trees that slowly
rot on the forest fl oor.
The doctors had given me the green light to try jogging, but
it seemed much harder here than on a treadmill in the National
Rehabilitation Center. I was still panting when two elderly men
walked briskly down the trail. Seeing me looking at the fallen
tree, they paused. “You know,” one of them said, “when that
tree fell, it fell on a guy.”
“Yeah,” I said, “I know. I was the guy.” They looked stunned.
“We never knew what had happened to you,” the other said,
his voice breaking and his eyes fi lling with tears, “I have prayed
for you every night since.”
It was my fi rst contact with anyone who had been a witness
to what took place that day. David O’Connor and Shaun
McCarty are Catholic priests. Former faculty in a nearby semi-
nary, they would meet almost every day to walk this peaceful
trail beside Northwest Branch, once a millstream, both for the
exercise and to share each other’s company. Two years earlier, on
a Sunday afternoon, they were on their walk when the tree fell.
They were not the fi rst to fi nd me; an undocumented Sal-
vadoran immigrant had already called 911 on his cell phone.
Not knowing the extent of my injuries, the three of them were
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INTRODUCTION
afraid to try to free me. Other people came by and paused, but
reluctant to get involved, hurried on. The man with the cell
phone called 911 again to ask what was keeping them. The
ambulance, it seems, could go only as far as the historic Old
Adelphi Mill. The fallen tree was still a half mile further down
the trail. Seeing no sign of anyone at the mill, the rescue team
thought it must have been a crank call and returned to the fi re
station. When the second call came in, they hurried back, search-
ing farther down the trail on foot. I have a single fragmentary
memory of someone writing in a notebook, walking beside the
litter as they carried me back to the mill and the waiting am-
bulance. I gave him my name and home phone number, and
lapsed back into unconsciousness.
Before the rescue team arrived, David O’Conner and Shaun
McCarty did what priests know how to do—they administered
the last rites of the Church. Only a few years earlier, prayer
would have been all anyone could have done. Even the cell
phone the Salvadoran immigrant used to call 911 was a very
new technology at the time. A massive infection from soil bacteria
that had entered my body cavity by way of numerous compound
fractures was the major threat. It responded only to massive
doses of a newly developed antibiotic infused daily into the vena
cava of my heart by means of a catheter inserted through a
vein in the arm. The Washington National Hospital Center used
a modern medical-imaging device to thread the catheter all the
way to my heart. I would not be telling the story had it not
been for recent advances in medicine and technology.
Standing there beside the fallen oak, we shared what we
knew of that day. The two priests invited me to join them on
the rest of their walk. In the months and years that followed I
would meet with David and Shaun a few times each week to
walk with them beside that woodland stream.
I am a scientist and a professor of physics at a major public
university. I am also a husband, a grandfather, a veteran of the
Korean War, and an atheist. Now in my late seventies and
grateful to be still alive, I found myself developing a friendship
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LESSONS FROM A TREE
with two retired Irish-American Catholic priests. Aside from
compassion for the human condition, we seemed to have little
in common. We had followed very different roads, and ended
up with very different beliefs. Those beliefs gave us much to
talk about.
My conversations with these wise and gentle men of faith
began the intellectual process that eventually led to this book.
Walk with us now along that wooded path beside the millstream
and we’ll talk about belief.
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