How do I reconcile my atheism with my veneration (OK; obsession!) of Emerson; and specifically, my embrace of the Universal Being of Nature?
Well, THIS!
“Every civilisation; every religion across the world has a creation story. It tells of where we came from and how we came to be here; and of what will happen when we die. Well, I have a different creation story to tell; and it’s based entirely on Physics and Cosmology. It can tell us what we are made of and where we came from; in fact, it can tell us what everything in the world is made of and where it came from. It also answers that most basic of human needs to feel part of something much bigger, because to tell the story, you have to understand the history of the universe; and and it teaches us that the path to enlightenment is not in understanding of our own lives and deaths; but, the lives and deaths of the stars.”
– Professor Brian Cox, Wonders of the Universe
A Classicist Writes... 