The G.O.D. Experiments by Gary Schwartz

I finally finished reading The G.O.D. Experiments by Gary Schwartz -- it was squeezed in between Quarking at the Observer, much proofreading I've been doing for my court reporter friend, Lois, and the study of Metaphysics II which is a course I'm taking at church.

Gary Schwartz is a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery at the University of Arizona and describes himself as "an agnostically raised scientist with an open and inquisitive mind who is following the data where it takes him."

Most of the book just affirms that there's an intelligence underlying the universe. Like a good little agnostic, Schwartz doesn't call that intelligence "God," but rather G.O.D. for a Guiding, Organizing, Designing principle. His book is an easy read and fun to argue with; it provided lots of suggestions for additional reading and made me think I should look into the work of a Stanford professor named William Tiller.

Schwartz's reference to the idea of "The All is in the Small" rang true to me. It fits the concept I was taught many years ago in geology class: "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." We know scientifically that everything is made of atoms whose nuclei include subatomic particles. Given what quantum mechanics is saying about the impossibility of observing those particles without having an effect on them, it is not (in my judgment) a great leap of faith to think that those particles have consciousness. I call that consciousness "God" and because the particles are the basic stuff (as far as we know) of which everything is made, I believe that God and the universe are one. Unity!

The Peabody Sisters by Megan Marshall

The Peabody Sisters by Megan Marshall is a beautifully written account of the lives of Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody who lived in the Boston area and associated with the intelligensia of the early 1800s. Mary married Horace Mann, known as "the father of American public education." Sophia married Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of "The Scarlet Letter." Elizabeth was a teacher who knew Emerson and Thoreau and was involved in Boston's Unitarian movement led by William Ellery Channing. She also corresponded with the English poet William Wordsworth. The lives of the Peabody women are told from a personal point of view with thoughtful psychological insight. And for the historians among us, their association with the movers and shakers of the day in a place of intellectual ferment makes for compelling reading.

Daughter of Persia by Sattareh Farman Farmaian

I've just finished an autobiography called Daughter of Persia by Sattareh Farman Farmaian. It is not as well written as The Peabody Sisters and was harder to get into, but the insight into the modern history of Iran made it well worthwhile. The author was born into a wealthy Iranian family (one of nine children of the third wife) and was independent enough to want to get out into the world rather than marry and live the sheltered life of a wealthy Iranian wife.

Satti observed the American teachers and social workers in Teheran, and eventually was able to get to the United States where she earned a bachelor's degree and MSW. She returned to Iran and set up a school dedicated to educating Iranian social workers. It was ground-breaking work for the country and she succeeded magnificently. But, from my point of view, the worth of the book lies in her observations of political events. She lived through the rise and fall of the Pahlavi dynesty and the return of Ayatolleh Koumeini, and she reports it all as a sensitive, non-political observer. She is both pro-Iranian and pro-American but does not shrink from criticizing either country; as a person dedicated to helping the less fortunate among us, she is well grounded in common sense and wants the best for us all.