Review: Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine

Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book and the thoughts it sparked in me as I leafed through its passages. insightful and deeply moving reflection on the marvels of the material world—and the yearning that springs from the clear scientific materialist implication that, as Carl Sagan once remarked “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.” This realization that though we live in a brilliantly colorful world filled with life and dynamic possibility but one where there is ultimately nothing permeant, infinite, lasting or indivisible. Loved ones pass on, their bones molder in the ground to dust, our accomplishments fade into the sands of time like old Ozymandias, and even our seemingly eternally reliable celestial canopy will fade into cold, dark total chaos. Perhaps we can defy the second law of Thermodynamics; could we transform our consciousness into some sort of cloud whose sole purpose for existence is to maintain some concentrated being in the midst of total disorder (the theory of some transhumanists).

And yet we can still wonder at the beauty of our material world. Though the flower’s beauty quickly fades one can find great pleasure in the bloom though transient. Perhaps our existential anxiety can be assuaged as we witness incredible mechanics of a hummingbird in flight.

Two thoughts come to my mind as I gazed upon the stars and rocky coasts of Lute Island in Maine along with Dr. Lightman. First, though all we see and experience is transient, divisible, relative to fleeting contexts, human beings find ways to transcend our fractured, suffering, fluctuating, and sorrowful existence through finding unity, purpose, and hope. Even the most skeptical scientist (unless she is consigned to a philosophy of hopeless oxymoronic absolute relativism) will hold to the central doctrine of science, which is that the Universe is governed by laws, and that those laws are discoverable, and that they hold true everywhere and throughout all time. It is noted that all scientists also hold to the notion that there is a yet-to-be-discovered grand unifying theory of nature that ties all these laws into one circumscribed whole. This is of course not based on any materialist scientific conclusion but is a philosophical principle of faith. Nobody could ever prove with final absolute certainty any scientific law—notes Lightman, but that this desire to find transcendent absolutes in a fluctuating passing material world is based on the impulse of faith to discover and describe what might be just beyond one’s reach.

Lightman moves from cosmological to the biological origins of the natural world. It is true that the central doctrine of cosmology finds its corollary in the materialist naturalism that is the basis for the origin and evolution of life. Though some scientist asserts that there is no place for “God” or the “Supernatural” in their theory Lightman notes that the central doctrine itself is a transcendent principle of faith that can only be ‘proven’ true by completely transcending our fluctuating, fractured, fleeting existence.

The second thought that came to my mind was that just as there is beauty in the crooked, weathered timber of the coastal Maine forest, there is beauty and joy to be found amidst the suffering crooked timber of humanity. Loved one’s pass but we can have joy in their company and by sharing the burden of our coexistence within these material coils. So we can be reassured by these two thoughts: 1) though all experience refutes any notion of anything absolute, or even a concept of a non-materialistically determined free will, our experience in small transcendental moments also gives us hope and yearning that we do in fact think, feel, suffer, and exist in some eternal or lasting way; and 2) even though it is all simply an illusion, we can still revel in the warmth and light of that burning illusion while we can.

As a believer I find this view of science and the material world by a scientist to be welcoming, expansive, and filled with light.

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