A WORLD CONNECTED WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF INTERPRETATION

Morris presents a “unified theory of belief” in this nonfiction work.

In this brief but intriguing volume, the author, an engineer with an academic background in statistics, seeks to reconcile science and religious faith by viewing each as a series of estimations (“informed, inspired, meaningful approximations”) that can carry errors. “Not in the spiritual sense of mistake,” he clarifies, “but in the statistical sense of deviation from an unknowable whole.” Religious traditions often take their sacred texts as complete, but Morris proposes that they instead be viewed as portions of the truths they’re intended to convey. In other words, what if we understood these holy works as datasets? In this case, “misinterpretation isn’t just an epistemic error—it becomes a social one. An ethical one.” The author argues that, for example, the Book of Genesis should be seen not as a rival to modern cosmology but as an ancient interpretation of that cosmology. He proposes that the “soul” is not an object but rather a function of moral behavior across species, “an n-dimensional model of agency, awareness, and ethical responsiveness.” Morris allows that spiritual experience can’t be measured in the same way physical data can, and he invites his readers to imagine a world in which belief structures acknowledge the limitations that scenario implies. Still, empirically minded readers may quibble with the author’s contention that the world’s sacred texts are “meaningful approximations” of an aspect of reality in much the same way that, say, population statistics are informed estimates—heads can be counted, but there’s no objective evidence that gods exist. The value of the work is in Morris’ willingness to take a broader view of issues like the transmission of religious faith or the fallacy of human exceptionalism. “When we map animals by genetic similarity, we begin to see the foolishness of anthropocentric arrogance,” he writes. “We are not lords over creation, but kin within it.” That kind of perspective is always refreshing.

A thought-provoking attempt to create a faith/science synthesis.