50 Science Blessings: For Serious Science Nerds

Description

What would you say at a party where Walt Whitman and Richard Dawkins were chatting in line by the punch bowl, where the Dalai Lama and Shakespeare were listening to Richard Feynman play the bongos, where King David and John Muir sipped Merlot while Neil deGrasse Tyson admired their magnificent beards, and where Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Pope Francis, and Carl Sagan discussed the afterlife (or lack thereof) over a friendly volley of badminton? What would you say...? You wouldn't say anything of course! But you would smile and nod, and after the party you could go home and write a book very similar to this one...Written especially for the science-minded agnostic or atheist who feels the urge to pray but feels insincere when praying to something, for the person who feels "spiritual" but not "religious", or for the person of faith who wishes to incorporate into their prayers the facts and conclusions of science.Sample blessing - "A Prayer for Thanksgiving Feast":My friends, look you at this feast before us. Grown of earth and sun. Diversity and subtlety of colors. Wafting and mingling of smells. A medley of textures. A swath of temperatures--trembling atoms in chaos. A great cornucopia of chemistry. The drama of life, built by cells under the direction of genes and the immutable laws of physics. Life, which gives us life. Matter, which becomes our matter. Energy, stored--but for a moment--before flowing into us and through us and out of us. We eat to live another day, to breathe another breath. How marvelous this play! How glorious this grand show of life of which we partake!--the very stuff of our thoughts, our actions, our dreams!My friends, look you at this feast before us. Imagine the days here, the countless moments: photons captured and stored--joule by joule, calorie by calorie, electron volt by electron volt--one by one, day by day. Imagine the sprouting of seeds, the showers of spring, the cool rumbling thunder, the crisp cloudless nights, the fields that bow to a warm breeze as crickets chirp... chirp... chirp... Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset. Imagine the journeys here--of water, of minerals--atom by atom. From ocean to cloud to stream. From magma to rock to dust. From soil to stem to leaf. Eons of time, converging now.My friends, this feast before us comes from earth and sun, yes, but that is not all. Indeed, it is the heritage of our human family. These very plants, season by season, seed by seed, kept alive and improved by generations of farmers. Sown and reaped, harvest by harvest, with tool and plow, the legacy of invention. And brought to us, by many people, from many places, on many paths, from farm to table. My friends, we are all connected. Everything is connected. Through time and space. To the universe, and to each other. And so for this, for the great bounty of the cosmos; and for the parts that each of us play in this great human endeavor, we are forever thankful. Amen.This and 39 more science themed blessings for: Christmas, New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, Independence Day, Winter and Summer Solstice, Mole Day, Pi Day, Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, Graduations, Mealtimes, Mornings, Evenings, Coffee/Tea/Alcohol, and Goodbyes, as well as 10 science proverbs for any occasion. At your next family dinner, an upcoming holiday, or a birthday or wedding, share one of these science blessings with your fellow science enthusiasts. Make them laugh, cry, and remind them of the wonder and beauty of it all!