I’ve been reading a book by Niels Arboel, a Danish writer and teacher. His book, The Wonder of Creation: The Most Famous Christian Biologists in History, which I have mentioned previously has twenty biographies in it and there are tremendous differences in the way Arboel writes about the various biologists he is discussing.

What I have seen is, that in the case of someone like Francesco Redi, an early Italian scientist, Arboel discusses his discoveries very carefully. In the case of Teilhard de Chardin, a 20th century priest/philosopher, the writing is much more highflown and goes on and on about Teilhard’s philosophy. His science not quite so much.

Where I ran into a much worse road block was in the discussion of John Eccles. Eccles dis a lot of work on nerve cells and how they communicate. It’s fascinating to realize that nerves pass messages chemically not electrically. However, nerve cells can inhibit the electrical activity of cells nearby. I have to reread that part of the discussion. What sent me for a loop was discovering that Eccles, brought up a Catholic, married and had nine children who went to church with him, left his wife after forty years. He also left New Zealand and Australia and finished his life working first in the US where he remarried and then in Switzerland.

We are all sinners. I get that. Eccles can think about whatever he wants and write about it. But I’m still trying to imagine why I should listen to what he said about religion. I’ll write more about it later.