Excerpt from the Introduction by Jaan Vaino: (Mr. Vaino describing a lecture at Columbia University given by his freshmen year astronomy professor…)

“He derived from one end of the blackboard to the other the famous equation that summarizes Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. And for one brief shining minute, we understood it! We understood it! We were impressed, more with ourselves than with him. And the drama of the moment was not lost on our eminent professor. He strode to the edge of his platform, and he told us the one thing that he said he wanted us to remember, and here is what he said. He said, ‘You will never be a free person until and unless you decide never to worship anyone or anything. Breathtaking! Breathtaking! No one raised a voice in objection to what he said, but I can tell you if Einstein was in the room, he’d have called that man down, because Einstein did not believe what our professor told us.

Does science have to be like this, exalting a man’s mind to pull God out of heaven? Is that science? Chris White is going to tell you that science does not have to be that way, nor has it been that way. The world has known giants who have owned God as the creator of the universe, who have built science and science education on a foundation of faith…”


Copyright 2022 Christopher N. White. (Written for a talk given at St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University, 11/10/2003)