[Lights come up in Dr. Morgan’s office....

[Lights come up in Dr. Morgan’s office. He’s reading a journal. Takes a yellow Post-It and attaches it to a page. Makes a note on it. Continues to read. Bret enters, hurriedly.]

DR. MORGAN (looks up) You’re late.

BRET Sorry. I was at church and the sermon went on a bit longer than I expected.

DR. MORGAN You go on weekdays, too?

BRET Sometimes.

DR. MORGAN I still did when I was your age, too. My mother made me. She was such a good Catholic I used to tell her the Pope should fly in to confess to her.

BRET I know the drill. My father is a pastor and he still wishes I’d follow in his footsteps.

DR. MORGAN You’ve got a lot of repair work to do. Sometimes it takes a while for all of us to transfer our evidence-based training to our other beliefs.

BRET I expect to keep my faith, sir. I think faith and science are different kinds of mental activity.

DR. MORGAN As you like. There do seem to be some people who can bridge the gap between the otherworldliness of Christianity or, for that matter, Islam, and a commitment to the care of this life.

BRET Missionaries do, sir, and many others. I think I do. But I do it for Christ and hopes of the hereafter.

DR. MORGAN Of course. But doesn’t that leave you with one foot in this life and the other foot in the next life?

BRET As a devout Christian, I think that’s the right way to live.

DR. MORGAN To each his own. What have you decided about becoming my assistant?

BRET I feel very honored that you offered me the position and I would like very much to accept. But I’m not sure I can.

DR. MORGAN Oh, well, too bad. What’s troubling you?

BRET I’m not sure I know how to talk about it with you. I respect you a great deal.

DR. MORGAN All the more reason to spit it out. Come on, let’s have it.

BRET Well, sir, I’m not sure Christ would want me to work for an atheist.

DR. MORGAN I see. What makes you think I’m an atheist?

BRET Lots of people seem to think so.

DR. MORGAN Actually, I’m not.

BRET You aren’t?

DR. MORGAN No, that would be taking a position about which I have no information. As the philosopher William Clifford said, “... it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” And William James, attempting to justify belief without sufficient evidence, countered him, by saying that it takes as much evidence not to believe as it does to believe. Unfortunately, the argument is specious. We are allowed to disbelieve until we hear convincing evidence for belief.

BRET Then may I ask what you are?

DR. MORGAN I don’t usually get into such discussions. I don’t find them comfortable. But in your case I’ll make an exception. The talk is just between us, OK? I want science to remain the central aspect of my life, not my beliefs.

BRET OK.

DR. MORGAN Good. Then let me ask you a question. You got an A in biochemistry. What do you think when you read about the multitudinous processes that support your life?

BRET I thank God for them.

DR. MORGAN You also studied microbiology. What do you think when you look in a microscope and see a living cell?

BRET The greatness of God Almighty.

DR. MORGAN Well, I think something else. I think of the wonder of it all, too. Or, as Einstein said,with a similar appreciation, “Every moment is a miracle.” But I think of it as a sacred trust.

BRET Life is sacred, sir. The great commandments tells us, “Thou shalt not kill.”

DR. MORGAN That’s true. Frankly, I prefer a positive statement of it, for example, the simple cliche’ to live and let live.

BRET What about God, sir?

DR. MORGAN It’s a long answer, Bret. But I believe that it is through the care of life and the intelligent fulfillment of its finest possibilities that we be best express our reverence to whatever its ultimate source may be.

BRET Excuse me, sir. But how can you believe in a “whatever”? How does that compare with belief in the one true God?

DR. MORGAN I was, and I think most people are, initially saddened when they realize that they no longer believe in God as a father figure, perched on a proximate cloud. Things improve when we realize the answer may be simpler, that is, if we decide that, after all, the universe itself is our creator, or more astoundingly, in the unlikely event that we discover that a Creator or Creators beyond our experience actually exist. But let me ask you a question? Do you believe that God is love?

BRET Of course, sir.

DR. MORGAN But isn’t the idea of one true God who’s apart but perhaps looking in on us rather a lonely concept?

BRET He has his Son, the Apostles, the four Evangelists, St. Paul, Christ’s mother and father, and all those who have been saved because they led lives that have earned them eternal life.

DR. MORGAN Well, perhaps before we understood as much as we do about cosmology that vision has a more credible place in the clouds, although our ancestors apparently didn’t realize they could see through them every clear night. You’ve seen the photo of the earth from space and the photos taken by the Hubble telescope?

BRET Of course. Praise the Lord.

DR. MORGAN Wouldn’t you say the universe as we have come to understand it is really quite super? And maybe, just maybe, the whole idea of the supernatural came about because people didn’t realize how super the natural world is.

BRET I know where all this leads. Are you what they call a pantheist?

DR. MORGAN Well, let’s talk about the idea in modern terms. What if the universe is what we might call the grand molecular structure of our natural supreme being, which we’re all at one with, in fact, from which we all arise and return to, body of its body, life of its life? Doesn’t that relationship seem more consonant with love to you?

BRET That’s a nice thought, sir, but where does Christ come in?

DR. MORGAN Anywhere you want him to. Let me tell you how I fit in what I have no information about. I call my own beliefs open pantheism. I accept that the universe may be our natural God, at the same time I remain open to the possibility of a Creator or Creators who may be beyond our experience.

BRET Then you are open to the idea of Christ as our divine Savior?

DR. MORGAN I’m open to anything that can be presented to me in a way that’s worthy of the intelligence we’ve evolved with. Have you ever done a study of the historicity of Jesus?

BRET His history is in the New Testament, sir. What more do we need to know?

DR. MORGAN Do you know that not one of the four evangelists or St. Paul knew Christ?

BRET I hadn’t heard that.

DR. MORGAN Well, look it up. The oldest book, Mark, was written some fifty or more years after the death of Christ. The others were written even later. They are the record of an oral tradition in the ancient Middle East. You can see even today that credible communication is hardly the guiding principle of many of its people.

BRET But the books of the New Testament are divinely inspired.

DR. MORGAN Well, I can’t address that. Are you acquainted with the life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer?

BRET I’ve heard of him. A jungle doctor. Very noble calling. Sort of an early version of Doctors Without Borders.

DR. MORGAN Sort of. He established and ran a hospital at Lambarene’, in the Congo, caring for the generally impoverished inhabitants. Do you know how he began?

BRET No, sir.

DR. MORGAN As a theologian, actually, as a professor and then the Principal of the Theological Seminary at Strasbourg. He decided to write a book, called The Search for the Historical Jesus. He didn’t find much, because there isn’t much. And the Romans were excellent historians. There’s hardly more than a passing phrase in a civil record of the crucifixion of someone with a similar name, and a mention by the Jewish philosopher, Josephus, that many consider an interpolation. The Medieval Christians were quite concerned about the lack of a historical record. Be that as it may, not long afterward, Schweitzer decided to become a medical doctor and resigned from his teaching post. Thereafter, he devoted most of his life to the care of African natives. While he seemed to remain a Christian, one day, when he was floating down the Congo in a skiff being manned by natives, he saw a group of hippopotamuses, and at that instant, a thought came to him that became the foundation of his ethics. Do you know what it was?

BRET No, sir, I do not.

DR. MORGAN Apparently, you have a lot of company. I recently bought a book by him online for a quarter. The principle that came to him could make a better world, if enough people adhered to it. It was Reverence for Life.

BRET You mean like the sanctity of life?

DR. MORGAN They’re similar. And in a world characterized by a great deal of behavior that we might call irreverence for life, I’ll take either one as a guiding principle. But to go on. He explained his new ethic this way: what is good for life is good, and what is bad for life is bad. It’s a fine ethical principal for a physician.

BRET Yes, it is, Dr. Morgan. But how does it serve Christ? And what about our immortal souls?

DR. MORGAN Well, let me ask you something. What if all we can truly know is what is within our experience of the natural world? Could we still have a religion?

BRET I don’t know what it would be, sir.

DR. MORGAN Well, let’s say we appreciated life for what it truly is. When you know modern science, you realize what a wondrous and rare existent it is. As far as our experience goes, life can readily be appreciated as the highest achievement of the universe. It’s certainly more distinguished than the rubble we find on most planets. Imagine that. The highest achievement of the universe, yet many humans still think it not good enough for them. They want something more.

BRET Eternal life.

DR. MORGAN If such a thing exists, what do you think might be the best way to earn it?

BRET By living according to the word of God, as revealed in the Scriptures.

DR. MORGAN What if it’s by taking good care of this life first?

BRET Don’t you think you can still take care of it while you believe in eternal life?

DR. MORGAN I believe that you can., although whether or not you believe in eternal life probably doesn’t have much influence over whether it actually exists. Be that as it may, what if we were conducting a clinical trial among a certain number of subjects. How long would it have to go on to show whether or not a set of beliefs is equal to our problems? I believe if you look around the world, you see that such divided loyalty has not cured us of our self-destructive ways and made the world we would all like to live in -- in short, a world that is worthy of the promise of life.

BRET Because the devil is afoot in the world, and it’s up to us to fight his evil promptings.

DR. MORGAN Well, let’s imagine for a moment that the devil isn’t to blame. How can we fix our problems? I’ll tell you what I think. We can only fix it when we have faith in life.

BRET Faith in life?

DR. MORGAN Yes. Because it’s smarter than we are -- and very likely always will be.

BRET Smarter?

DR. MORGAN Oh, very much so. Watch this. (he raises his hand and puts it back down) What did I just do?

BRET Raised your hand and put it back down.

DR. MORGAN Easy, right. Can you explain how I was able to do that?

BRET Well, your neurological system stimulated your musculoskeletal system --

DR. MORGAN -- Yes, that’s what gives me the ability to do it, but we don’t really understand how I can even have a thought up here ... (points to head) ... and have it make my arm move. What we can do is understand the wonder and promise of life enough to trust in its greatness and in the only way that has ever inspired billions of people -- as a religion. In short, life itself as a modern religion.

BRET I think there has to be more than “wine, women, and song.”

DR. MORGAN That, young man, is a medieval degradation of this life, which competes with belief in another life. I don’t believe we can get where we have to when we still think of this life as just a stopover on the way to a better place. As a banishment and a punishment, if you will.

BRET But that’s due to original sin.

DR. MORGAN What if the idea of original sin is based on not appreciating life as we have come to understand it biologically and cosmologically? What if, in fact, it’s an expression that we can now see as irreverence for life? What if the idea that’s worthy of what we have come to understand life is is not original sin, but an original blessing?

BRET Wow, that’s a pretty intense twist on things, Dr. Morgan. I’ll say this much. You have a way of thinking that’s hard to disparage, except it does still leave out Jesus and eternal life?

DR. MORGAN Well, I don’t need to disabuse you of your belief s. My mother was a devout Catholic. In fact, she spent so much time on her knees, saying her rosary, that I used to tell her I was going to buy her kneepads. And guess what? Her faith turned out to be her saving hope. I don’t like to discuss it, but my sister was killed in a car accident when she was just 16.

BRET I’m very sorry to hear that.

DR. MORGAN It was a complete disaster. If my family was a diamond, it was like it was hit the wrong way and shattered. I was eleven years old when it happened. I came down the stairs one morning and saw my father and mother sitting on the couch with a man who had a white 3-ring binder open. I noticed that my father’s hair had seemed to turn yellowish gray and my mother was frighteningly pale. I asked what had happened. They told me, and it turned out that the man they were talking to was helping them pick out a tombstone.

BRET That is so sad.

DR. MORGAN Yep. The loss was profound. My sister was one of those almost magical people -- a beautiful girl, the Valedictorian of her class, the head cheerleader, and she used to play Chopin on the piano when classes at our parochial school had to march up to the stage for one kind of ceremony or another. My father, who was always careful to eat right, got Parkinson’s from the trauma. My mother retreated to her bedroom and wouldn’t come out for a year. Then she found some strength in her belief that she would be reunited with her daughter in heaven. That faith is pretty much all that kept her going. I knew how important her faith was to her, so I even pretended to go to mass long after I realized that I wanted to put myself completely in the service of life. The challenge was to find something interesting to do for an hour on Sunday. My favorite activity was to drive out to the local trout stream, relax on the bank, and watch the trout finning in the deep green water. I felt it was a holier experience than attending church. Later, I learned I was experiencing what Wordsworth called “natural piety.” (clears throat, as if to get past the sadness the recollection has imbued him with) Despite all of that, there are real reasons to ask if the story of Jesus -- Mary being visited by the Archangel Michael and becoming pregnant without intercourse, Christ being born in a manger, and the three wise men following a star to pay homage to him, etcetera -- is a bit of a fairy tale.

BRET We all need to have faith, sir.

DR. MORGAN Let me ask you something. Don’t you think when it comes to our most sacred beliefs we deserve more in the way of a credible foundation for them? I’m not responsible for the lack of evidence, but I can observe that there are real reasons to decide that Christ is, for example, like Hercules, a myth.

BRET If you don’t mind, I’ll stay with the New Testament.

DR. MORGAN Good. I grant you your beliefs, just as I expect you to grant me mine. My own hope, though, is that in time enough people will make a religion out of life itself and have the religious fervor to save it. I’m hardly the first to think so. The English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, said way back in 1916, in a book called Principles of Social Reconstruction, “New thought will be required ... the world has need of a philosophy, or a religion, which will promote life.... Through the spectacle of death, I acquired a new love for what is living."

BRET Isn’t he the fellow who wrote the essay, “Why I Am Not A Christian.”

DR. MORGAN Yes, he was. Actually, it was based on some of his lectures.

BRET I can tell you this. My father is not a big fan of his.

DR. MORGAN I’ll bet. He got himself into a numerous difficulties by being candid about his beliefs. Any other questions I can answer?

BRET Well, sir, I understand what you’re saying. But this life is only good for some people. What about people who die young?

DR. MORGAN Of course, it’s a tragedy. I know, believe me. But I think even a moment of life is better than no life at all.

BRET And what about people with disabilities?

DR. MORGAN Most still have a great treasure of life to value and for us to value.

BRET OK. Then what about natural disasters, like hurricanes and earthquakes?

DR. MORGAN You know how big the global weather system is. The natural miracle is that the atmosphere, no matter how rough it gets, sustains life so reliably we take it for granted.

BRET And earthquakes?

DR. MORGAN Well, let’s think about that. Right now the earth is moving around the sun, rotating, and expanding with the universe. Does the ride feel bumpy? The fact is, most of the time in our journey through space and time, the earth is astoundingly stable. Let me give you a comparison. Did you ever drive down a country road with ruts in it?

BRET Yes.

DR. MORGAN Well, you can get bounced around doing that about as much as you can during most earthquakes?

BRET You’re starting to sound a little like the character in our high school play, called Pangloss.

DR. MORGAN Ah, Voltaire. I know him well. Did you ever read his Philosophical Dictionary?

BRET No, sir.

DR. MORGAN Well, someday, look into it. What I can tell you is I find peace of mind and outright happiness in my beliefs and I know that, at least to me, they seem to rest on a firm foundation.

BRET But how can you be happy with all the tragic stuff in the news?

DR. MORGAN When I was growing up, we had a name for it -- the death culture. All the absorption with death and destruction is really just an orgasm of the death culture.

BRET But a name for it doesn’t make it go away. How can you still be happy when you know what’s going on?

DR. MORGAN Sometimes, it gets to me, as I’m sure it gets to most of us. But I value my life and am determined to live it, as Kant said in his categorical imperative, so that my behavior could become a universal rule of behavior. And I think part of that way of living is to have the wisdom to be happy. And part of the way I manage it is to separate my what we might call my personal life and my mass media life. In my personal life, I wake up, have breakfast, kiss my wife, come to the lab, and look into life processes that still transcend all of our knowledge. Meanwhile, I know in my mass media life, humanity will be proceeding with its usual death obsessions, without a clue about what an astounding privilege it is just to be alive.

BRET I can tell you’ve read a lot of what my father disparagingly calls “fee-losophy.” Without a firm belief in God, don’t you ever feel alone in the universe?

DR. MORGAN Are you kidding? Since we’re all part of the universe, we have a natural personal relationship with it. It’s our relationship with ourselves, along with our relationships with other people and all other life. When we appreciate all of these relationships, we feel we are part of the universe and part of its great community of life. We are, as the Indian mystics often say, at one with it. When we feel those relationships aren’t sufficient, our appreciation of them isn’t worthy of them..

BRET OK. But I’m still waiting to hear where Christ fit into all this.

DR. MORGAN In undergraduate school, I studied theology with the Jesuits. There is one thought that they use to involve Christianity in this world: Love your neighbor as yourself.

BRET It’s a great ethical principal.

DR. MORGAN Yes, it is. But the ancient Greeks said it too. Isn’t Christ also reported to have said, “My kingdom is not of this world”?

BRET Yes. His kingdom, and the hope of all Christians, is in heaven, with him seated at the right hand of God, the Father.

DR. MORGAN Believe whatever you wish. But I do not think anyone who would say that is an ideal candidate to inspire us to take good care of this world. I don’t want to offend you. But let me go a little further. May I?

BRET I guess.

DR. MORGAN Have you ever asked yourself, What kind of symbol is a man nailed to a board? It’s a symbol of suffering humanity. And development of such a symbol is totally understandable. The only way for intelligent life to evolve on disparate planets is naked and ignorant, but, as we’ve discovered, with the capacity to improve its lot. Now, that life has had time to prove we can cure diseases, build comfortable shelters from the elements, and feed ourselves reliably, as well as enjoy many pleasures beyond survival, maybe it’s time to reevaluate whether we’ve been put here to suffer. Maybe it’s time to decide we’ve been put here to enjoy life intelligently, which would include with mutual consideration, and settle in for the long term, instead of jabbering about such things as End Times.

BRET I disagree with what you said about Christ. I think it’s a symbol of his sacrifice to redeem us from sin.

DR. MORGAN You’re free to do so. Now, let me ask you. I’ve spent a great deal of time telling something about what I believe. Why have I done it?

BRET I don’t really know, sir.

DR. MORGAN Because I want you to know that I have a religion, too, and one I think may well be the only religion that can save humanity from itself. And why do you think I’ve gone though all of this uncomfortable disclosure?

BRET To convince me I’m may be wrong about Christ?

DR. MORGAN Not at all. The whole universe seems to be a demonstration that creation delights in the possibilities of matter and energy. Consider the variety that springs from the gene pool, going back to the first spark of life on earth. So who am I to oppose human diversity? My hope has been, instead, to convince you that I might not be such an ogre that you’d feel guilty being my assistant.

BRET Well, I can say this much, sir. I’m truly glad you’re not an atheist, sir. And, knowing that, I’d be proud to be your assistant.

DR. MORGAN Thank you. I expect great things of you, regardless of what your beliefs in nonscientific areas may be. In fact, as I said the last time we met, when you finish medical school, you may want to consider doing a couple of years of post-doctoral research and maybe decide to make a career out of medical research.

BRET I remember.

DR. MORGAN Good. As part of your post-doc work, you’d pick a research project. I’ll tell you the one I’d like you to look into.

BRET What’s that?

DR. MORGAN In biochemistry, you learned that there’s an electrical charge across the cell wall that’s generated by sodium and potassium ions. The electrical charge is what accounts for, at least in this world, life itself. When we’re dead, the activity ceases. What accounts for the exchange? There’s a generally accepted theory called the sodium pump. But I don’t believe it’s correct. I believe something else is going on. I think you might want to go in search of the sodium pump or discover what other process is the basis of it.

BRET That’s interesting, Dr. Morgan, and thank you for thinking I might be able to achieve something like that.

DR. MORGAN Well, if you decide to do some post-doc research, I’ll be happy to give recommend you to a colleague of mine at Harvard.

BRET Harvard?

DR. MORGAN Yes. I have a long-time friend there who does research in biophysics. He’s always looking for the rare scientist who can climb out of his wormhole and see the big picture. If you do the research I’m suggesting, you could use your mathematical ability and your talent for chemistry, physics, and the other sciences. Read up on the area and think about it. (takes a book from the shelf behind him) Here’s a book about the subject, written by our mutual friend down the hall, Dr. Jay Tang. It’s the best book on the subject so far. (hands it to him) Take it home and read it. (points to shelf behind him) But remember to return it to the library.

BRET Thank you, Dr. Morgan. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.

DR. MORGAN I’m sure you will. Now, let me show you to your desk. The pile of freshman chemistry exams is still there, waiting for you. I corrected the previous exam myself. That was enough for me for the entire year.

BRET Glad to do it, sir.

DR. MORGAN Good. And welcome, Bret. Great to have you on board.

[puts out his hand; Bret shakes it; they walk together]

DR. MORGAN Tomorrow, I need you to prepare some bottles of formaldehyde for the anatomy department. They’re preparing some new cross sections of the human head for a neurology exam.

BRET Sure. No problem.

[Lights fade down]

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