Dr. Ursula Goodenough and the Sacred Depths of Nature

In this and the next two episodes of the Nature of Nantucket Podcast we’ll meet an extraordinary scientist. Dr. Ursula Goodenough is a biologist whose many distinctions include being an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  The long-awaited second edition of her beloved book, The Sacred Depths of Nature is being released by the University of Oxford Press in early 2023. You can learn more at sacreddepthsofnature.com http://sacreddepthsofnature.com/info/  Like Maria Mitchell was in her time, Professor Goodenough is a scientist committed to living life with a religious orientation. In her case, it is through the paradigm of Religious Naturalism. The key to this perspective is reference to, and reverence for, the epic, all-encompassing story of the cosmos, also known as Big History. Listeners may know this is a subject of my own research at the Maria Mitchell Association. I begin by asking Ursula how she came to this understanding and how scientific knowledge enhances her worldview.