Saturday, December 04, 2004

Depth of the Universe

"For whoever does not know self
does not know anything.
but whoever knows self
already has acquired knowledge about the
depth of the universe"

This is from an ancient gnostic christian work known variously as The Book of Thomas the Contender or The Book of Thomas the Athlete or simply The Book of Thomas. This translation is from Marvin Meyer in his The Secret Teachings of Jesus.

Having grown up at the dawn of the space age, I have a fascination with science and technology. It is my occupation. Along with the advances in knowledge of the world about us there has been a concommitant progress in knowledge about ourselves. From the introspection of Augustine to Freud and Jung to the postmodern scrutiny of all metanarrative, knowledge about ourselves has been necessary in order to achieve technological mastery. And vice versa. Learning about the universe helps us understand ourselves and informs our faiths.

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