עברית Everything that exists emerges through meetings, mutual relations and creative conversation. Also life emerges in the meeting between water, earth, air and the light and warmth of the sun.
The meeting let the potentials of the diverse elements and forces stimulate and awaken each other, not their finished forms. Therefore, it is the mother of all new creation, in nature and culture alike. The creative meeting feeds on diversity, multiplicity and divergencies. Therefore, the myth of the "lone genius" belongs to the past, and today we understand that creativity- in all fields- comes about through brain-and heart storming, sharing of ideas, passions and feelings in groups and teams, between colleagues that have the most diverse and different talents and qualities, and that the greater the diversity, the more rich and surprising the new creativity becomes.
When Goethe says, "Who possesses science and art, Possesses religion as well; Who possesses the first two not, O grant him religion", he doesn't mean of course true religious experience, but dogmatic religion. We can complete his statement by saying that whenever true, creative, science, art and religion mutually fructify each other, each one of them fulfils better its creative vocation: science needs artistic sensibility, feeling for aesthetic harmony and proportion, and a sense of wonder and admiration of the sublimity of creation. This has fired the minds and hearts of some of the most creative scientists in all ages; and the same applies to art and religion. If it is true that art is a revelation of the secrets of the creative forces inherent in nature, as Goethe maintained, not less then science, then the true artist is listening attentively to what the scientists have to say about the processes and facts that they discover in nature and cosmos; and his mind and heart experiences in nature's secrets the revelations of the eternal spirit, that speaks to him about the wonders of the universe, which he tries to portray in color, shape, harmony and sound. And a truly religious person, will find in the creations of art and the discoveries of science, a satisfying corroboration of what he finds in his religious experience and meditative contemplation. He will feel that the science lab. is a holy place in which divine mysteries of becoming are revealed, not less then through artistic composition of music, colours, movements and shapes.
Prof. Aharon Katzir was keenly aware of this mutual relations between science, art and religion. He expressed this beautifully thus:
"In the depth of the human being there is probably a common source... for religious belief, cosmic observation, scientific analysis and aesthetic experience. And in this common framework is grounded a deep relationship between science, art and religion, through which the human creative power comes to full expression. (Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky, In the Crucible of Scientific Revolution).
This feeling is a conviction shared by many creative people, from all fields of creativity and life, because for them, what Prof. Kazir says, expresses a most fundamental truth about the nature of each human being. They experience the being and becoming of humanity as an expression of the working together of all the creative forces in nature and cosmos, and they know that the more human beings discover themselves the more they discover the universe, because both are essentially, and creatively, related.
In modern science, the experience of these mutual relations between the three branches of the human spirit and culture is becoming increasingly clear. Some, like Ilya Prigogine, have seen in this fact a sign, that our time tends towards bridging of the abyss that separated the sciences and the humanities. He says that, "The fact that we can bring together the truth of scientists and poets is.... already a certain proof that we can bridge the chasm between the 'two cultures,' and that we have a possibility for a new dialogue... we are beginning to envision a new unity, realized by a non-totalitarian science, in which we don't strive to reduce one realm to the other...". (Ilya Prigogine, La Nouvelle Alliance).
And Benoit Mandelbrot, was fond of pointing out that the new science, that discovers complexity, transformation, and creative chaos, transforms our understanding of science in this process. For this science, "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line...", because it deals with the creative, formative, living and inventive, forces of nature, and not only with their finished dead forms. (Benoit Mandelbrot, Fractal Geometry of Nature).
In other words, what was considered since the 17th century to be three separate and even opposite domains, nature, human nature, and evolution, engage now in a creative meeting and conversation: mutually enhancing and uplifting revelation of human and cosmic becoming. Science, art and religion begin to converse with each other anew, grow closer, and mutually enhance and deepen each other by means of each other. This new meeting between science, art and religion, brings also hope to human society and human relations, because the place of the human being in the universe becomes meaningful, creative, and hopeful again.
Continue reading in my book: The Event in Science, History, Philosophy & Art