The following is a series of conversations. In addition to those I had with Christian Science teachers Geoffrey Barratt and Betty Jenks, we've included excerpts from a conversation I had with , whose article "The Time We Thought We Knew," which appeared on the op-ed page of The New York Times on New Year's Day 2004, sparked the idea to explore this subject in the Journal.
On April 18, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Albert Einstein's passing, a relay of lights started around the globe in Princeton, New Jersey, the physicist's home. The event, titled "Physics enlightens the world," marked a high point of this Einstein-inspired World Year of Physics 2005. It just so happens that it was on that very evening that I sat down to talk with Brian Greene in The Princeton Club in New York City. A professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, Professor Greene is the author of The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality and The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory, which describes what physicists now call the "Theory of Everything," or string theory. String theory picks up where Einstein left off in his quest to find one master equation that unifies nature, explains Professor Greene as part of the Nova Television Series based on his book. "String theory says that we may be living in a universe where reality meets science fiction. A universe of 11 dimensions, with parallel universes right next door. ... It says that everything in the universe, from the tiniest particle to the most distant star, is made from one kind of ingredient—unimaginably small, vibrating strands of energy, called strings." Although Christian Scientists have come to entirely different conclusions about the substance of reality—based on the discoveries elucidated in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy—our conversation was a fruitful and honest exchange of ideas.
