Why GOD & ELEMENTS?

I changed the name of the publication so I can write about more than atheism because I am entering a doctoral philosophy program this Fall.

First, the logistics:

It’s not a big deal in Substack, really. No need for a new publication or new website. Just change the name and, if it suits you, redecorate a bit. I was blogging back in the days of Blogger and upgraded to WordPress, and I really like what Substack offers in the way of a writing platform. It’s minimal and focused on writing, which is to say, it is ultimately focused on your experience as a reader.

I noticed that other Substackers have changed names too, and I suppose the ability to do so is way for a writer to evolve. The name here is no longer “Engaging Atheism” but now “GOD & ELEMENTS” …until whatever is ahead. I have tagged all the previous posts with the old name. Now, onward.

Why GOD & ELEMENTS though?

Basically this:

I left behind the mechanistic world view to contemplate the whole universe.

I want to write about more than atheism because this summer I completed a M.A. in Systematic Philosophy. This comes ten years after I completed a M.A. in Dogmatic Theology. My first (terminal) degree is in Chemistry. And this Fall, I begin a doctoral program at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland. Why so many degrees? Trust me; it’s not to impress. I’m actually somewhat embarrassed to still be pursuing degrees at my age. Self-conscious Stacy envisions you reading this paragraph and making a funny face, wondering something like: Alphabet soup, much? Somebody seems desperate to prove herself. Come on, lady, let it go…

It’s a pursuit of truth. Chemistry was my first love. I switched to chemistry after earning a B.S. in Broadfield Science-Biology (it’s a long story that ends with me graduating in only three years) because I realized biology textbooks use a lot of cartoons, and I wanted to know the truth behind the shapes, ribbons, and blobs. Biology is learned at a larger scale than chemistry, and too much of it is just memorizing stuff. (Sorry, biologists, but you know it’s true.) I wanted to know why proteins fold and why enzymes only catalyze certain reactions and what exactly happens when a cell divides. So, after graduating with the above-mentioned strangely named biology degree and teaching chemistry for two years in my early twenties, I decided to go back to school and work toward a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Atoms, man. It’s all about the atoms and their electrons. My story is in the beginning of Particles of Faith, and you can read an excerpt from the publisher here: “A Story about the Chasm.”

Theology came after I converted to Catholicism. I wanted to know more about my new faith, and the ‘dogmatic’ version of theology suited me, formulas and all.

In time, I had to admit that without philosophy, of which I knew very little, I could not put chemistry and theology together except to say, “God made everything.” That called into question Divine Action. Then a friend of mine, Paul Rimmer, an Assistant Professor of Experimental Astrophysics at Cambridge University, Department of Physics, The Cavendish Laboratory, invited me to talk informally via Zoom to some of his colleagues about teleology and Divine Action. I did. But I was disappointed that I said little more than, “Um, God made everything.” Scientists want more. This is not hubris. Rather, it is what makes the practice of science so profoundly beautiful. Science, done correctly, is an absolute, objective search for truth into the mysteries of nature.

Then, life presented me with the opportunity to work on philosophy in a formal course of study, and I did. As an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminary, I availed myself of the benefit of taking two courses free of tuition per semester toward a M.A. in Systematic Philosophy. It was a lot to teach and study simultaneously, but I think it made me a better professor because I was right there with my students stretching, stressing, and fumbling towards deadlines. Being a student is humbling.

In 2023, I was again asked, this time more formally, to speak on “Science and Divine Action” at a conference in Maynooth, Ireland held by the St. Patrick’s Pontifical University. My talk was “The Chemical Life of God’s Elements,” and it was intended to teach a bit of atomic theory and quantum mechanics to philosophers and theologians. I always love to teach about atoms, but still…philosophically and theologically, I did nothing more than repeat, “God made everything.” That evening after the talks, I had the opportunity to sit around a table in a pub with some of the other speakers and students involved with the conference, and while sipping a Guinness, I started seriously considering a Ph.D. in Philosophy. To thank for the encouragement, I owe gratitude to Gaven Kerr, a philosopher at St. Patrick’s who helped organize the conference, and Fr. Andrew Pinsent, one of the speakers and a former particle physicist at CERN who also has a second doctorate in philosophy and is the Research Director for the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford University. I remember the exact moment I was talking to them and thought, “Okay, I can do this.”

There were remnants of materialist, machinist, reductionist thinking in me.

I confronted all my years of such thinking this summer writing my M.A. thesis, “Atoms as Aquinas’s Elements: An Analysis of the Elements on the Periodic Table as Elements According to Aquinas.” Back in June, I logged all seven days of writing it while hiding away in my husband’s parents’ home; may they rest in peace. Read the series:

My husband and I are all about helping each other realize our dreams, so with his blessing, I applied to the doctoral program at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University. I am now off the September to see if I can cross that bridge from science to theology. (Most research will be done from home, and I will travel for a few weeks per year.) I count myself fortunate in the best possible way to be able to take up this new task. It really would not be possible at all if I did not have my husband’s support. I told him about this dream years ago, but it wasn’t something tangible until now.

I am going to work specifically on the philosophy of matter. My opinion is that atoms, the modern elements, have been all but forgotten in the race for the cool Thomists to talk about quantum mechanics. I don’t know why this happened, except maybe the philosophers do not understand that quantum mechanics would not be a discipline if not for atomic theory. I shall defend atoms.

There is a lot to mine in the ancient and modern ideas about elements, not just academically in scholarly language but, more importantly, in how we think about our place in the universe and our relationship to God.

Hence, GOD & ELEMENTS. I will have much to write about as I begin research and the process of writing a dissertation in the pursuit of a pair of doctorates!

Now that I think about it, I wore a new pair of solid black Doc Martens on my first trip to Maynooth. They are nicely broken in now. How fitting: a pair of docs!