Chet Raymo (born September 17, 1936 in

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

) is a noted writer, educator and naturalist. He is Professor Emeritus of

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at Stonehill College, in

Easton, Massachusetts Easton is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,058 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Boston area. Easton is governed by an elected Select Board. Open Town Meeting acts as the legislative br ...

. His weekly newspaper column ''Science Musings'' appeared in the

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

for twenty years. This is now a daily blog by him. Raymo espouses his

Religious Naturalism Religious naturalism combines a naturalist worldview with ideals, perceptions, traditions, and values that have been traditionally associated with many religions or religious institutions. "Religious naturalism is a perspective that finds religi ...

in ''When God is Gone Everything is Holy – The Making of a Religious Naturalist'' and frequently in his blog. As Raymo says – "I attend to this infinitely mysterious world with reverence, awe, thanksgiving, praise. All religious qualities." Raymo has been a contributor to ''The Notre Dame Magazine'' and ''Scientific American''. His most famous book is the novel entitled ''The Dork of Cork'', which was made into the feature-length film ''

Frankie Starlight ''Frankie Starlight'' is a 1995 drama– romantic war film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The screenplay was written by Ronan O'Leary and Chet Raymo, based on the internationally best-selling novel ''The Dork of Cork'' by Raymo. Plot Frank Bois ...

''. Raymo is also the author of ''Walking Zero'', a scientific and historical account of his wanderings along the

Prime Meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrary meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great c ...

in Great Britain. Raymo was the recipient of the 1998

Lannan Literary Award The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...

for his non-fiction work. Raymo espouses a scientific skepticism for his beliefs: :"For the Religious Naturalist, darkness and silence are not the paradox, they are the resolution. The apophatic tradition ends in effective negation (God is not this, God is not that, God is not). Not only do we fall silent in the face of the Word, the Word itself dissolves into silence. We too walk a fine line; not between skepticism and faith, but between skepticism and cynicism. We try to stay firmly on the side of skepticism, open to whatever winds of wisdom blow our way, and as for knowledge of the world, we cherish the scientific way of knowing -– tentative, partial, evolving".Chet Raymo’s blog January 22, 2013

Major works

* 1982 ''365 Starry Nights'' * 1984 ''Biography of a Planet'' * 1985 ''The Soul of the Night'' * 1987 ''Honey from Stone'' * 1990 ''In the Falcon's Claw'' * 1991 ''The Virgin and the Mousetrap: Essays in Search of the Soul of Science,'' Viking Books * 1993 ''The Dork of Cork'' * 1998 ''Skeptics and True Believers'' * 2000 ''Natural Prayers'' * 2001 ''An Intimate Look at the Night Sky'' * 2003 ''The Path'' * 2004 ''Climbing Brandon'' * 2005 ''Valentine'' * 2006 ''Walking Zero'' * 2008 ''When God is Gone, Everything is Holy''

References

External links

Science Musings
(official blog site)
Lannan Foundation BiographyRecommended Books for Religious NaturalismReligious Naturalist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raymo, Chet 1936 births Living people Religious naturalists American male writers University of Notre Dame alumni Writers about religion and science