What would you say at a party where Walt Whitman and Richard Dawkins were chatting in line by the punch bowl, where the Dalai Lama and Shakespeare were listening to Richard Feynman play the bongos, where King David and John Muir sipped merlot while Neil deGrasse Tyson admired their magnificent beards, and where Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Pope Francis, and Carl Sagan discussed the afterlife (or lack thereof) over a friendly volley of badminton?
What would you say...? You wouldn't say anything of course But you would smile and nod, and after the party you could go home and write a book very similar to this one...
An excerpt from "A Prayer for Thanksgiving Feast"
My friends, look you at this feast before us. Grown of earth and sun. Diversity and subtlety of colors. Wafting and mingling of smells. A medley of textures. A swath of temperatures-trembling atoms in chaos. A great cornucopia of chemistry. The drama of life, built by cells under the direction of genes and the immutable laws of physics... Life, which gives us life. Matter, which becomes our matter. Energy, stored-but for a moment-before flowing into us and through us and out of us...
An excerpt from "A Toast for Independence Day"
...We have learned through science that stars, and supernovae in particular, are the forgers of atoms, the builders of elements; and that in the course of these events, our planet, a new world, was formed from rich elemental ash, the literal star dust of eons ago.
So today I propose a toast, not just to the independence of our country, but to our independence from the crushing, seething plasma of bygone super-massive stars. I propose a toast to our dissolution from their gravitational tyranny, to our liberation-cast off in a display of immense stellar fireworks...
An excerpt from "A Toast for Pi Day"
... Do you remember the first time you tasted pi? The first time you sensed the flavor of its mystery? It is a taste that eludes many, and it is often an acquired taste, but it is a taste which, once noticed, lingers long after, bruleed in memory, a mental dessert to be savored, again and again...
An excerpt from "Blessings for Mealtimes"
My friends, as we look upon this delicious, flavorful, wholesome goodness-savory, sweet, sublime-let us bring to mind those things that are integral to the digestion of this meal, responsible for the disassembly of its fine and complex molecular structure.
An excerpt from "Toasts Before Coffee, Tea, or Alcohol"
There are no words to improve this drink, no toast can surpass its virtue-no invocation or incantation. It is perfection already
These and 34 more science themed blessings for New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, Winter and Summer Solstice, Mole Day, Birthdays, Weddings, Anniversaries, Graduations, Mornings, Evenings, and Goodbyes, as well as 10 Science Proverbs for any occasion.
From the Introduction
In their unaltered form, these blessings are especially intended for people with no particular faith-perhaps those science-minded atheists or agnostics who wish to express their gratitude without compromising their reason, or who wish to pray but find it difficult to pray to something. However, because these blessings make no claim or reference to any particular faith system, they can be readily adapted by people of any faith. For instance, if you wish to bracket these prayers with phrases typical to your faith, such as "Dear God," etc., then feel free to do so. That being said, however, I must inform you that these blessings do contain the established facts and conclusions of mainstream science, such as the fact of evolution and the conclusion that our universe is very very old. I hope you enjoy them