ABSTRACT
Developmental psychologists and philosophical realists as well as theologians have long insisted that far from developing in a social vacuum, our beliefs and values are molded and shaped in large measure by the icons, artifacts, spiritual and aesthetic experiences, and scientific theories of our particular culture. Earliest cave paintings, the pyramids of Egypt, the soaring cathedrals of the Middle Ages, the artistic and literary endeavors of the Renaissance, present day culture have inspired human values. Thus, in agreement with Einstein’s observation at the beginning of this chapter, students of the humanities, religion, and the sciences may concur with the seventeenth century astronomer Johannes Kepler who, contemplating celestial mechanics, discovered “that marvelous harmony, that order of things like to the order of music that heals the soul and harrows sin from the world.”1
