"Life
without fantasy," the wizard mused while tapping out his pipe,
"is just ash. Even the gods wish to be human! Savour your Life!"
Click on the wizard to go further.
Where is the silver lining? Where's the beef?
By withdrawing from Nature we gained our freedom, so that now we can
act
consciously, intentionally and meaningfully. We are now in a position
to lovingly
give back to nature what we have taken, and return the talents a hundredfold.
We have already made the world larger, more useful and pleasurable.
We can
inhabit and love the deserts, the mountains, and the tropical forests
in ways that
were unthinkable just a few generations ago. We can move into northern
Canada
and Siberia and we are ready to live in the sea and underground. Through
our
technology and imagination we have utterly and literally changed our
environment.
At a frustrating but inexorable pace, we are learning to flourish with
nature so that
we may be art and part of all that we see and touch. The goal is to
return to a Garden
of Eden, not simply as we were, but reborn.
The scientific revolution is essential to this rebirth, but many people
distrust it.
Is it a wolf? Many people are trying to turn back the clock and are
embracing an
astonishing array of pseudo-sciences and pseudo-religions. Mathematics,
the
language of the physics, is shunned and into the void rush all kinds
of superstitions.
It is proper to be shocked by what the physical sciences have taught
us. As the Nobel
laureate Steven Weinberg (1933- ) has put it: "The more the universe
seems
comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless."
The poet and engraver William Blake (1757-1827) anticipated this, but
you should
know that he revered Newton and at the consummation of his vision he
set him in
his pantheon. Blake viewed history as a cosmic process, a journey,
filled with pain
and joy. Blake intuited that science would cause great despair to our
sensibilities but
in the long run would help us consciously achieve a new communion with
nature and
other cultures in the widest sense imaginable.
From a careful inspection of how the laws of physics and biology are
derived, one
learns of an underlying simplicity which needs no intervention from
God (or us)
for its existence (or even its creation, suggests Stephen Hawking (1942-
)). Where
is the blessing in this miserable seeming conclusion? Well, first of
all, science smashes
our false gods and it teaches us humility. It sweeps our soul clear
of any material
dross and it frees it from physical handicaps (with Hawking being an
extreme living
example). Unfettered and sublimed, our affections and morals can now
arise from
the true soul that is left after all of this house keeping. It may
not be much, but it is
a precious seed from which one can be reborn. Hawking's God is not
to be found in
his science but instead in his life. Or as Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
put it in 1837,
"To Newton and Newton's dog diamond, what a different pair of Universes."*
If you quote from Blake out of the context of his vision, you can find
him damning
Newton, Locke and Bacon. You can do the same with many of the romantic
poets
and others. But if you consider the whole vision of each of these great
artists, you'll
find many of them following a gleam of hope coming from the scientific
revolution
and in the end, they do not ask for the clock be turned back or destroyed.
They envision
our journey as being painful but essential. I am writing here from
an intuition that
others more qualified can and have fleshed out.
We need to actively commune with nature and our fellows. We need to
apply our
selves responsibly so that we are in control without claiming ownership
of anything
that is not our own. And what do we own, besides the invitation to participate
with reverence?
In due time we will earn the freedom to create and participate with
the totality of our
being weaving the web of life. We will be able to enhance nature and
give life to life.
Is this a doable and worthy goal? If not, we will use our moral imagination
and dream
of a better one. In fact, I've only given you a rather hedonistic view
of what is possible.
But I keep hinting that the ultimate reality that lies beyond superficial
appearances is
far more wondrous than a Garden of Eden. Reality is just the beginning.
"Life
without fantasy," the wizard mused while tapping out his pipe,
"is just ash. Even the gods wish to be human! Savour your Life!"
Click on the wizard to go further.
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