Hail Science

Here's an wryly amusing excerpt from the underrated 1978 novel The Far Arena by Richard Ben Sapir. The story involves an ancient Roman, Eugeni, who is revived after being cryogenically frozen in an ice drift. In this scene, told from the Roman's point of view, Eugeni is in conversation with two moderns whom he calls Semyonus (a Soviet doctor, a hardcore materialist, whose real name is Semyon) and Olava (Sister Olav, a nun fluent in classical Latin).

The excerpt begins with Eugeni asking:

"You mean your miracles are only recent? They have not been built carefully, like Rome?"

And at this, the man who called himself Semyonus the physician became excited. Olava had to talk quickly and sometimes to interrupt Semyonus to keep up with him.

"There is no such thing as magic," she translated. "There are scientific principles, which scientists discover and write down, and these principles are followed by engineers who invent such things as what you call the flying monster or the electric lights. Scientists discover principles, engineers act on them. Yes?"

"Hail the priests of Science and their temple slaves the engineers," I said. "Truly the god Science is a great god. You worship a great god."

"It is not worship. It is science." Semyonus angry, Olava smiling.

"I am sorry to have given offense to the god Science but you must understand this is a strange land to me. Will your god understand?"

Semyonus was very angry. Olava translated for him.

"Science, Eugeni, is immutable. It understands nothing and forgives nothing. It is what it is."

"A mysterious god, great for the Pantheon."

"Science is not a god. It would not like you calling it a god. If you think of it as a god, it will never let you know its mysteries. You must approach it in a scientific manner, with an open mind. Men devote years of their lives to it, their entire lives. It has given us everything we have today." Thus said Olava for Semyonus.

"Hail Science, giver of things," I said. "Let us sacrifice to it."

Comments

[floridasuzie]

LOL! Sounds hilarious, I'll order a copy.

Reminds me of that wonderful essay you wrote about a year ago on de-throning the Great God, Science. (Or something like that.) One of your best pieces, in my opinion.

The influence of Scientism (fundamentalist science) on our thoughts and actions is so pervasive, and often so hidden to us, that it reminds me of the tale of the two fishes. The Student fish says to the Philosopher fish, "So what's this ocean thing you keep referring to?"

[Filip]

do you have the link to that post from Michael? To much posts to filter through

greets,
Filip

[Kevin]

Loved it. Maybe I'll get a copy of the novel, but I want mine signed by Richard Dawkins & Michael Schirmer.

[Michael Prescott]

I don't want to give the wrong impression. The book is not a satire. It's actually a pretty serious SF novel. This particular scene just happens to be a bit ironic.

The book is uneven, but the depiction of ancient Rome as seen through Eugeni's ideas is excellent. He is a Greek who was sold into slavery and rose to prominence in the arena, during the reign of Domitian. It's quite well done, but this is the only part that made me laugh.

[Michael Prescott]

Oops. I meant to say, "as seen through Eugeni's eyes," not "Eugeni's ideas."

[lucyjane D]

Love that iceman story, it makes one wonder if being cry-frozen reminds me of that movie Vanilla Sky,with Tom Cruise and Pentalope Cruise where everything sort of wasfroze in time. did anyone see that movie? I had to watch it three times to get any sort of grip on what the movie was about and than I liked it..because it played with illussion alot same as what our mind does or to coin the phrase..Life is an Illusion. by the way everyone, sorry I didn,t respond to William last Sat to the post 'Extrodinary Rendition' I was away from the computer for two days. If you would like I responded to it tonight at length. It was really great to see so much interest in that subject of Afterlife. And thank you Michael for all your boundless energy with this blog!

LucyJane D.

[Pat]

An amusing excerpt. I'll have to look around for the actual book; it sounds interesting.

I'll admit I don't know much about life in the ancient world, but if there's any bit of truth to this, then it shows that the average Greek or Roman was probably far less scientifically-minded than the skeptics would like to think.

[TMG1297]

On the subject of books - I read a really good book about parallel universes etc.It was called The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula ? and the main character changed reality by what he dreamt , so his dreams became the situation he was currently in on waking...hard to convey but recommend the book.

[GT]

Michael P,

What's your email address, please? I have some news regarding David Thompson you may be interested in.

[Michael Prescott]

GT, my email address is given on my author Web site here.

TMG1297, The Lathe of Heaven was written by Ursula K. Le Guin.

[william]

Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science. — Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912), French mathematician.

[william]

Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science. — Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912), French mathematician.

[Arthur]

Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science. — Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912), French mathematician.
__________________________________________

What is purported to be Science may not be "fact." Case in point: This material Universe is not quite as material as what we once believed it to be. Matter is not made of matter. The sub-atomic particles that make up atoms, which are the building blocks of matter, are hardly like anything we've come to know as matter and are more like an eddy in a stream than a BB or a rock. Sub-atomic particles do all kinds of strange things that normal matter does not do. They appear and disappear, can float right through solid matter, sometimes appearing as a wave and sometimes as a particle, and are able to instantaneously communicate with one another, and even sometimes seem to interact with the people who study them. So not only are atoms mostly ghostly empty space (99.9999999% to be exact) but the stuff they are made up of is not anything like what we normally consider to be matter. - Art

[william]

Art: Many look at matter and think that it is matter that creates consciousness but more and more people are starting to look at matter such as rocks as frozen consciousness.

Theory: We once were a rock then became a plant then progressed to an animal and then to a pet and then a new soul as a human and constant progression in numerous human incarnations and thru many different dimensions we become as gods. From there it is anyone's guess.

My guess: we become that that is (pure awareness). Our greatest fear of losing our identity may never happen, as our identity becomes that that is. We never sacrifice our identity as our identity is in a constant state of change. Static pure awareness (God) becomes dynamic by the creation/manifestation of unique souls that are in a constant state of progression.

Nature is one big creative evolutionary process of making souls? Oneness becomes twoness (infinite two nesses) through this evolutionary process, which creates a soul that is unknowing and lacks the divine intelligence and vitality of its true identity.

[Michael Pyshnov]

see "University of Toronto Fraud"
http://ca.geocities.com/uoftfraud/

It's everything you like: science, cell biology and a lot of crime.