A biblical perspective
By Mathew Maavak
In the beginning God created heaven and earth…and saw that it was good (Gen 1:1-10)
Our planet was designed ergonomically to sustain a marvelous ecology. Species once lost, and those yet to be discovered, maintained harmony in our environment, setting the trajectory for our progress. The loss of a few Leviathans was perhaps tragic, but we’d rather have a boulevard of hopping bunnies than a snarling Godzilla.
Set within a celestial belt between the perihelion and aphelion, earth’s climatic conditions were optimal, unsheathing our latent intelligence to overcome every elemental fury nature could throw at us. In this ideal position, we could grapple with famine, hurricanes, earthquakes and even wars. In every epoch, there will be ecological disasters. The current global warming, melting icecaps and their continental repercussions are already spurring us on to harness science for our survival. It’s an old story that can be traced back to ancient Sumer and the Nile Delta.
In another galaxy, under different planetary conditions, we would have acquired an alien lifestyle, history and utility for science.
Our planet’s axial rotation facilitated propitious hours for human endeavors, with a diurnal pattern for work, recreation and sleep. Seasonal patterns, over eons, led us from the plowshare to the combine harvester, to accommodate a population that multiplied with the aid of science, medicine and human resilience.
Would our cosmic odyssey have been the same if our planet had been the size of Jupiter? Our voyage and our progress depended, most of all, on communication and the exchange of ideas. Could a colossal sphere facilitate explorations, and a meeting of minds and cultures, between far-flung redoubts of humanity?
Thousands of years of recorded history passed before Christopher Columbus made that epochal journey. What if our planet were bigger? Even if we were to have developed faster transportation on a hypothetical Jupiter, would antipodal, real-time, wireless communication be possible on a gigantic ball with an equatorial circumference of 449,197 km? Electromagnetic waves travel at 299,792 km per second, and they need transponders that stretch wave paths much further. How would science, commerce and a global village flourish? How would telephonic romance fare on such a world?
Is our existence a cosmic accident?
If there were indeed a Creator, wasn’t the speed of light, our planet’s position, our climate, terrain and habitat just right for civilization?
Could biblical stories have stimulated the development of science? God’s omniscience spurred man to extend his visual limitations. It spread from parchments that evoked supernatural imageries, to radio that spread wireless messages, and to televisions and multimedia contraptions that can now eidetically conjure those ancient, mystical visions.
Letters breathe life into science, and they were originally inscribed on the sacred parchments of antiquity. The first printed book in the West was Johann Gutenberg’s Bible. From then on, we have inherited tomes of scientific treatises, cartoons, replicas of art, and the means to conduct commerce. Again, religion aided science. Representations of the Alpha, Tau and Omega are now familiar symbols in our mathematical equations.
The heavens radiated ineffable glories; man resorted to science to emulate them. When divinity promised a progeny as “as countless as the stars of heaven”, we designed rockets, satellites and a future mission to Mars for a closer look.
But Providence did more than that. Our social foundations were set early on. Would civilization have been possible if there hadn’t been edicts against murder, theft, and lying - all of which are found in the Ten Commandments? Order serves science; atavistic instincts destroy.
Is “the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom?” Religious decrees can befuddle a rational mind, but there were those that prevented a premature retardation of the human race. We were forbidden from marrying within the family, resulting in a richer gene pool for humanity. Could the Egyptians, who once represented the high point of antiquity, been macerated by their incestuous breeding? How could these master builders and precocious astronomers been so ignorant?
Could it be just a coincidence that the most scientifically endowed nation – the United States – is a melting pot of many bloods?
Even if our worldview or philosophies mutate over time, our memories retain bizarre ancient accounts. Intrepid minds will not be deterred from musing over them. Philip was supposedly whizzed from a Gazan road to Azotus in the twinkling of an eye (Acts 8: 39-40). Later, Captain Kirk would order a “Beam me up Scottie.” And now, scientists from the Australian National University (ANU) have experimented with teleportation.[1]
If Joseph could master the wisdom of the Egyptians, and if Paul could be schooled in Greek thought, their latter day protégés would have no qualms about tinkering with new ideas and science.
Tragedy strikes when religion is hijacked by tyranny. The inquisition resulted in not only murders but the loss of esoteric science as well. When the Brahmins of India hoarded great knowledge for their lineage, their society became vulnerable to countless invasions and colonization. It’s ironic that these invaders were the very ones who benefited from ancient Indian mathematical concepts such as the zero, without which our binary-reliant computers wouldn’t function today. It can be argued that the once rigidly feudal West had surged ahead with their sciences, after having opened their repositories of knowledge to commoners. Poor yet brilliant European youngsters left their privations for scholarly pursuits at Monastic orders. These monasteries were the forerunners to our modern universities.
If religion trammels scientific curiosity, how come even today, many Rabbis double up as secular savants?
A society cannot progress if religion is used to smother the pursuit of knowledge. With the caste barrier systematically dismantled, India is regaining its former pre-eminence in the scientific arena. This serves as a good example to societies still plagued by religious taboos and where new sciences are viewed with suspicion, along with its liberating tools. When half their population — women — are dissuaded from clambering up the Ivory Tower, upheaval results, helplessness abounds, and anarchy reigns.
From the outset, dominion was conferred upon Man to enjoy earth’s goodness. We used wood for fuel, homes and ships, coal to replace wood, and oil to power our machines. The fruits of these labors have gone topsoil. We now utilize wind and solar power, and as recently as Nov 16 2004, a NASA X-43A Scramjet approached Mach 10 with the aid of oxygen and hydrogen. That’s our future answer to deep-vein thrombosis, speedier business deals, faster pooling of ideas, more time for leisure, and a steeper curve in scientific development.
If our food chain has been enriched, there are trailblazing feats recorded in our sacred texts. The Patriarch Jacob mastered eugenic breeding, and in the process won two brides! Out of them came the twelve tribes and a nation that has produced — rather disproportionately — some of the best scientific minds to date. It’s funny how a flock of ungulates could bend the theory of relativity eons later.
There is a tendency for primal thoughts, religious accounts, or myths to re-manifest themselves in modern forms. Could Joshua’s victory over the Amorites (Joshua 10:13) – when the sun was summoned to stand still — have inspired Russia’s attempt to illuminate pockets of Europe through the Znamya "Space Mirrors"? The plan was initiated long ago by an atheist Soviet Union to light up Siberia’s long, arctic winters. Archetypes, as Jung would say, linger in our thoughts, just as we physically reflect the characteristics of our forefathers.
Do the Testaments prevent Man from pursuing his chimerical dreams? Omniscience has been replicated, to an extent, by the science of invisibility.[2]
Even after divine interventions, blessings multiply. When the Tower of Babel was scuttled, we developed languages, unique cultural forms, and a world brimming with exotic flavors, scents and art forms. Does the sari look enticing? Can the lilts of a Chinese symphony be an emollient? Did Beethoven’s 9th symphony stir up a vanquished nation?
Can the dreams of the prophets be vindicated? They certainly were, during the night-time vision of Friedrich August Kekulé. The ring structure of benzene was unraveled. When prophets have great dreams, why can't we?
And what do we do with those dreams?
Abuse of science is a human creation. The steel we invented is frequently used to forge war. Atomic secrets are more sought after to kill than to illuminate our homes. Even as we work to combat viruses, we lab manufacture others for the combat zone. Disaster struck every society that broke those ten morals codes. Decadent Rome became effete. Nazi converts to a pseudo-Nordic religion had baked human bodies with a greater efficiency than a dollop of dough. The Soviet nation may have created space stations, but was hard pressed to produce enough food on terra firma.
Is there a price when the spiritual is divorced from science?
Specially dedicated to Charles Slagle
Chennai, India
Dec 15 2004
Copyright@Mathew Maavak 2004
Reference:
1) Australian teleport breakthrough(BBC Online June 17, 2002)
2) Inventor plans 'invisible walls'(BBC Online, June 14 2004)
Copyright © Mathew Maavak, 2003
More of my articles can be read at the Maavak Corner .