Magick v.s. science

[Sephiroth]

how does magick compare to magick and how do people control it with life and will???

[Earth Walker]

A controversial thinker argues that Christian zealotry
was the basis for the advances -- and errors -- of
modern scientific discovery.

David Noble can't seem to get enough of taking on
establishments: political, educational, scientific or
religious.
The iconoclastic thinker's latest crusade is against
Simon Fraser University, where he's been nominated
for the J.S. Woodsworth Chair of Humanities, which
goes to a scholar who combines strong academic
credentials with social activism.
Noble's candidacy stalled when he wouldn't play along
with SFU's hiring process regarding outside references.
The renowed historian claims he's being discriminated
against for criticizing SFU for embracing corporate
largesse and on-line education.
But the point here is not to rehash Noble's many
employment-related rumbles, which include head-butting
with his former employer, the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, and his current one, Toronto's York
University.
The more interesting thing is how Noble's public
controversies echo his take-no-prisoner theories.
He is perhaps best known for relentless attacks on what
many of us fondly call "technological advances."
In his books, he has warned that ever-expanding
computer technology will return us to a 19th- century
era marked by an appalling divide between haves and
have-nots.
The centre of Noble's theory is that most of the
technological change of the past five centuries has been
fuelled by a dangerous kind of religiosity.
In THE RELIGION OF TECHNOLOGY: THE DIVINITY OF
MAN AND THE SPIRIT OF INVENTION(Penguin), Noble
poses a chilling thesis that Western civilization has
become the most technologically powerful in history,
because of a strange merger of christianity and Science.
The desire to find salvation not only inspired most
Western scientists, Noble says, but continues to ignite
space exploration, atomic weapons research, the search
for computerized artificial intelligence and genetic
engineering. Technological research, he says, has less
to do with helping humanity than it does with zealotry.
In one riveting chapter, "The Science of Religion,"
Noble argues the U.S. space program was essentially
rooted in a religious competition between American-
style christianity and the "godless Communism" of the
Soviet Union.
Noble uncovers a world that Tom Wolfe missed in his
classic book, THE RIGHT STUFF. He provides evidence
that 90% of the program's astronauts and scientists
were devout conservative Protestants.
He reveals government-sponsored astronauts travelling
into space to recite christian prayers, quote the bible
and serve each other communion on the moon. For many
christians, rocketing into space was literally rising into
the heavens. Christian astronauts were determined to
show space wasn't "empty," as the Soviets said, but
was the home of god, orderer of the cosmos. Some in the space community believed they were preparing for
the end of the world, that they were players in a
biblically prophesied explosion of knowledge fore-
shadowing christ's return to Earth.
The U.S. space program, Noble claims, is just one
example of how science and religion converged in the
last millennium so humans could, as the bible says,
have "dominion" over the Earth.
In the 15th century, Christopher Columbus was among
those spurred on by such beliefs: He thought
conquering the New World for the church would clear
the way for christ's second coming.
Sir Isaac Newton (who discovered the law of gravity)
and astronomer Johannes Kepler (who discovered
planets move in elliptical orbits) also believed in prophecy and the divine perfectibility of humanity.
Many scientists, Noble says, sought to reclaim the
original absolute knowledge of Adam, the bible's first
man.
Today, Noble argues, a quasi-religious striving for
perfect knowledge is evident in, among other things,
the push for artificial intelligence. Genetic engineering
is also driven, he suggests, by a kind of divine quest
for perfection.
As well, Noble tries to prove that American devotion
to nuclear weapons research has been an attempt,
largely unconscious, to "deliver" the U.S. from evil and
defeat the former Soviet enemy, which more than a few
powerful Americans characterized as "the antichrist."
Book reviewers around the world have often called
Noble brilliant. But is he ultimately convincing? (I say
he is. Mystique). With his hostility toward anything that
can be construed as an establishment, he sometimes
goes out on a fragile limb to make his sweeping(anti-
religious) conclusions.
He also has an unfortunate habit of not discriminating
between religious moderates and fundamentalists.
As well, a more optimistic historian could look at the
same date and conclude christianity has inspired some
wonderful technology, which has made our lives longer
and more comfortable.
But Noble and his yearning for a just world deserve to
be taken seriously.
He's right that scientists often show an "elitist" passion
for creating ever more amazing technology, which
reflects little concern for meeting the world's desperate
need for basic food, health and shelter.
At the least, anyone who dives into Noble's world view
will emerge from it creatively provoked -- much like the
beleaguered SFU administrators who have been
struggling this week to figure out whether to welcome
or duck from his explosive intelligence.


Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.:crazy:
---Isaac Asimov - Foundation

[bluecat]

Today's Science is yesterday's Magic.

Today's Magic is tomorrow's Science.

Blue