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What follows is a rough outline of my argument.
I began by pointing out that Nature exercises many forms of
Energy,
which are not directly observable by the senses. In fact,
the History
of Science for the last hundred and fifty years or so has
consisted
principally of the discovery of such types, with their
analysis, measure-
ment and manipulation. There is every reason to suppose
that many such
remain to be discovered.
But what has in no case been observed is any trace of will
or of
intelligence, except through some apparatus involving a
nervous and
cerebral system.
At this point I want especially to call your attention to
certain
species of animals (bees and termites are obvious cases)
where a
collective consciousness seems to exist, since the community
acts as
a whole in evidently purposeful ways, yet the units of that
community
are not even complete in themselves. (Isn't there some
series of
worms, each sub-type able only to subsist on the excrement
of its
preserver in the series?)
Then there are the phenomena of mob psychology, where a
crowd gleefully
combine to perform acts which would horrify any single
individual. And
there is the exceeding strange and interesting psychology of
the "par-
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
293
touse" --- this is a little more, in my judgment, than a
spinthria.
In all such cases the operative consciousness does not
reside in any
single person, as one might argue that it did when an orator
"carries
away" his audience. But these remarks have rather shunted
one into a
siding away from the main line of argument. My most
important point
is to insist that even with the most familiar forms of
energy, man has
done no creative work so ever. He has discovered, examined,
measured
(rather clumsily) and used, but in no case has he
understood, still
less explained, the causes of phenomena. Sometimes he
cannot even
reconcile different "laws of Nature." So we find J.W.N.
Sullivan
exclaiming "The scientific adventure may yet have to be
abandoned,"
and to me personally he confessed "It may yet turn out that
the mathe-
matical approach to Reality may have to be supplanted by the
Magical."
Now in Nature it leaps at one that Will and Intelligence are
behind
phenomena. My old friend and colleague Professor
Buckmaster, who
wrote a book on "Blood" which, he admitted, could not
possibly be
understood by more than six people, told me that the
ingenuity of the
structure of the human kidney "almost frightened" him. Yet
in all
Nature there is no trace whatever of any purpose such as
human mentality
can grasp. Again, apparent purpose often appears to be
baffled. Take
one example. Evolution, working through thousands of years
to estab-
lish a most subtle scheme of cross-fertilization, found,
just as it was
perfect, conditions so altered that it was completely
useless.
The "law of cause and effect" itself took a death-blow when
Hesinger
showed that the old formula "If A then B" was invalid, and
must be
altered to "If A, then B or C or D or E or . . . "
But at least we know enough phenomena to make it certain
that Will and
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
294
33
Intelligence do exist somehow apart from any nervous and
cerebral system
of which we are aware, and that these must be of a type
which transcends
our human consciousness as that does that of a limpet or a
lichen.
It follows that somehow, somewhere, there must be "gods" or
"Masters"
--- whatever name you like. And that, I suppose, is what
you may call
the premise major of my syllogism.
The minor, I confess, is not so apodeictic. No one, I
suppose, is
going to point proudly to the present state of human
affairs, as evi-
dence that we are all becoming wiser and nobler every
minute, as
people did seventy years ago. (I was brought up in the
faith that
Queen Victoria would never die, and that Consols would never
go below
par.
In face, one may suspect that the majority of well-
instructed men
expect nothing but that History will repeat itself, and our
civiliza-
tion go the way of all the others whose ruins we dig up in
every quarter
of the earth.
(Our own destruction may be more compete than theirs; for
most of
the monuments to our intelligence, sobriety and industry are
made of
steel, and would vanish in a very few years after the
smash.)
Well, if we have to wait for the calamity, and for evolution
to begin
all over again in a number of centuries --- with luck! ---
one thing is
at least quite certain: we can do nothing about it. Any
form of
activity must be as futile and as fatuous as any other; and
the only
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
295
sensible philosophy must be "Let us eat and drink for
tomorrow we die."
Is there a conceivable alternative? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szamanka888.keep.pl
What follows is a rough outline of my argument.
I began by pointing out that Nature exercises many forms of
Energy,
which are not directly observable by the senses. In fact,
the History
of Science for the last hundred and fifty years or so has
consisted
principally of the discovery of such types, with their
analysis, measure-
ment and manipulation. There is every reason to suppose
that many such
remain to be discovered.
But what has in no case been observed is any trace of will
or of
intelligence, except through some apparatus involving a
nervous and
cerebral system.
At this point I want especially to call your attention to
certain
species of animals (bees and termites are obvious cases)
where a
collective consciousness seems to exist, since the community
acts as
a whole in evidently purposeful ways, yet the units of that
community
are not even complete in themselves. (Isn't there some
series of
worms, each sub-type able only to subsist on the excrement
of its
preserver in the series?)
Then there are the phenomena of mob psychology, where a
crowd gleefully
combine to perform acts which would horrify any single
individual. And
there is the exceeding strange and interesting psychology of
the "par-
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
293
touse" --- this is a little more, in my judgment, than a
spinthria.
In all such cases the operative consciousness does not
reside in any
single person, as one might argue that it did when an orator
"carries
away" his audience. But these remarks have rather shunted
one into a
siding away from the main line of argument. My most
important point
is to insist that even with the most familiar forms of
energy, man has
done no creative work so ever. He has discovered, examined,
measured
(rather clumsily) and used, but in no case has he
understood, still
less explained, the causes of phenomena. Sometimes he
cannot even
reconcile different "laws of Nature." So we find J.W.N.
Sullivan
exclaiming "The scientific adventure may yet have to be
abandoned,"
and to me personally he confessed "It may yet turn out that
the mathe-
matical approach to Reality may have to be supplanted by the
Magical."
Now in Nature it leaps at one that Will and Intelligence are
behind
phenomena. My old friend and colleague Professor
Buckmaster, who
wrote a book on "Blood" which, he admitted, could not
possibly be
understood by more than six people, told me that the
ingenuity of the
structure of the human kidney "almost frightened" him. Yet
in all
Nature there is no trace whatever of any purpose such as
human mentality
can grasp. Again, apparent purpose often appears to be
baffled. Take
one example. Evolution, working through thousands of years
to estab-
lish a most subtle scheme of cross-fertilization, found,
just as it was
perfect, conditions so altered that it was completely
useless.
The "law of cause and effect" itself took a death-blow when
Hesinger
showed that the old formula "If A then B" was invalid, and
must be
altered to "If A, then B or C or D or E or . . . "
But at least we know enough phenomena to make it certain
that Will and
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
294
33
Intelligence do exist somehow apart from any nervous and
cerebral system
of which we are aware, and that these must be of a type
which transcends
our human consciousness as that does that of a limpet or a
lichen.
It follows that somehow, somewhere, there must be "gods" or
"Masters"
--- whatever name you like. And that, I suppose, is what
you may call
the premise major of my syllogism.
The minor, I confess, is not so apodeictic. No one, I
suppose, is
going to point proudly to the present state of human
affairs, as evi-
dence that we are all becoming wiser and nobler every
minute, as
people did seventy years ago. (I was brought up in the
faith that
Queen Victoria would never die, and that Consols would never
go below
par.
In face, one may suspect that the majority of well-
instructed men
expect nothing but that History will repeat itself, and our
civiliza-
tion go the way of all the others whose ruins we dig up in
every quarter
of the earth.
(Our own destruction may be more compete than theirs; for
most of
the monuments to our intelligence, sobriety and industry are
made of
steel, and would vanish in a very few years after the
smash.)
Well, if we have to wait for the calamity, and for evolution
to begin
all over again in a number of centuries --- with luck! ---
one thing is
at least quite certain: we can do nothing about it. Any
form of
activity must be as futile and as fatuous as any other; and
the only
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
295
sensible philosophy must be "Let us eat and drink for
tomorrow we die."
Is there a conceivable alternative? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]