Reflections on ‘A Devil’s Chaplain’

Engraving of moon phases on bone (30,000 yBP

 

A Devil's Chaplain

Reflections on ‘A Devil’s Chaplain’ by Richard Dawkins

By Remigius de Souza

My second attempt to continue reading the book, ‘A Devil’s Chaplain’, failed. It is not because I have any bias against science. Being Indian there is a belief at back of my mind that humans go through cycle/s of rebirth, through as many as 8.4 million yonis (life forms such as, a animal, bird, insect, human etc.) – depending upon their karma; even the gods are not spared. I do not expect Darwin or Dawkins should subscribe to this belief.

Typically, like the western, and later the westernized societies, the book, too, boasts, as if no science did exist in the bygone eras before the Industrial Revolution.

The image of the engraved bone plaque illustrated here is 30,000 yBP old, from Blanchard, France. It shows phases of the Moon, engraved by different tools and in different styles of strokes. It’s from the Palaeolithic Era. The schematic representation shows the serpentine mode of accumulating the sequential information within a small area (Source: Eccles, John C., ‘Evolution of Brain: Development of the Self’, Routledge, 1991, p. 135).

Which compartment does the plaque belong? Is it a work of art or science? It is holistic. Modern science is digging in the past and probing the celestial space. Both certainly could help us to see our place in the geological and cosmic times, with humility.

However, it has so far not succeeded to know and understand the human phenomenon – in body, mind and spirit – that is so dynamic. How does the plaque qualitatively rank in arts, sciences or technologies among all the artefacts the humanity has produced from the beginning of time? Are the so-called self-proclaimed superior societies truly so? 

What prompted Darwin to coin the phrase, ‘devil’s chaplain’, I do not know. Perhaps it is because of the hold of Creation myth, or hypothesis, or theory, of faith, of belief on the Christian societies, and that he by his proof of evolution was challenging it or the contemporary society. I believe that the Creation myth expects one to be humble before God, Nature, or mystery that is Life. 

How ironic that after Darwin (1809-1882), after nearly two hundred years, that the plant and animal species continue to vanish at a faster pace than ever before: ecological collapse. That the rate of rapid climate change and global warming frighten us: environmental degradation. That the reserves of fossil fuels and other finite resources of the earth are depleting progressively at a faster speed: energy crisis. Above all, it is the widespread deadly poverty and deadly deceases such as, HIV-AIDS. These are fallout of the Industrial Revolution, in the name of social and economic development. Its assaults on land and waters and the living beings continue.

Only the coffer of the gene banks and money banks thrive and grow, which, however, has no tangible value. Evolution now takes place on a laboratory table at the mercy of moneys and monopolies. In the past, the Easter Island reduced to a desert. How long would it take the Earth to come to that disastrous state? Could the slogans at world summits, without action, change it?

The western society has grown old with the advent and growth of Mechanical and Industrial revolutions, now identified as one. Small populations, human labour replaced by machine, mass production, sophisticated land, water and air transport, so also weapons of war, establishment and expansion of colonies, greed for more power and profit are some of the characteristics of the western society, which indeed have turned into an addictions. A line between the science and technology too is already blurred.

Science has emerged as a new religion with its several gods – Marx, Freud, and Darwin etc. Technology is its essential ritual, which penetrates in every sphere of an individual and the collective, and their institutions, and followed either mechanically or blindly without checking ground realities. The high priests of science design, the rest of the mass society follows, not knowing the meaning of the great mantra: E=mc². This has been happening also in many established institutionalized religions.

It ultimately has resulted in founding the so-called global society, which spreads across the world irrespective of their sovereign boundaries in the First World and Third World countries. Along with the new religion of science, there emerged also the myths for the delight of the pundits. 

For example: Marx’s myth. Lawrence Coupe quotes and comments on several authors – Edgell Rickword, Kenneth Burke, Fredrick Jameson, Herbert Simson and Trevor Mellia, Trevor Blackwell and Jeremy Seabrook – who speak of Marx’s myth. Trevor Blackwell and Jeremy Seabrook in ‘The Politics of Hope’ draw a comparison, says Coupe, that suggests ‘both Christianity and Marxism are myths of deliverance’ (‘Myth’, Routledge, 1997, p. 70).

As pundits continue their intellectual exercises, there would emerge many more myths in literary discourse; or they already are there! The recent debate (and dialogue?) between the Creationist and Evolutionist lobbies in the West signifies the Evolution myth is already there, but no deliverance!

As a result, perhaps, the school children there may have to go through a new or revised syllabus for their salvation!

Once in a public speech at a conference, I remarked, “The politicians and the usurers take rebirth as mosquitoes and continue their mission of sucking the blood of the people”, while referring to the hordes of mosquitoes at the conference venue, of course in a lighter vein. However, the wars in various forms, against the poor people and insects have caused their populations too grows: by instinct to save the race and by immunity.

“Be fruitful, and multiply…” Genesis, Holy Bible, 1:28

Now the New Religion of Science practices:
Kill and multiply profits.

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Remigius de Souza
07 December 2007

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©Remigius de Souza 2000 - 2007

Confessions by Richard Dawkins

Confessions by Richard Dawkins (Book Review)

A Devil’s Chaplain: Selected essays by Richard Dawkins, Edited by Latha Menon, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (2003). ISBN 0 297 82973 4

When I make a statement I am certain, whether it hits the mark or not, it boomerangs. I just borrowed this book from a public library. The publishers introduce Richard Dawkins as ‘one of our most important evolutionary biologists, and a bestselling writer, for many years. A Devil’s Chaplain is a personal, intriguing selection of his writing which represents a portrait of one of the finest minds in science.’

As usual I go through the introduction (by the editor), Endnotes, Index, and the second cover page. The title refers, though not mentioned, to God, religion faith, beliefs, authority etc., and thereby its context to science. In the background lies evolution – creation debate that is going on in the West. Endnotes and Index have no clue to what I was looking for any reference to the Eastern religions/ cultures. I felt the author’s world is flat – two dimensional. The book contains lot of information though.

As I read the first chapter, “A Devil’s Chaplain” I catch a quote: ‘…There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed* into a few forms or into one…’ which carries a footnote: ‘*in the second edition of the Origin, the three words ‘by the Creator’ were introduced at this point, presumably as a sop to religious sensibilities’ (p. 13). This obviously refers to Charles Darwin and his ‘Origin of Species’, which I have not read.

Then I turn to the last and only chapter, ‘Good and Bad Reasons for believing’ of the last section, ‘A Prayer for my Daughter’. It is actually a letter written by him to his ten year daughter. I find it was worth reading and sharing with others – adults and children alike, for its orientation towards children, though no one need to agree to everything that he says. We don't know what circumstances made him write a letter instead of speaking in person.

Then I quickly go through rest of the pages, reading few here, few there. The book is full of information. However, much of it may not be comprehensible, or may not be possible to refer back to the references as not many books are available, without the help of specialised libraries. I am not a scientist, besides.

I have been gathering a lot of impressions and some information too over decades. I am not sure how much of this accumulation has turned into knowledge; about any wisdom I am doubtful.

When I read the Marathi Reader compiled by Acharya (Principal) Pralhad Keshav Atre, in my first standard, I developed liking for reading. I did my primary schooling at my native village. I, like many, did not get books (other than textbooks), newspaper or magazines. I would pick any scrap – an old newspaper used for packs that came from grocery shops – to read. Later I was borrowing books from others who had them. Our primary school had a couple of hundred books, which I finished in no time.

Now I read anything available about science from newspapers, magazines, books…, knowing that it is emerging as a new global religion in modern times, bringing along its faith, beliefs, disputes, and also superstitions. Thankfully it, too, is not universal, though global, and is in the safe custody of the scholars, experts and authority alike Vedas in the hands of Brahmins in India.

However now I read selectively, in scraps, at random, even from the bestsellers; I don’t look for entertainment that is usually taken for granted by writers and publishers. I tend to check its claims at the ground level, below my feet, here and now – the hard evidence, which Dawkins boasts while challenging religious and cultural beliefs etc. The results are mostly discouraging.

I find sciences and scientists, as in other disciplines such as architecture and planning, are fragmented, egoistic, and contented in their respective compartments and superstitions. There is no test tube containing ‘life’. They are blissfully divorced from life.

More I read about sciences – pure, natural, applied or social… more I am disillusioned. It is no more than adding the burden on history that is so fickle. This applies even to this book. More I read about the advances in different fields, and the strife it has caused all over the world, more I am convinced it has reduced the living to objects. By adding the three words Darwin has separated Creator from life.

I believe that life – Life – is larger than all the religions and philosophies, arts and sciences, forget the trades and the technologies, of all the ages and places; life is not a four-letter word. I believe that life is larger than all the gods the humanity has invented in all the ages.

How would anyone explain the birth of Sri Ganesh in modern vocabulary? Is he a clone? Did he receive his elephant head in a transplant operation?

On reading, ‘the “Information Challenge” turns out to be none other than our old friend: “How could something as complex as an eye evolve?’ (p. 102), I quote my verse ‘Oldie’s Secret’ here:

Oldie's Secret or Design by Evolution

If any talk of Oldie comes, ‘I’ quits.
This Person is pretty slow in our times.
Now see! How long did Oldie take
to design Homo sapiens, who is thriving on
the fruit of wisdom from Garden of Eden?
Now we are living sure fast life.
Instant food. Instant image. Instant Dolly.
Inflated ego. Inflated market. Inflated houses,
Such as, London – New York – Tokyo – Singapore,
taking farther the metropolitan culture,
taking over from the British Isles, turning faster
the Garden of Gaia, than ever before,
into a perpetual desert to last forever.
Cleverly we build ‘Ark of Genes’ to prepare
for man-made catastrophe, while we continue
to destroy ugly Oldie’s ugly designs.
Thoughtful or crazy Oldie the designer
be to evolve our nose and ears in pair
To carry our proud spectacles, and eyeballs
to wear contact lenses. But Oldie’s secret
and tantrum remain elusive to our vision.
(3 February 2002)

Darwinism or Evolutionism or Judeo-Christian Creationism: why worry? We – the humans – are just speck in haystack: Just be Happy. It’s high time, though civilisation hasn’t progressed much in 5000 years, to wonder at and Love the Life!
Remigius de Souza
23-10-2007
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Remigius de Souza