Nathan Lee

I’m penning this camped out under the stars in the middle of Spanish orange groves that stretch out in all directions. It’s night-time and a planet (mercury? mars? I’m sure I knew at one stage..) is hanging low on the horizon amidst a sky dotted with stars.

This view of the night sky is not the sky I grew up under back in Australia, it’s missing a few familiar constellations and has a few bright stars in unfamiliar places. But with my (albeit quite limited) knowledge of astronomy and physics I have a rough but reasonable  idea of what each of those points of light in the sky can represent (as much as anyone can comprehend the dimensions and physics of stars and galaxies). But it strikes me just how different a set of eyes I look out on the night sky with compared to those who born in a time or place where science hadn’t had a chance to open their eyes from the clenched shut state we’re born with. To some eyes the night sky was a universal illusion: a curtain hung just beyond the clouds to prevent anyone from seeing beyond.

The difference in view is understandable but it’s quite a sad view of the world to so convince yourself that the almighty power of the universe is nothing more than a stage magician (or magicians). Under cover of night they dart around behind the scenes holding up a diamond encrusted cloak at night so we have something pretty to look at. Hidden behind the curtain the powers that be play cosmic scale games of chance with the lives of people below.

A world run by a stage manager deity who maintains things via smoke and mirrors in between tugs on the puppet strings of divine determined fate. The sad implication though that is that we’re nothing more than wooden puppets or unpaid extras on stage as eye candy. There to be tossed, prodded and pushed at will; little hope for anything good except to keep our heads down to avoid an early demise or eternal damnation for some indiscretion or stray thought.

Trouble is that this notion still exists, albeit moved on from stars in the sky and onto some other aspect of scientifically explainable but often supernaturally associated area. Now the gaps in knowledge to argue along are incredibly niche in comparison. No longer able to point at the sun and say “what makes that shine” and yell “ah-ha! See, god must be doing it”, the things to try this silly game with are ever so minute in scale or far distant in the past.

Science generally has some very good ideas on anything and everything or is in the process of confirming or discarding ideas (as it has always been doing). The real problem is that the information doesn’t seem to get through sometimes. Instead nonsensical cosmic witchcraft is the pre-chosen and preferred option of the literalist, orthodox, fundamentalist, creationist or “true unwavering believer”.

All I can hope is that education finds a way to open the eyes of everyone. Every single human being on the planet because solid education undermines the efforts of the current and future people who blunder through science seeking new niche areas of the universe to belittle into smoke and mirrors so that their magician god has a place in it all. Along the way it sweeps aside irrational prejudices and superstition.  The view of the world is so much clearer without such a pointless distraction from the amazing nature of the universe the more we understand it.

So banish the irrelevant magician out the back door: we’ve a much better show on stage now and better with each night’s new additions to the vast body of science. There’s room out back in the reject bin with the other fairytale creatures if he really needs a place.