I'd just finished reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons.. It's an awesome book which brings you into a breathless adventure of Langdon and his female compatriot, Vittoria in a duration of less then 48 hours... Imagine a thick novel telling a period of only 2 days but involve the Catholic church; the pope; CERN, Illuminati, BBC; Antimatter bomb and the whole world... I actually think this book is better than Da Vinci (at least it's not that anti-christian). Besides, I was most amazed by this particular speech by the Carmelingo when the sacred most 'Rock' and the whole Vatican is about to be destroyed:
“Medicine, electronic communications, space travel, genetic manipulation . . . these are the miracles about which we now tell our children. These are the miracles we herald as proof that science will bring us the answers. The ancient stories of immaculate conceptions, burning bushes, and parting seas are no longer relevant. God has become obsolete. Science has won the battle. ”
“Science may have alleviated the miseries of disease and drudgery and provided an array of gadgetry for our entertainment and convenience, but it has left us in a world without wonder. Our sunsets have been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe have been shredded into mathematical equations. Even our self-worth as human beings has been destroyed. Science proclaims that Planet Earth and its inhabitants are a meaningless speck in the grand scheme. A cosmic accident.” He paused. “Even the technology that promises to unite us, divides us. Each of us is now electronically connected to the globe, and yet we feel utterly alone. We are bombarded with violence, division, fracture, and betrayal. Skepticism has become a virtue. Cynicism and demand for proof has become enlightened thought. Is it any wonder that humans now feel more depressed and defeated than they have at any point in human history? Does science hold anything sacred? Science looks for answers by probing our unborn fetuses. Science even presumes to rearrange our own DNA. It shatters God’s world into smaller and smaller pieces in quest of meaning . . . and all it finds is more questions.”
“Religion cannot keep up. Scientific growth is exponential. It feeds on itself like a virus. Every new breakthrough opens doors for new breakthroughs. Mankind took thousands of years to progress from the wheel to the car. Yet only decades from the car into space. Now we measure scientific progress in weeks. We are spinning out of control. The rift between us grows deeper and deeper, and as religion is left behind, people find themselves in a spiritual void. We cry out for meaning. And believe me, we do cry out. We see UFOs, engage in channeling, spirit contact, out-of-body experiences, mindquests-all these eccentric ideas have a scientific veneer, but they are unashamedly irrational. They are the desperate cry of the modern soul, lonely and tormented, crippled by its own enlightenment and its inability to accept meaning in anything removed from technology.
Who is this God science? Who is the God who offers his people power but no moral framework to tell you how to use that power? What kind of God gives a child fire but does not warn the child of its dangers? The language of science comes with no signposts about good and bad. Science textbooks tell us how to create a nuclear reaction, and yet they contain no chapter asking us if it is a good or a bad idea.”
“To science, I say this. The church is tired. We are exhausted from trying to be your signposts. Our resources are drying up from our campaign to be the voice of balance as you plow blindly on in your quest for smaller chips and larger profits. We ask not why you will not govern yourselves, but how can you? Your world moves so fast that if you stop even for an instant to consider the implications of your actions, someone more efficient will whip past you in a blur. So you move on. You proliferate weapons of mass destruction, but it is the Pope who travels the world beseeching leaders to use restraint. You clone living creatures, but it is the church reminding us to consider the moral implications of our actions. You encourage people to interact on phones, video screens, and computers, but it is the church who opens its doors and reminds us to commune in person as we were meant to do. You even murder unborn babies in the name of research that will save lives. Again, it is the church who points out the fallacy of this reasoning.”
“And all the while, you proclaim the church is ignorant. But who is more ignorant? The man who cannot define lightning, or the man who does not respect its awesome power? This church is reaching out to you. Reaching out to everyone. And yet the more we reach, the more you push us away. Show me proof there is a God, you say. I say use your telescopes to look to the heavens, and tell me how there could not be a God!” The camerlegno had tears in his eyes now. “You ask what does God look like. I say, where did that question come from? The answers are one and the same. Do you not see God in your science? How can you miss Him! You proclaim that even the slightest change in the force of gravity or the weight of an atom would have rendered our universe a lifeless mist rather than our magnificent sea of heavenly bodies, and yet you fail to see God’s hand in this? Is it really so much easier to believe that we simply chose the right card from a deck of billions? Have we become so spiritually bankrupt that we would rather believe in mathematical impossibility than in a power greater than us?”
“Ask yourselves, does the world really need a voice for the poor, the weak, the oppressed, the unborn child? Do we really need souls like these who, though imperfect, spend their lives imploring each of us to read the signposts of morality and not lose our way?”
A 'speech' given so clear-cut and yet truthful; so miserable yet so graceful. What do we need more, religion or science? Some people says we need something with proof, something with written facts? Something which can be seen, felt or measured. But does everything in science is proven? Can we touch light? Do we see electricity? Can we measure quarks? NO. And some people say religions are just some ancient myth which people created out of emptiness and hunger for hope. They ask, can we see, feel, or touch God? No, i suppose, will be the answer given by majority without pause.. However, i dare say "Yes". AT LEAST, though not me, there were plenty of records at which some people had these experiences of feeling, touching and seeing God. How about science? Is there any record for experience of feeling light and measuring quarks? AT LEAST not yet. So, at this point, which one do we consider fact? Which one do we consider reliable and trustworthy?
I always think people are too unreasonable and dumb to not 'see' God in science...Every nerves and vessels and muscles in the body; every arrangement of atoms and quarks in every material; all the stars and planets and cosmic in the space; the forces and momentum that we experience; every layers and cells in the plants... Does an iPOD just appear out of no where when we place some chips and electronical material into an empty box? Propability? Coincidence? Time? Force? (not to mention the nature is trillion times more complicated than an iPOD) Ask yourselves, does things so wonderfully integrate arts, science and complexity just appeared out of nothing?
"What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain. " Is God real? Is science truly real? Is it we believe in science because we're being taught to in young? The definition of a man on 'real' is how the mind interpretes and tunes the frequency. If one is brought up in a chapel and was taught how to experience spiritual and talk to spirit and at last experienced them, will he still believe in science? Or vice versa as in a boy taught about sciences since small? The 'tuning' of mind made a big difference.. Is our mind too tuned to the secular world and scientific method until we failed to experience the other unseen things?
Yes, science might save lifes; brings comfort; delivers entertainment; explains what is unknown.. But is it all in life, about living longer and happier and more knowlegeable? Or is there something more beyond these? Eternal? Hope? Love? The verdict is always yours...
