Fire Walk with Me

I mean, he was a prophet, an oracle. He saw things ... I mean, he saw things that you and me, we only dream about and then forget when we wake up.
S2, Ep.09 Firewalker
Two things about this statement that stand out. Let's take the second one first. Ludwig, the character speaking, is talking to Mulder and Scully - two people who could claim to have seen things they can only wish to forget about when they wake up! Secondly, and more importantly for our purposes, Ludwig is describing a scientist!
Daniel Trepkos is a volcanologist who "occupies that rare place among scientists where dreams, ambition and great luck converge". So, right from the off, we know he's not just some white-coated, bespectacled, lab tech. No, Daniel Trepkos is, as Scully has "always heard", brilliant.
As such, mere "scientific data" isn't enough, - Trepkos intends to go, as he informs the news reporter, "revisiting the very origin of the earth, peering into the fire where it all began - a human endeavor more important even than man's exploration of space."
Of course, it isn't unknown for modern brilliant scientists to be somewhat hyperbolic. A nineteenth century scientist - a Darwin, for instance - could never have said:
However, if we discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable by everyone, not just by a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God. (p.193)
This is, famously, Stephen Hawking's closing thought in "A Brief History of Time".
When contemplating the wonders of the universe, it must be difficult to keep one's feet firmly on the physical plain one is supposed to be explaining.
Scientists can, then, be guilty of saying silly things. Which brings us back to 'Firewalker'.
Maybe it's just that, this being pretty much the direst episode in the whole span of the X Files, the writers weren't paying attention - or maybe they were and were playing it for the irony. Maybe I can't be bothered to put in the effort to think about an episode this bad!
Let me explain what bothers me so much about 'Firewalker'.
A bunch of volcanologists are exploring caves in - of all things - a volcano, with some new technological gizmo that has telemetry and cameras and other 'stuff'. This, the brain child of Daniel Trepkos, is the deliverer of the silicon-based life form which, being a parasite, precedes to sprout out of the throats of the team members, thereby killing them. Those not killed by the fungus are dispatched by Trepkos himself in an effort to stop them going back and infecting the general population.
In essence, all should be fine. What we have is yet another environmental warning dressed up as monster-of-the-week.
But the thing is, Scully runs her tests and finds that, if the spores of the fungus are not ingested immediately upon release, they become harmless. Not dormant, but dead!
One little question, if you don't mind.
How the hell did this fungus evolve in the depths of a volcano's steam caves if it needs hosts to immediately ingest its spores?
I'm not a volcanologist, but I can't imagine the innards of a volcano is teeming with life forms. And even if it did manage to evolve, was there only one of it, waiting patiently till some mad scientist brought it breeding material?
Okay, having vented my spleen, back to the quote at the top.
When did science turn into a religion? When did it acquire its prophets and oracles?
I imagine them to be a relatively new breed, who began to sprout round about the time Richard Dawkins began to say things like:
The word 'mundane' has come to mean boring and dull, and it really shouldn't. It should mean the opposite because it comes from the latin 'mundus', meaning the world, and the world is anything but dull; the world is wonderful. There's real poetry in the real world. Science is the poetry of reality.
Apart from being utterly ridiculous in half the things he says, I have nothing against Richard Dawkins. He's entitled to his view as I, hopefully, am entitled to mine.
I just find myself wondering how he can so consistently get things the wrong way round. 'Cause it couldn't be me, could it?
I've always thought that poetry was the science of reality.
By 'reality' I mean the 'really real', all that makes life as a human being worth pursuing.
As much as I respect scientists and the work they do and the contributions they make to improving not only the quality of life but also the mode of life, I nevertheless find it nothing if not amusing when they begin to pontificate about science as the bedrock of morality, or try their hand at Biblical exegesis:
Oh, but of course the story of Adam and Eve was only ever symbolic, wasn't it? Symbolic?! So Jesus had himself tortured and executed for a symbolic sin by a non-existent individual? Nobody not brought up in the faith could reach any verdict other than "barking mad".
Granted, that is Dawkins again - but he's always good for a laugh!
What other scientist would, while expounding the rational virtues of science over the irrationality of religion, adopt such gormless logic?
And maybe, just maybe, this is the way in which we should read 'Firewalker', as a demonstration of the illogicality of those who espouse logic and rationality above and beyond all other ways or looking at 'reality'.
If it is, sorry, not enough to save the episode.

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