Lucifer in the dark

We live in a world of light. So much light is there that NASA and others find out of the way spots, like the top of Mauna Kea, for their telescopes. They must rise above the light of this world to catch the light from others.

Always afraid of the dark, we live in the light. It is the very symbol of who we are.

God's act of creation began with the proclamation: "Let there be light." (cf. Gn. 1:3) Prometheus, the god who acquainted humanity "with architecture, astronomy, mathematics, the art of writing, the treatment of domestic animals, navigation, [and] medicine," was also the giver of fire, a source of light. If we find God, we have seen the light. (cf. theoi.com)

The period which gave birth to the modern world is known as the 'Enlightenment'. Even as the rational beings that we are, having a good idea is akin to finding God for, at that moment too, we see the light, as the bulb burns brightly above our heads.

Interestingly, he who rebelled against God is also a being of light. Lucifer, whose name means 'brightness', was "flung down to Sheol" for the arrogance of seeing himself as a rival to God. (cf. Is. 14:14-15)

And Lucifer is the root of the name of the hero in that most twentieth century of mythic stories, Star Wars. Luke Skywalker, the angel of light, standing against the dark side and altogether more successful at overcoming his father than was his namesake.

However much we seek to hide in the light, we are always accompanied by the dark. For, to have the one, we must have the other.

But we would be wise not to go meddling in the dark.

Reason tells us it's all just metaphors and imagery, ancient tales told in pre-scientific cultures as a way of understanding what science had not yet explained. It seems rather churlish of a practice that depends so much on the explanatory power of metaphor to cock such a snook at all things mythic.

The 'Big Bang' might just be an easy way to imagine the beginning of the physical universe but it's still a metaphor that could fit right into the Genesis story without stretching the imagination too far. One may agree with "visionary physicist Edward Fredkin [who] characterizes the universe as a cosmological computer," (cf. Zainab Goonay, Metaphors in Science) and, still, because of the use of metaphor, you've only really changed the terms in which the myth is expressed, not the myth itself.

Science is the new Lucifer, in need of a constant reminder of the consequences of setting itself up as a rival to God.

"Soft Light", episode 23 of Season Two, serves just this purpose. It may well be that the science in this episode is a bit skew-wiffy, but the essential idea is that when you meddle in the dark, you meddle with forces the power of which are beyond comprehension. With its Black Holes and dark matter, science likes to meddle in the dark.

Scientific investigation is, it goes without saying, (so I'll say it) exciting, daring and of inestimable value. Science, like the gun, never kills, it's the scientist who pulls the trigger.

Lucifer may just be a story in an old book that no scientist ever reads. He is also the light of reason that fell into darkness.

Dr. Chester Banton became the darkness he sought to harness. He meddled in the dark and the dark overcame him. In his arrogance he sought to rival God and, like Lucifer, brought evil into the world.

We ignore our stories at our peril.