Genesis Deferred
The idea of ‘panspermia’ is hugely underwhelming. All it serves to accomplish is a shift of focus, redirecting our gaze away from a Supernatural Creator out towards the stars. Those invested in demythologizing human culture may feel invested with any idea that enables an explanation of life’s origins which don’t include a Creator God, even if it ultimately offers no more satisfying explanation.
Science seeks to understand. In essence, this is no bad thing. The world, and the Universe in which it spins, is – fortunately for us – structured in such a way that encourages investigation and understanding. Unfortunately, it means that the power that understanding brings rests in the hands of that branch of the human endeavor that lacks any sense of moral obligation to the species.
It’s kind of ironic that those who most vociferously deny the cultural relevance of those events depicted in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis get to reenact them on an almost daily basis. But, of course, this would be precisely why they need to deny the story of origins – if the very first act of humanity was to transgress the laws of God resulting in their eviction from the Garden, or the natural world, there would be no way to justify the constant rape of nature Science seeks to perpetuate. Global Warming/Climate Change could never have arisen out of pre-scientific culture!
No one would seek to send the world spinning back in time to pre-scientific, pre-technological ways of life. And no one should allow scientists to continue to conduct their alchemical practices beyond the public gaze. Humanity has an insatiable desire to know, such that we were even willing to defy the God who had given us Paradise. Such curiosity should never be allowed to delve into the mysteries of life in the secrecy of a locked and off-limits private lab.
The world sickens from the pain and destruction Science has wrought. Little wonder they now seek to persuade that life didn’t actually start here. If it didn’t begin here, it won’t end here. Panspermia is an absolution of sin.
In ‘Biogenesis’ the only loopy character is the scientist, Dr. Barnes. And it is suggestive that he be the murderer of the African Dr. Merkmallen. What continent has been more ravaged by Western technology and science than Africa?
It is also significant that Barnes appears to have no particular loyalty to anything remotely resembling faith. As Scully displays the magazine containing Barnes’ article in which he condemns Dr. Sandoz in a manner which is “quite scholarly, actually” but also “downright brutal”, Chuck Burks informs us that “Barnes has made something of a career exposing science and religious fraud.” Yet, early in Season Seven’s opener, Barnes arrives in the Ivory Coast only to later claim the artefact as his discovery.
When reading poetry one should take into account both form and content. The one reflects the other:
So it is with Science as it is depicted in ‘Biogenesis’ – all sound and fury, signifying nothing.
As is typical of the X Files, people die. Portentous sounding words are spoken. Grand theories are discussed with bated breath and Fox Mulder finally loses his mind. What does it all explain? Like ‘Panspermia’, absolutely nothing. Form reflects content.
Science seeks to understand. In essence, this is no bad thing. The world, and the Universe in which it spins, is – fortunately for us – structured in such a way that encourages investigation and understanding. Unfortunately, it means that the power that understanding brings rests in the hands of that branch of the human endeavor that lacks any sense of moral obligation to the species.
It’s kind of ironic that those who most vociferously deny the cultural relevance of those events depicted in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis get to reenact them on an almost daily basis. But, of course, this would be precisely why they need to deny the story of origins – if the very first act of humanity was to transgress the laws of God resulting in their eviction from the Garden, or the natural world, there would be no way to justify the constant rape of nature Science seeks to perpetuate. Global Warming/Climate Change could never have arisen out of pre-scientific culture!
No one would seek to send the world spinning back in time to pre-scientific, pre-technological ways of life. And no one should allow scientists to continue to conduct their alchemical practices beyond the public gaze. Humanity has an insatiable desire to know, such that we were even willing to defy the God who had given us Paradise. Such curiosity should never be allowed to delve into the mysteries of life in the secrecy of a locked and off-limits private lab.
The world sickens from the pain and destruction Science has wrought. Little wonder they now seek to persuade that life didn’t actually start here. If it didn’t begin here, it won’t end here. Panspermia is an absolution of sin.
In ‘Biogenesis’ the only loopy character is the scientist, Dr. Barnes. And it is suggestive that he be the murderer of the African Dr. Merkmallen. What continent has been more ravaged by Western technology and science than Africa?
It is also significant that Barnes appears to have no particular loyalty to anything remotely resembling faith. As Scully displays the magazine containing Barnes’ article in which he condemns Dr. Sandoz in a manner which is “quite scholarly, actually” but also “downright brutal”, Chuck Burks informs us that “Barnes has made something of a career exposing science and religious fraud.” Yet, early in Season Seven’s opener, Barnes arrives in the Ivory Coast only to later claim the artefact as his discovery.
When reading poetry one should take into account both form and content. The one reflects the other:
FLYING CROOKED
The butterfly, the cabbage white,
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has — who knows so well as I? —
A just sense of how not to fly:
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.
Even the aerobatic swift
Has not his flying-crooked gift.
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has — who knows so well as I? —
A just sense of how not to fly:
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.
Even the aerobatic swift
Has not his flying-crooked gift.
Robert Graves
Because of the way in which Graves has constructed his lines in this poem it is, in a way, impossible to read in a straight line for one is constantly interrupted by the many types of punctuation. The manner in which we must read the poem – its starts and hesitancies and direction changes – reflects the actual way in which the butterfly flies – form reflects content.So it is with Science as it is depicted in ‘Biogenesis’ – all sound and fury, signifying nothing.
As is typical of the X Files, people die. Portentous sounding words are spoken. Grand theories are discussed with bated breath and Fox Mulder finally loses his mind. What does it all explain? Like ‘Panspermia’, absolutely nothing. Form reflects content.
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