In an earlier post, I examined what would happen ‘If All the Books Disappeared.’ Ricky Gervais pointed out that science is the axiom the universe, an unchanging constant that would be discovered again and again should we lose all knowledge and records of learning. He contrasted this to religion which would reappear in a different form because it is couched in culture, language, and context.
For Gervais, science is worth believing in. Religion was not.
In contrast, C. S. Lewis an atheist until his early 30s, described himself as a “reluctant convert” to Christianity, because as an intellectual, he found he had no choice but to accept what he clearly saw to be truth.
In his essay ‘Is Theology Poetry’ he mused,
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.
C. S. Lewis
This little comic articulates the importance of ideas to shape the way we see the world. Should we lose all books, humanity would have to reprocess the fundamentals of ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing’ the world, in order to test, examine and rediscover science.
Without ideas of being, notions of truth and identity, we would in fact ‘see’ the world very differently. Science would not only have to be relearned but would have to in fact be ‘re-seen.’
This process of epistemology, the process of ‘knowing’ is philosophical and tied to notions of belief, truth, and identity. This is why humanity are story tellers, and our narratives of identity which form the basis of religious beliefs run parallel to, and indeed fundamental to, the scientific process.
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