The Magic that Blinds Us.

[Boerseun]

I read an interesting article in the "Beeld", an Afrikaans newspaper which won't make any sense to you guys - in Afrikaans, that is. So, I'm gonna make an attempt at an abbreviated translation, so as to share the love...

 

Sorcery and magic in general plays an important role in childrens' stories and fables, world-wide, through the ages, and across all cultures.

 

Often, there's a magic formula or an enchanted object with which the hero can avert some catastrophe. Usually, the object is hidden and the finding of it forms the "quest", the gist of the story, to make sure the "good guys" get the power, and deny the "bad guys" access to it.

 

Also, a common feature in these "quests" is an old man or woman, who gives our hero valuable information as to how to get to this magical object, information without which no progress can be made in the "quest".

 

Sorcerors, magicians, witches, magic objects and the like didn't come into existence all of a sudden because JK Rowling wrote about it. These kind of stories are a universal reality, spanning the ages.

 

Centuries-old stories from Arabia will have people flying around on magic carpets. Magical lamps produce a spectral inhabitant which will grant you three wishes, if rubbed the right way. In oral traditions world-wide, magical axes chop down trees in a single swipe, geese lay golden eggs, magical beans grow overnight to the realm of the giants above the clouds, and a magical cat changes a poor man's fate.

 

These kind of stories have enchanted humanity for ages, probably because its possible in these stories to instantly change the hero's fate with magic.

 

Whether all these stories that humanity have been living with over the ages can be ascribed to some sort of "Magic Mentality", won't be easily established.

 

The "Magic Mentality" implies an expectation and mind-set that needs and wishes can be satisfies instantly, cutting out all the long steps between cause and effect. And right here lies the enchantment of "magic".

 

Wealth doesn't need to be built up over years of hard work, it can be spun overnight from straw. It's not necessary to build an elaborate coach and break in a team of horses, the wave of a magic wand turns a pumpkin into a ready-made coach, and a few mice into horses.

 

With magic, you can progress directly from cause to effect. Utter a few strange syllables and instantly change a poor beggar into a rich lord. Use a magic mirror and see what other people get up to somewhere else. Drink the right potion, and become invincible. No elaborate work-outs, no digging for gold. Nobody has to know how it happens. Actually, the elimination of all the elaborate steps between cause and effect is precisely where the enchantment of magic lies.

 

Ironically, it doesn't seem as if people's belief and hope in the power of magic is any less today, in the age of science and experimentation. People still have a deeply-seated desire for the elimination of all the steps between cause and effect. And for that they turn to technology: Press a button and your message is in Australia; drive in your car and talk to somebody in another continent; watch your television (your magic mirror?) and see what's happening in Beijing. These everyday examples of technology deletes, like magic, all the steps between cause and effect: Most computer users have no idea how the internet works - all they know is that if they press a button, their email is sent. Very few people know how a strangely shaped piece of plastic makes a little arrow move on a computer screen.

 

And we don't have to understand any of this in order to productively use it. The difficult development of all these technologies, to make the press of a button do something "magically", is all lost to the consumer. The distance between cause and effect have shrunk to virtually zero.

 

One result of this is a blind trust and hope that a new technology will always arrive to solve the next problem: a pill that will stop ageing; a drink that will give you rippling abs without any sweat.

 

The problem is, of course, that the average Joe completely forgets everything that exist between cause and effect.

 

Science, however, doesn't work like this.

 

Through long processes, hypotheses are formulated and put to the test in elaborately planned and carefully controlled experiments. Progress is slow. Experiments must be repeatable. If the results are negative, the hypothesis is scrapped and even this contributes to a slowly growing knowledge base.

 

That's why people get so excited about alternative medicine that promises an instant cure for cancer, AIDS, and a host of other diseases, whilst science will still battle for many years to slowly develop workable cures for it. People want nothing to do with the long distance between cause and effect. They would rather eliminate all these steps between cause and effect by putting blind trust in these "magic" cures.

 

The media also contributes to peoples' belief in "magical" technology. They would rather report on sensational breakthroughs with clear and immediate technological applications, than report on all the failed experiments which have lead up to that point.

 

This "magic mentality", which is always on the hunt for the elimination of steps between cause and effect, is bad for science. Finance for research is cut down, because the specific research to be funded won't lead to an overnight breakthrough. Kids don't want to study science, because its not exciting enough. The expectations of science as created by the media, is seated in the "magic mentality" and the reporting of scienctific research often leads to a spiral of false promises and destroyed hope. The nett effect of all this is even more resistance to science.

 

It is therefore critical that scientific knowledge, and the understanding of the scientific method, be popularised so that the average man in the street can have a more realistic understanding of the slow progress made by science.

 

It seems, however, that the "magic mentality" of today reaches further than merely a blind trust in technology. Every now and then there's a mass-excitement (hysteria) over the discovery of a magical document that will change lives (the Bible Code, for instance), a new astrological observation, a crystal to be hung around the neck which will cause all sorts of good things to happen to the wearer, or a magical prayer that will change your life overnight. And every time, more and more people get excited over it.

 

And when it comes to religion, it seems as if people are willing to follow each new maker of promises, each new prophet. Because a sudden change is promised: Attend a gathering and your life will change; touch the hem of his robe and be healed. It's a "magic mentality" that blinds people to the long process between cause and effect. It's a "magic mentality" that gives people false hope, just to leave them disappointed when those false hopes get dashed.

 

...and there endeth the loose translation.

 

I just find it very interesting that humanity's love of religion might come from the same source as our love of technology:

 

We want to skip all the steps between cause and effect.

 

We want absolution of our sins right here and now, so that we can say we are "good people". We don't want to go to all the effort of actually living like good people, I mean, come on! That sounds like a lot of hard work! So we steeple our fingers and chant a few lines and our sins "magically" gets washed away, because some Old Guy in the Sky made it all right.

 

We believe in God for the very same reason we'd take a pill to give us rippling abs (instead of working out). And that reason is...

 

... we humans are inherently lazy.

 

Therefore we invented God.

 

Interesting spin, dontcha think?

[CraigD]

Wow.

 

Rarely, perhaps never, have I read anything with which I agree more.

 

Who wrote it?

[jab2]

Great piece.

 

One thing it does not touch on however is the relation between work and earnings. Half of Africa's problems stem from the magical believe that money and therefore lives comforts, can be had by demanding. :rolleyes:

[HydrogenBond]

I am not sure if "inventing God" was there to make life easier. It actually takes more work and self control to satisfy all the requirements. Most religions set the time table at a lifetime 60-90 years before you get reward or punishment. Not-religion gives a shorter time table more like the magic wand you spoke of. Fashion is one form of magic. Each season we buy the magic clothes to gives us magic power. The magic in last years clothes wear out even of the fabrics have not. But every now and then, new magic appears in those old clothes if the wizards of fashion bestow magic again.

 

I am a scientist, so I like science. But being objective, what we normally talk and learn is science's greatest hits. One could write volumes on science bloopers that will look less than rational with 20/20 hindsight. This would sort of destroy the magic, so we don't do this. For example, how many things are tried before we get one useful medicine. Or how many old fashion animal sacrifices are needed to appease the gods of uncertainty because cause and affect are lacking. If we put all this in the same book to create a sense of perspective the process is not as logical as we think, except for the greatest hits. The normal presentation is of science's greatest hits to create that science magic.

[Boerseun]

I am not sure if "inventing God" was there to make life easier. It actually takes more work and self control to satisfy all the requirements. Most religions set the time table at a lifetime 60-90 years before you get reward or punishment. Not-religion gives a shorter time table more like the magic wand you spoke of.

Not quite sure I agree with you here.

 

I think a feeling of guilt over some action that might be deemed in your own personal view as "immoral" might make you feel very, very bad. And how do you make up for it, without losing face? Let's say you're in a tribal situation, and you've sneaked out and killed one of the chief's goats. All the chief knows, is that one of his goats disappeared. The rest of the tribe gets suspicious of one another, nobody knows it was you. So you feel sorta guilty, but coming out in the open with the whole bag o'beans will lose you a lot of face and trust in the tribe. You've done something wrong, how do you make up for it? Also, "moral codes" are very subjective, and will vary from tribe member to tribe member. So, we formalise our moral code by penning down what we should feel guilty about and what not, and end up with a "ten commandments" scenario. And whenever you've transgressed any of the rules, you go and speak to "God", the Keeper of the Moral Code, if you will, in private. You don't lose any face amongst the tribe members at all, and to top it all, you've got a clear conscience. Religion then acts as a very useful pshycological aid - a quick ten-minute therapy session every night and you're all good.

Fashion is one form of magic. Each season we buy the magic clothes to gives us magic power. The magic in last years clothes wear out even of the fabrics have not. But every now and then, new magic appears in those old clothes if the wizards of fashion bestow magic again.

Good example! Buying pret-a-porter fashion cuts out all the hard work in becoming popular and famous. Just wear whatever Nicole Kidman is wearing, and you're instantly transferred from a mousy wallflower into a raging sex-bomb.

I am a scientist, so I like science. But being objective, what we normally talk and learn is science's greatest hits. One could write volumes on science bloopers that will look less than rational with 20/20 hindsight. This would sort of destroy the magic, so we don't do this. For example, how many things are tried before we get one useful medicine. Or how many old fashion animal sacrifices are needed to appease the gods of uncertainty because cause and affect are lacking. If we put all this in the same book to create a sense of perspective the process is not as logical as we think, except for the greatest hits. The normal presentation is of science's greatest hits to create that science magic.

Of course, yes. But real and serious scientists (or anybody with a genuine interest in scientific matters) must familiarise themselves with most, if not all, of the failed experiments and hypothesis - not so as to re-invent the wheel with every generation of scientists, but to prevent them from going of on wrong theoretical tangents themselves. That's the whole point behind failed experiments. Actually, there is no such thing as a "failed experiment". An experiment returns a result, and that result either supports a theory or not. And so we whittle down the possibilities until we get right down to what theory holds water and what theory doesn't. It's imperative that we learn of the false hypotheses, and why they failed - otherwise some scientist sometime down the line will repeat the error and waste valuable lab time and resources.

 

The problem about learning only of "Science's Greatest Hits", as you so aptly put it, is that it creates unrealistic expectations amongst both newly-trained scientists, and the population in general. The result of famous and spectacular experiments are flashed all over the globe, and people tend to believe that it really is that easy. The distance between cause and effect is once again shrunk to zero, because humans are lazy. So, once people begin to realise that its not as quick and easy as the papers told them, they begin to distrust science, and the grants and funds start to evaporate towards other projects with more immediate results and instant gratification like military expenditure, for instance.

 

The fact that science is a long and tedious process, should be widely taught and learnt. Maybe then there will be a bigger appreciation of the value of science as a pursuit.

[Buffy]

...and there you have it.

 

Its a lot of work to be a leader, and its much easier to just go along with the crowd. This is actually probably a good thing, because if *everyone* thought that they were smarter than everyone else, we'd have total anarchy.

 

You can't have real leaders without most folks being willing to follow.

 

But more importantly, when things are hard to understand, the most miraculous--whether "scientific" or "religious"--will draw people because of the "wow" factor. This has been obvious throughout the history of religion--the more amazing the claim, the more followers it draws--but has become a bane to science, with some less scrupulous scientists jumping to publicize their--sometimes premature--findings in order to gain attention and sometimes simply to draw out, delay and befuddle their competition.

 

In essence, this effect is the worst thing I see in science today: adopting the techniques of blind faith, incitement of crowds (sometimes to gain favor, other times to spread hatred), and creating divisions in order to "win."

 

That's not a condemnation of science, but rather proof that the essence of the article can unfortunately be misused in science just as easily as in religion, and is indeed a fundamental element of human nature.

 

You cannot slander human nature; it is worse than words can paint it, :shrug:

Buffy

[Turtle]

...

This "magic mentality", which is always on the hunt for the elimination of steps between cause and effect, is bad for science.

 

... we humans are inherently lazy.

 

Interesting spin, dontcha think?

 

:D I'd say magic is not only good for science, it's responsible for science. We humans are inherently curious. :naughty: No harm, no foul. :eek2:

 

Well...maybe a little foul? This bit isn't encouraging, but the rest of the article seems to support my view: :eek2: >>

 

...Sometimes the belief in curses crosses paths with religion, as was the case in 2005 when televangelist John Hagee (whose endorsement was solicited and received by presidential hopeful John McCain) blamed Hurricane Katrina on God's wrath for a gay parade that had been scheduled for the Monday of the storm's arrival.

 

"I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were recipients of the judgment of God for that," Hagee said at the time, reiterating the belief in 2006. ...

Supernatural science: Why we want to believe - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

[Michaelangelica]

Magical thinking can be easily seen when people play poker machines.

If they turn around or have a drink when a 'drop" or win occurs they tend to do the same thing again

Really it is not much more than Skinnerian (Skinner the psychologist )

reinforcement of behaviour. "Behaviourism" is still very popular among modern psychologists.

 

I love some of Terry Prattchets's definitions, descriptions, observations about magic and magical behaviour.

My favourite is a "A Hatfull of Sky" but you probably need to read his other 30 books first

Sorcerors, magicians, witches, magic objects

are all part of the placebo effect. The most effective and least understood medicine on the planet.

There is no such thing as "False Hope" only hope and no hope.