Fumbling Science: When Scientists Talk Like Theologians

The issue about the flight that disappeared en route to Beijing from Malaysia is now described as a mystery. This is a language that is often associated with religion rather than science and theologians have been the ones who thrive on mysteries. Now, however, scientists seem to be drawing from that well also. Just the other day the Prime Minister of Malaysia held a press conference to put the matter about the flight to rest. During this press conference he pulled a trick out of his hat like the legendary magician called Houdini and declared that scientists have plotted the route of the flight and determined that it ended somewhere in the Indian Ocean. This magic trick only filled the relatives of those who were in the flight with distrust. Since then, the apparent location of the flight has been shifting like the weather. Why can those who are looking for the plane not simply say that they do not know where the flight is, that they are still looking for it and when they see it they would let everyone know?

Scientists, like theologians, often speak about mystery like they know what they are talking about. In fact, some scientists sometimes talk as if mystery is only a term for what we know. However, when an event like this flight incident happens and one sees scientists all over the map, one cannot help but wonder whether they sometimes know what they are talking about. Does not the quest for knowledge need some humility, even if that quest is a scientific one? As one who loves science, it seems to me that scientists should always begin their work by talking about what they know rather than what they do not know. When they do not know something, they should be clear that they do not know. Theology lost its shine in part because it claimed to know more than what was possible to know. Science may go the same way if scientists are seen to be fumbling science.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson and St. Augustine of Hippo

This post is a brief reflection on the interpretation of significant events in the lives of two important figures in Western history, both of whom have African backgrounds - the influential Christian theologian from Algeria, St. Augustine, and the influential scientist from New York, Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson. St. Augustine is in fact an ancient figure who became a Christian in part because he thought that his Christian faith could enable him to have a better understanding of the best science of his age. He deplored religious explanations of the universe that did not take into account the best available science. He rejected the first religion to which he belonged, Manichaeism, because a respected Manichaean representative lacked understanding of the best science available in his time. Thus, St. Augustine never tired of encouraging Christians to be abreast with the best science of their time in order not to look foolish to the secular world.

St. Augustine's tendency to take into consideration the best available science of his time in his Christian thinking is however not the point I want to emphasize in this brief post. The point of comparing him to Dr. Tyson deals with how they interpret key moments in the narrative of their lives. Recently, Dr. Tyson has been propagating the scientific worldview through his program called "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey." I watched the first episode and was quite intrigued by the story which Dr. Tyson told of his encounter with the famous American scientist, Carl Sagan. He talked about how the cordiality with which he was treated by Dr. Sagan contributed significantly in his wanting to become a scientist. In fact, one of the most treasured possessions of Dr. Tyson's is a signed copy of Dr. Sagan's book.

Recently I have been thinking of the way science is propagated as being similar to the way religion is propagated and I found it quite interesting that the attachment which Dr. Tyson demonstrates towards the book Carl Sagan gave him can also be described as a religious attachment. Many people who tell the story of how they joined a particular religion often include stories of kindness showed to them by members of that particular religion. Such kindness is often similar to that which Dr. Tyson received from Sagan. However, the interpretation which Dr. Tyson gives of his encounter with Dr. Sagan does not appeal to any religion. That encounter led him to embrace science at to be suspicious of religion and the religious imagination.

On turning to St. Augustine, however, we see that he interprets his story differently. When he became the Bishop of Hippo (in Algeria) in the last decade of the fourth century, many Christians did not trust him. He had been a member of a religious group which Christians feared (Manicheans), he was baptized in Italy rather than in Africa, and he was ordained Bishop by only two Bishops rather than the twelve required. Augustine had to justify his position and even his Christian faith. That is a major motivation for why he wrote his famous book, Confessions. In his narrative of his life in the book, he interprets the various points of his life as providential, as moving him towards God. An important point in this narrative is the availability of a manuscript of Paul's Letter to the Romans, and it is after Augustine reads a portion of this letter that he converts to the Christian faith.

Two stories, both including encounters with books, both leading to different directions - or do they?

Traffic Robots in Kinshasa

In Kinshasa traffic robots are in and traffic lights are out. Women engineers are the creators of the robots.

 

American-Africans or The Returnees

Africans who are fed up with life in America and so return to Africa are now called "returnees". I prefer to call this group of Africans "American-Africans," which is the reverse of African-Americans. Just like Africans in America theirs is a hyphenated existence as their very Africanness (if there be such a word) is being questioned.  The latest controversial contribution of American-Africans in Ghana is the show An African City, which is a remake of Sex in the City.

 

Lapiro de Mbanga Should be Buried in Cameroon

It is now rumored that Lapiro de Mbanga (Ndinga Man) would be buried in Buffalo, New York, where he recently died. If that is to happen, that would be a disgrace to Cameroon and Cameroonians everywhere. As a national treasure, the government of Cameroon should have interest in seeing to it that he is buried at home in Cameroon. In life Lapiro did more to better the lives of Cameroonians than most people in government, from the dictator Paul Biya to all those who have been working for him. Lapiro is a hero not only to the people of Mbanga but also to the people of Cameroon as a whole. A man who spoke the language of the people, he mobilized the dispossessed and raised the consciousness of the people like no one has done. In a country that hardly values its people, Lapiro taught the ordinary people to value themselves and survive the atrocity that Cameroon has become under Paul Biya. Someone who contributes to the lives of the people like Lapiro did should be honored rather than despised and they should be given a decent burial rather than be buried in foreign climes. Lapiro should therefore be buried in the place that gave him life and made him the person he came to be and that place is found in Mbanga, Cameroon, where his ancestors are. Anything less would make his spirit to be restless for ever.

Remembering Lapiro de Mbanga (Ndinga Man)

Below, Lapiro de Mbanga in "Mimba We" (Remember Us). You will be remembered, Lapiro.

 

What Killed Lapiro de Mbanga?

The death of the versatile Cameroonian musician/political activist, Lapiro de Mbanga, has been reported. It is reported that he died in Buffalo, New York, after having been chased from his own country by the Biya junta. With his death, there is hardly any credible voice speaking for the voiceless in Cameroon.

When, in the previous post, I drew from Lapiro to reflect on what it means to be an orphan in Cameroon today, I had not heard of his death - in fact, I did not even know he was ill. Now, this voice which has been speaking for the voiceless, using the viral method of entertainment, is gone and Cameroon is the worse for it. In a sense, with the passing of Lapiro, we could say that Cameroon has become, in a wider sense, an orphan. In a better country that respects ingenuity, he should be given a state funeral. However, in Cameroon, the junta would instead be chanting good riddance. Below is one of the final lamentations Lapiro made for his beloved country:

The struggle continues.

Rethinking the Orphan in Cameroon

In his popular 1989 song, "Mimba We" (Remember Us) the politically active Cameroonian musician, Lapiro de Mbanga, evolves a quite interesting understanding of an orphan. He does not specifically speak about orphans in the song but he talks about struggling people who have no parents - from those imprisoned in various prisons in Cameroon to the day laborer and the homeless. They are without parents not in the conventional sense of having lost their parents (though it may be understood in this way as well) but rather in the sense that they are people without connections in high places. First, they are a group of people who have not been highly educated and so they do not have access to the kind of jobs which people with higher education may obtain. Second, they are people without connection. They are without connection because they do not have people in high places in the country who may help them. They are, in effect, people without access to the legalized corruption which is euphemistically described today as networking. Thus, what the state, under Paul Biya, has done in Cameroon is that it has created both orphans who have lost their parents and so find it difficult to take care of themselves and those who have been made orphans because of lack of access into a corrupt state system where only the well connected benefit and those without connected live lives that land them in prison or in the streets. Lapiro spoke for all these orphans and for his troubles he was himself thrown into prison and he finally ended up fleeing the country.

The Western Evangelization of Africa - A New Look

Since the great encounter between people of African and European descents, which can roughly be said to have begun around the15th century (for more on this see David Northrup), there have been two major influences on how the encounter has progressed - the influences of religion and science. In fact, one can say that the modern history of the West has been driven mainly by religion and science, powerful phenomena that have shaped how the West has encountered the "other". The dissemination of Western religion and science to non-Western peoples, especially Africans, is what I refer to here as the evangelization of Africa. The evangelization of Africa here should therefore be understood not mainly as the movement to spread religion but also as the movement to spread science.

While many may see evangelism mainly as the proclamation of the Christian faith, and hence related to Western missionary activities, it is worth noting that this missionary activity has often gone together with science. Thus, the West has resolved not only to teach Africans Western Christianity but also Western science. In fact, the spread of Western science has often been described in scientific terms. In much Western discourse, science and religion are seen as two distinct discourses and many scholars have made attempts to calibrate the relation between these apparently separate discourses.

In an African imagination, however, science and religion are not two discourses because they have been historically experienced and even traditionally conceptualized as one discourse. They have been historically experienced as one discourse because that is how Europeans made it look like when they came to Africa. The missionaries and colonialists were both interested in schools and hospitals, railroads and firearms. Education did not only enable the convert to read the Bible but also to dabble in Western science. Thus, many Africans have experienced Western religion and science as a single phenomenon.  From the perspective of African traditional thought, science and religion are a single phenomenon because they are also experienced as single - both are geared toward the realization of what Africans conceptualize as the good life.

In the Western evangelization of Africa, however, the religious side of this evangelization seems to have experienced more success than the scientific side. Thus it is that while Christianity is growing in Africa it is declining in Europe. On the other hand, however, Western science has not experienced much growth in Africa. What intrigues me in this post is why this disparity. Why is it that Western science has continued to grow in the West while Western religion is growing in Africa, even though both religion and science were and continue to be experienced by Africans as a single phenomenon?

There may be many reasons for this but I will focus on just one theory and this theory is situated in the history of scientific evangelism. In a very revealing article titled "Pump and Circumstance: Robert Boyle's Literary Technology," the historian of science, Steven Shapin, has demonstrated how Robert Boyle, the British scientist who is associated with the invention of the air pump, had a hard time selling this invention. In fact, being a Christian himself, Boyle understood the dissemination of science in Christian missionary terms. A major part of Boyle's difficulty in selling science was money. Science is not cheap and scientific evangelization, even in Britain, was not cheap. Because science is expensive, only the rich promote scientific evangelization and the rich mainly benefit from it. In fact, some scientific findings are often jealously guarded not only because they may have dangerous effects on the general populace but also because much money has been expended in the discovery process and there is a need to recover this money. Those who can pay this money can gain access to the knowledge while those who cannot pay are left out. Take the example of getting a medical degree.

Religion, on the other hand, is cheap and even free. This is a central theological motif of the Christian faith - it is called grace. To send a missionary to India or Tanzania does not avail much. Compare the expenditure for a Master of Divinity Degree and that of a Degree in medicine. The conclusion here is that poverty seems to account for why Western religion has grown in Africa while Western science has lagged behind. Science is for the rich and the West has the money to sponsor it; many African countries do not. Religion is cheap and Africa has the resources to sponsor it. If this is the case, then Karl Marx was right: religion is for the poor. This is glaringly manifested in Western history itself where few are talking about the importance of religion while most people are talking about the important or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Thus, scientific evangelization is promoted in the West while religious evangelization is promoted in Africa. This theory seem to explain much.

Society for the Advancement of Elegant People In the Congo

There has always been those who have prized good looks and refinement, that is, style. This is the mission of the Society for the Advancement of Elegant People (Sape or Les Sapeurs) in the Congo. They have been connected to a history of good looks and refinement in Europe and among African Americans (black dandies).  See pictures here and here.