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A Glance at Tomorrow's History
by: Dr.
Ali Shariati
Part II
Whereas in the Middle Ages, the common people and the educated classes
had a common belief, and they spoke with one voice and shared one goal,
today the educated are worshippers of science and the common people are
religious. This is a reality which cannot in any way be justified, explained
or remarked upon, even if it is against our temperament and our beliefs.
It is because of this that in Europe, America, Africa, South America, and
in Iran and Asian countries, the more the new science and the new educated
class is extended, as it was in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the
more religion is put aside from the top of the cone model of society, and
only remains in the base of the cone. Here religion is weakened to the
point where it is destroyed, and science, the worship of science and the
belief in the authenticity of science, replace it. If this cone model is
applied to the new and present era, just as I said, the common people are
still of the Middle Ages. They are religious all over the world. They have
their former religion. To the extent which the new educated draw closer
to the worship of science, which is the religion of this class, they become
alienated from their traditions and their own national religion and they
move away from it. The statistics gathered by people who studied the sociology
of religions in any country in Europe and America, in the East and in the
West, reflects this.
But there is one other issue, and that is that in addition to these
two classes, we must seek out one more group. As we have seen, there are
geniuses in each era and there are exceptional people in every age, people
who we are obliged to place at the highest peak of this cone. From the
point of view of education and style of thinking, their words prevail over
the current method of thought of the educated class. The number of this
small group increases at the end of each era. Clearly recognized, like
Kepler, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and Roger Bacon, who formed the opinions
of the people of their era, they gain power and strength and they formulate
the style of thought of the intellectuals of the future. These individuals
who are now at the peak of the cone model will form the educated people
of the future according to that law of determinism which I mentioned previously.
Thus, according to this method, we can glance at tomorrow's history.
How? If we recognize these present geniuses who are at the peak of the
cone, and how they think, and if I can introduce those who exist at the
peak of the cone in the present era to you, and show you how the thoughts
of these geniuses oppose the methods of thought of the worship of science
by the educated of the last three centuries, then we can solve the problem
which I mentioned. We can clearly foresee and predict how the educated
class of the future will think in the era following the present, and what
inclinations, beliefs and feelings they will have. We are obliged to place
the geniuses of humanity today above the educated class because, on the
one hand, the educated people consider them to be supra-educated and, on
the other hand, we are obliged not to place them among the educated people
of today because they think and speak differently from this group.
One such genius is Guenon. His book, "Crises of the Modern World" and
his journal of religious studies have been published in Europe. He is a
great, educated, French genius, who suddenly revolted against science and
the worship of science, went to the East and withdrew to Egypt, not a withdrawal
in today's sense of the word, but rather he withdrew from society and the
way of thinking of today, so that he could answer the great need and thirst
of the people of Europe. Another was Alexis Carrel. One of his most famous
works is "L'homme c'est inconnu", which has been translated into Persian
along with some of his other works. He has written another book called
"My Meditation upon the Pilgrimage to Lourdes". Another is Le Count de
Louis. He wrote "The Fate of Mankind". It has been printed in Persian twice.
The translation is bad but the text is worthy of study. Then there is Einstein,
William James, or Basalard, who is the greatest French scientific philosopher-thinker,
and he is much greater than what the people of the world recognize in Jean-Paul
Sartre and Bertrand Russel. There are also Max Plank, Georges Gurvitch,
Patrick Donitz and Pasternak, who wrote "Dr. Zhivago". These people can
never be put in the class of the new educated, but can only be at the peak
of the cone model, because generally they oppose the worship of science.
They speak against it and the religion of the educated class of the last
three centuries. Of course it cannot be said that Guenon speaks exactly
like Max Plank and that Max Plank repeats the words of Alexis Carrel. Each
has a new opinion. But something exists in common. That is, if we find
a common principle, we can recognize, with the method I mentioned, that
this common principle is a new tendency to be found in the world, solidarity
in opposing the general tendancy of the worship of science, which is the
religion of the intellectual of today. This new tendency in the future
era will be transformed into the religion of the intellectual of the future
variety, and it will replace the worship of science which is the religion
of the educated people of the world today. In all of these exceptional
people, one idea prevails, and that is the religious feelings and belief
in spirituality which they have in common; without exception. Unfortunately
there is no time to quote from each of them.
We can say Einstein had great religious feelings. But we said that religion
is the basis of belief of the common people! Can we say Einstein is among
the common people, and is among those who have a high school diploma or
a college degree or is an engineer or Ph. D like myself, and is in the
new educated class? Never! Yet he is religious. Thus it becomes clear that
in addition to the worship of science, there is a new thought appearing
in the world which is the greatest wave of thought in the world today.
We can never say that the religion of Einstein or Carrel is of the same
substance as that of the common people. It is a religion which is above
the beliefs of intellectuals, above science. Thus two religions exist.
One is that of those who lack education and science, and it is their religion
which exists at the bottom of the cone model. As we move up the levels
of religion, we reach a scientific atheism in our own era and if we move
up higher, we attain a meta-religion. This can clearly be seen in today's
world.
Look at the educated. One man is educated and religious but his religion
is taken from below and he pulls it along with him like a spare part. He
has become an engineer or a doctor, and he has retained his religion. He
took it from the masses and pulled it up with him. This is abnormal and
must be thrown away. If he lacks religion, in my opinion, he is closer
to a religion of meta-science which is above and beyond science. Then again
we have an educated person who is religious, and we see how he follows
a religion which is above science. It is clear from his writing. This religion
can be seen in people, in universities, in thoughts. The religion which
is less than science is lower than the educated people, and the religion
which is above science, which the heights of science have not yet reached,
is a religion which today the great thinkers of the world which I mentioned
have attained, and which the world recognizes. These people are above the
educated. They are the new geniuses. Many of the words which we have in
the Quran or we have obtained by closely following the Quran, we suddenly
hear in a translation or a text from Max Plank or Einstein or Carrel.
Most of those people I mentioned passed through a time of crisis, a
time of atheism and then a time of refinding, rediscovering a religion
above and beyond science. All of them are among the most outstanding, well-educated
people who opposed, and revolted against, the worship of science. Their
common choice is the return to spirituality; the return to religious feelings
and sensitivities. During the last three centuries, people have been abused
and condemned by the idea that religion is the belief of the common people
and must be put aside. Thus that which we must believe is that today, as
in the 16th century, when geniuses materialised who brought the worship
of science, geniuses have appeared who are not familiar to the present
educated class. Their words have still not been officially recognised.
They have not been absorbed into the university, yet they speak above the
level of the university. Surely the words and speeches of these people
will form the basis of the belief of the educated people of the future,
who they will shape during tomorrow's historical period. Thus, without
doubt, today's religion is a return to a religion which is above science
or approaches a religion which is above science, that is, the truth of
religion. Thus, through this study, it can be said that we believe that
today the era of the worship of science by the educated class formed in
the 17th century, which led to the alienation from religion, is ending.
Why? Because today geniuses have come into being who are above the science
of today, and who announce a belief in a great Spirit and Intellect in
the universe and the need for mankind to worship or to have a religious
belief.
If such a man is a physicist like Max Plank, he speaks like this, "Kepler
was a scholar who believed in a totally intelligent system, fully aware
and conscious of all of creation". He also gives another scholar as an
example, and says "He did not have such a belief in a total system of the
universe as well as an all-encompassing intellect which exists, and because
of this, he remained at the level of a small, experimental scholar. He
remained at this level because he did not believe in a universal intellect,
but Kepler believed in this and because of this he became the creator of
a new physics." He speaks like this. Einstein, in the same field, says,
"Religious feeling and belief in a great secret in Creation, is a key concept
in great scientific research." A psychologist speaks in another way. He
says, "In the fate of mankind, prayer is necessary, worship is necessary
like the need for food and for air; it is a genuine need. If we are blind
to the need for worship in ourselves, we will be destroyed." A person like
Carrel, who was never religious and is a man who received two Nobel Peace
Prizes for research on the hearts of sparrows and their transplantation,
says, "Worship is like breathing, like eating, and is a part of the most
genuine physical, neurological, psychological and intellectual needs of
ours." He says, "Because of a lack of strong belief in religion, Rome was
destroyed." These are words of Alexis Carrel; not of a priest; not of a
religious person at the base of the cone model. Alexis Carrel is the first
human being who received two Nobel Peace Prizes, and according to the Larouse
dictionary, he is a great person whose thought has had a deep effect upon
the 20th century. He says, "If worship, the prayer to the Beloved Creator,
is taken away from society, we have signed the death certificate of that
society."
Did the educated people of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries speak like
this? The educated of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries said, "If I cannot
see God under the scalpel knife, I will not believe in Him". The worshippers
of science spoke like this. But today, as Gurvitch says, "In the 19th century,
sociology developed 198 laws which it believed in, but sociology in the
20th century believes in no laws". Schwartz, the greatest French mathematician
says, "Physics in the 19th century believed that it could explain all issues
of life, even poetry, and today physics believes that it cannot even come
to know what material is". Why has science in the 20th century become so
humble, according to Gurvitch, and why has the pride of the 16th, 17th,
18th and 19th centuries been broken? Because a new era is beginning in
the world. The School of thought of the educated people of the future,
as opposed to the educated of today, will be a religious School of thought
- a religion not lower than science, but rather one higher than it.
Revision by: Dr. Bartlett M.D.
