The Western View of Nature

The interesting thing about the great western myth is that it lies at the foundation of what we normally see as polar opposites; religion and science. The myth is that nature, the cosmos, all that is, is a process of engineering. Nature is seen as an artifact; an item created.

Religion (of the judeo-christian lineage) reflects this myth as God forming Adam out of clay and creating the cosmos out of the Word (mathematics, language, programming, etc). Here, there is a doer, a creator figure that understands His creation as a mechanic would a car. He knows how it all works and can fix anything that is broken.

This is much the same way that science operates. There is, in both newtonian and quantum physics, an understanding that the universe is a composite of interacting laws. There are higher and lower laws that play against each other to manifest all that exists. And the philosophy goes: the better we can map those laws the better we can influence our world. There is a great machine, eternally pumping, and all we have to do are map the components and start tinkering.

Whether you are a devout believer or an extreme atheist, if you were brought up in a western culture you were imprinted with the viewpoint that there is a mechanical nature to our reality. Be it a westerner's view of the body or of the government, the concept is seen as an amalgamation of parts. Every part serving a function. A body is a beating heart, and breathing lungs, grown by the GI tract, and managed by the brain. A functioning government requires a legislator, an executor, and a populace to preside over. And reality needs a 'creator' God with a Satan figure to keep the game from getting boring.

What follows from the idea that nature is a process of engineering, is the idea of progress at all costs. A machine has a purpose. Whether it be the manifestation of God's will or the random evolution into complexity and connectivity, there is an end product. The trick being to discover that end product. The "Thing", at the end of time, that is waiting for us all.

So we rush forward. Into progress. Scientists debating theories as fervently as theologians. Everyone wanting to be first to "get it." Mapping the Universe, testing, and remapping. Doing our best to draw a bona fide model of reality.

Progress! My sons, forward into progress!

(At this point I have summed up my point as best I can. I couldn't just leave without some moral commentary. Please forgive my righteous intrusion.)

Moral Commentary on the Western view:

Where we run the risk is in the mislabeling of the parts. Failing to understand God and the laws of the Universe has gotten many people killed over the years. Our track record of 'correct-understanding' of reality has been abysmal.

Yet we still continue. We go on living, loving, and learning along the way in the vast and magnificent existence. We get some things wrong and we get some things right; learning along the way. Bringing us to the main point, the one real question of western human thought.

Is it better to be loving or to be right?