Bertolt Brecht was at the height of insight when he argued that it is impossible to choose between theism or atheism, since we are always guided by faith.
Let us replace the overly harsh and perhaps provocative thesis that the problem of pedophilia in the Catholic Church is not a matter of the “unconscious” individual, but rather of the “unconscious” institution, with the tacit truth implied in the adaptation of the novel. Den Brauna – Angels & Demons – in which, at the end of the film, the Pope acknowledges the new science for being increasingly perceived as a religion in the Middle Ages. In other words: an indisputable authority whose discourse, all the more so because we largely do not understand it, we obey without reservation.
Since it is not without reason that we talk about the Church, which as an institution often grossly abuses its ‘earthly mission’ (for half a millennium the Catholic Church opposed the inclusion of zero – as an anti-number or, in the interpretation of the time, devilish nothingness – among other numbers), is the progress of science about which we really know little or almost nothing, except for what is delivered to us as the achieved result, criticized to a nearly sufficient extent? (Even leading contemporary philosophers know almost nothing about the movement of modern achievements in the field of quantum physics, for example, in the text Don’t trust the philosopher in quantum physics., Žižek will write, among other things: At the very beginning of his bestseller “The Big Idea”, Stephen Hawking triumphantly proclaims that “philosophy is dead.” With the latest advances in quantum physics and cosmology, so-called experimental metaphysics has reached its peak: metaphysical questions about the origin of the universe, the nature of space and time, etc. – which have hitherto been the subject of philosophical speculation – can now be answered through experimental science and empirically tested.)
In 1998, the CEO of Microsoft and then by far the richest man in the world, Bill Gates (see the book IT bomb, Pol Virlio), declares that he is convinced that God created the world for him. With today’s development of artificial intelligence, with brain implantation and telepathic connection through thoughts without using speech, what could the CEO of the company say about himself? Neuralink, given that there is an increasing ideological advocacy that in coexistence with a computer, man can utilize his full potential. However, metaphorically speaking – the computer is the religion we count on.
The panicked need to provide everything to the maximum (does this come from the ‘unconscious knowledge’ that a laboratory failure is always possible, which will result in a huge mortality rate as during the Covid-19 pandemic), nevertheless fails to suppress social antagonisms, fundamentalism and colonialism, oppression of vulnerable groups and minority movements, endangerment of women’s rights, etc., which indicates that the economic expansion of three powers – America, Russia and China – as well as technological investment in the rapid reproduction of capital, as well as the concentration of power in a dozen world banks, is spreading an epidemic of a dehumanized way of life around us, in which we are isolated, distrustful and closed to everything that comes from the outside, from a world completely unknown to us.
Bertolt Brecht was at the height of insight when he asserted that the choice between theism or atheism is impossible, since we are always guided by faith: in a mystical Being incomparably more perfect than us (God is not guided by human logic, theologians teach), or, on the other hand, in a new science and its experiment, which can never be claimed with even approximate certainty to result in success. All the more so, here we will turn Obama statement We are an indispensable nation. – in – uncertainty is necessary in order to progress. Therefore, it is this uncertainty that science and religion seek to nullify, offering their teachings as an unquestionable certainty that we must be able to trust unconditionally.
Investing faith in science
Giorgio Agamben He precisely stated things, saying that – In the West, three major religions coexist: Christianity, capitalism, and science.Following what the philosopher defines as modernity, after the emergence of industry at the ‘forefront’ of Western reality, let’s say that Christianity is in a position of – constantly catching up with science into which capital injects its driving force, through technology that is almost inaugurating – a new religion – technoscience that works on the creation humanoid robots and smart prostheses, rational computers and supposedly conscious software.
The aforementioned philosopher points out that science, in the meantime, especially in the West, has become a new religion or what most people believe they believe in, without understanding anything about it, and hence, when Institute of the Future (note how this sounds like Orwellian!), gave only half a year for the intellectual world to openly express its views on this most important issue: is it necessary to set an ethical threshold for technology?, so it was just accepted, such a short period of time for thinking about the human future, which has resulted in algorithms, including chatbotGTP, which has already turned into a tool/assistant for performing so many actions; it is only a matter of time before the assistant turns into a monstrous mentor with a memory that will no longer need anyone or anything to reign over the virtual reality where everything, in fact, takes place.
Taking over from Michel Foucault a very widespread mechanism of biopolitics and further elaborates it, Agamben was a fierce opponent of quarantine during the Covid-19 virus epidemic, a 73-hour curfew, the syntagm social distance, recognizing in everything the abuse of medical preventive measures in order to strengthen the state control apparatus, and despite the fact that the mortality rate in Italy was enormous, especially the city of Bergamo, the philosopher insisted on freedom and human dignity, even if the price was death.
But: it is precisely our faith in science, in conjunction with the police and the military, in medicine that is supposed to delay death by artificially extending human life, that has made us submit to everything and accept the reality of repression, isolation, lockdown, etc. This, however, is only possible because science and capitalism have coexisted so harmoniously for so long, in fact, in that sense, the progress of science that is not backed by the power of capital is truly unimaginable.
The claim of science, let us highlight it with emphasis biopower (biopower), is primarily the absolute establishment of rule over our lives, birth and death (we will address the relationship that exists between pharmacology and cosmetic surgery on another occasion), in short, it is about “life put in the service of power.” Developing, therefore, since the 17th century, the focus is on the human body and no less therefore the population, through and through scientific disciplines and political technologies. All the more so, the discipline and control established by technology is not only the organization of the life of a community, but what life itself seeks to limit.
What gives science an insurmountable advantage in the modern world is the success with which it ideologically imposes the modern dogma of medicine, which, in relation to life and its organic organization, presents itself and is accepted as a true caregiver not only of health, but also of the elimination of disease, of the very work on the future being without any inherited obstacles from nature, although, as they say, Georges Kangilem (book) Normal and pathological), a person does not die because he is sick, but because he is alive.
Bonus video:
