Understanding the Persistence of Illusion.

A major characteristic of the human animal is its demand for potency--the ability to shape everything to its own ends. Infants believe they have, or should have, total control over their environment and go berserk when they discover they do not. Manic adults, for a short time, believe they are in absolute control over everything in the universe, and the crash to reality is painful--but they often hate to take the medicine that can keep them on even keel. Anger arises in mostly futile attempts to force events to meet our demands. Anxiety is the awareness that dreadful things can happen without our ability to forestall them.

Much of childrearing is designed to help children understand their place in the universe. They are, after all, consummate egoists and need to learn that the universe is, ultimately, indifferent to their demands. We call it maturity. Still, the process is only marginally successful. Adults persist in their belief that they control something, that there is some important aspect of the universe that dances to their tune. Religion is the most common example of the control illusion--though astrology, pyramid power, and the huge number of magical solutions attest to the human animal's ability to conjure something out of nothing for personal comfort.

Any objective examination of reality leads to the sad conclusion that people are in control of very little. And in human relations, what appears like control is only covert cooperation. Faced with the truth, however, that events--good, neutral, or bad--occur without cosmic design, without our permission or even foreknowledge, most people might suffer despair. Irrational beliefs provide relief, so many people fight to hold onto them in the face of contrary evidence. A minister friend of mine, well educated and intelligent, believes devoutly that Earth was created 10,000 years ago. When I raised the issue of knowledge that points in another direction, he sighed and explained that this was God's test of faith and he would not change his belief.

What is the purpose of magic except to gain control over some aspect of the world? What is the purpose of religion if not to eliminate meaninglessness? Gods are created to give order to the universe and to grant our wishes. We reason that, if our ritual is correct, if we have lived proper lives, there is a chance that things will go our way and it is all, in a sense, under our control. With religion and magic, we don't seem so helpless; we have access to the core movers who might just grant our wishes. We are potent; we have nothing to fear. Even if we don't pray to have our wishes granted, the belief that there is a meaningful, unifying force in the universe protects us from the existential terror of an empty chaos.

So-called alternative therapy serves the same purpose. Being human, we tend to grind against and often bitterly resent the real limits of scientific medicine. Disability, chronic pain, and, worst of all, the persistent weakening inherent in the aging process are too likely for us all and barely treatable--and death always wins. How wonderful if we could rub a crystal or breathe the right aromas or drink homeopathic water and presto--our torments disappear. Or we can have the psychic surgeon reach into our quivering bodies to remove a malignant cancer. Nothing is impossible, and it is always easy--that's the beauty of it. Why worry about the money it costs?

Science arises from the same demand for potency. The more knowledge we gain, the more we are able to control our reality. Scientists can now destroy photons in one place and re-create them in another--an astonishing feat that presages "transporting" atoms, molecules, and perhaps everything. Here is potency beyond any except the most grandiose fantasies, but it is accessible by only a few who understand the seeming absurdities of quantum mechanics. We can dream that Earth is the center of the universe, or we can construe its insignificance in the cosmos, all the while continuing the infinite search for more knowledge to enhance our potency.

In the glorious and heady days of the Enlightenment, wise people thought that science would squeeze religion to the margin of human concerns. And, indeed, in its steady advance, science has challenged religious beliefs about the nature of the universe and has always triumphed. Optimistically, they anticipated the precedence of rational explanation in every aspect of life. But to the contrary, we see a greater emphasis today on magical solutions and religion. Contemporary society has become more accepting, even eager, for nonrational explanations of the world and events.

Why, in the face of logic and knowledge to the contrary, does our population turn increasingly to the supernatural and that huge variety of rituals called alternative therapies? The list of absurdities is long because they promise one thing above all: easy potency. When rational challenges are made to such absurdities, believers respond that science is not capable of examining the issue. They offer faith in place of evidence and become hostile when challenged. Praying, magic, and easy cures imply hope--a sense that there is a chance to force existence to meet our requirements. Furthermore, regardless of status, all people can invoke the supernatural; all can be part of some grand scheme that gives at least the illusion of control. Through intermediaries or directly, we invoke the massive powers of the supernatural and try to bend them to our ends.

With scientists ripping the illusions to shreds, however, that becomes harder. We are left aware of our impotence and must rely on the understandings of science--and the best that scientists can do is insist that all knowledge is tentative. From the glories of supernatural control, we are thus reduced to further insignificance with no surcease for our despair. We can find comfort only if we directly challenge science as merely a point of view--the equal of other ways of construing the universe. Notable countercultures have thus appeared for just this purpose. Some academics, some religious leaders, and many purveyors of mindless therapies have organized themselves in order to create a semblance of respectability. They then present their ideas as if equal in validity to the advance of knowledge. They find comfort in asserting that science is incapable of examining certain truths or any truth at all. Thus, with little effort they have created their preeminence and re-created the fantasy of potency.

Should we be surprised, then, that rational understandings are increasingly under attack? As knowledge expands, people become less capable of comprehending it. And science increasingly trivializes the thrust for personal potency. Though some can join the scientific community, that is really only for a few. Furthermore, as rational understandings increase their range, as science becomes more remote from common experience, belief in the supernatural and nonrational explanations must inevitably increase.

Is education the solution? Will well-educated citizenry understand and appreciate increasingly complicated explanations of reality? Not if we must keep fighting to keep creation "science" out of our schools. We had better understand that the struggle is inevitable and neverending. We need to get rid of the illusion that there can be a sea change such that the nonrational will be insignificant in our society. Then and only then can we come to accept the truth that eternal vigilance is the price of rationality.

Bertram Rothschild is a retired clinical psychologist.