science, religion, metaphor, and history 121rial explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how
mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute,
for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.^20Since there are no scientific means by which materialist reductionists can
possibly know that there is no direction or plan, such statements violate a
fundamental principle of science itself: science is based upon testable hypoth-
eses; a good hypothesis is one that can be disproved or proved. No a priori
assumptions qualify as arguments “Materialism itself is an idea, just as im-
material as any other.”^21 If no idea is better than any other idea because they
all proceed from purposeless neural interactions, then the idea of reductionism
itself is no better than that of astrology.
Reduction of all ideas to neural impulses means that no moral or ethical
concept is better than any other. If no behavior is better than another, why
bother about whales and rainforests? What is wrong with raping children or
genocide? What is wrong with faking scientific evidence? Appeals to “good
sense,” “right-mindedness,” and “you can’t thinkthat” are simply evasions of
the basic principles of reductionist thought. According to E. O. Wilson, we need
the “illusion of free will” as biologically adaptive; we need the “self-deception”
of altruism.^22 But what possible good—moral, intellectual, or evolutionary—
can come from belief in free will and cosmos if they are illusions and lies?
The Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) is admirable for his refusal to flinch
from the implications of relativism.^23 He recognized that flinching was either
political evasion or an indication that relativists did not believe their own proc-
lamations. In an intrinsically relative, valueless world, Sade argued, the only
sensible thing is to seek personal pleasure. If you enjoy torture, fine. If others
do not enjoy it, fine, but they have no business imposing their views on you.
Why should not a child molester be free to rape and torture his victims? The
response that one person should not impose his desires on an unwilling victim,
Sade pointed out, is itself a relative assumption without basis.
Metaphor and HealingThe history of concepts recounts how cosmos has been rent. Metaphor is an
important instrument in the healing of cosmos. The importance of metaphor
is that it expands and extends worldviews. The Greek rootmetaphoreinhas the
sense of transfer of qualities by an identification of two unlike things, but there
is no universally agreed meaning to the word “metaphor.”^24 I define metaphor
as the transfer of meaning from one statement or image to another. Metaphors
can point to realities that elude literal, overt vocabulary. Metaphor should not
be denied cognitive status: in fact, cognition itself is expanded by metaphor;
as metaphor is multidimensional, metaphor adds meaning. Metaphor “is a