Carl Sagan, a Jewish Reply Professor Gansa's Dream, or Science as a Naked
Lightbulb: a Jewish reply to Carl Sagan's Demon-haunted World: Science as a
Candle in the Dark. See also REVIEW from Intermountain Jewish News REVIEW from San Diego Jewish Press Heritage
A DREAMY DISCOURSE ON SCIENCE AND FAITH At one level, Peter Gimpel's new book and epic poem Professor Gansa's Dream is an effort to deconstruct and repudiate -- from a devoutly Jewish perspective -- many of the positions taken by the late physicist and popularizer-of-science, Carl Sagan. But the book is both more and less than that. Much less. And much more. Gimpel, whose reputation in Jewish versification received praise from no less than Isaac Bashevis Singer, was once described by my father -- Heritage founder Herb Brin -- as "a major Jewish poet in our midst." So any new book by this erudite and imaginative Southern California writer seems worth perusal. Indeed, the nifty little Professor Gansa's Dream catches your attention at many levels. For example, the interplay with clever illustrations drawn by Gerry McGuinness, with a counterpoint of annotations to explain terms that may seem obscure to the more secular among us. Above all, the sheer, effervescent joy of Gimpel's Yiddish-influenced rhythms and the sometimes wacky cleverness of his rhyming patterns can make Gimpel, at times, seem inspired. Even otherworldly. Which comes as little surprise, since Gimpel's concerns are cosmic, daring, theological. And personal. His rebuke of Carl Sagan -- especially the astronomer's book The Demon Haunted World -- is not that Sagan wants to explore beyond the mundane. Gimpel shares that drive, common among Jewish intellectuals. No, his gripe is that Sagan the explorer and explainer seems to have forgotten where he came from. Professor Gansa, Sagan's fictional counterpart in Professor Gansa's Dream, goes on an epic journey worthy of Dante (with Karl Marx playing Virgil, no less!) into an afterlife redolent of Talmudic and Mishnaic imagery. Finally, through repentance, Professor Gansa comes to appreciate his own roots as a Jew. Well, well. I knew Sagan only slightly. But his life was spent seeking attention, so he surely realized that authors like Gimpel would pursue him, continuing every argument beyond the grave. Nor is this intrinsically unfair. A book is the author's lingering presence, quasi-immortal, continuing to interact with those who follow. So I have no problem with Gimpel's attempted riposte, skewering Sagan's tendency toward self-importance, as well as his knack at sometimes pretending to know more about a subject than experts who had studied it for years. (I am hardly one to hurl stones over that trait!) On the other hand, although my present vocation is authorial -- sometimes of nonfiction but mostly of novels that lean a bit cosmic, poetical, with occasional hints of theology -- I was nevertheless trained as a scientist. As an astronomer. Moreover the core argument of Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is one that I share. I concur with Sagan that science is far more than a collection of pragmatic techniques. It is a new and far better way of seeing and knowing the world -- two activities that have long riveted Jews. But Gimpel knew all this when he sent me his book, and still wanted a review. So let's weigh in. The poet does not care much about Sagan's gosh-wow love of the cosmos. What he deeply resents about the late astronomer-popularizer was his outright rejection of religion, and especially his own Jewish background. Worse, he accuses Sagan of going out of his way to malign the people of his birth. It's a matter of interpretation. Yes, Sagan's portrayal of early Israelite warfare -- the slaughter of the Canaanites -- was unbalanced and unfair. Jewish theology matured over thousands of years, becoming far more inclusive under Hillel and Isaiah. That inclusiveness made Jews the first people to preach kindness to strangers and to call genocidal warfare wrong, a progression that makes Sagan's portrayal, while true, also irrelevant. But Gimpel's objection is also bit parochial and touchy. When Sagan attacks all 'superstition', Gimpel takes it as a direct swipe at Judaism. When Sagan groups together Christianity, Islam and Judaism in a common tradition, Gimpel derides this in his after-notes, calling it an insult to combine Jews with their persecutors. My biggest problem with Gimpel's book is that he crafts a dream that he would love to impose on Sagan, rather than something that Sagan might actually dream himself, given his background and beliefs. There is nothing giving voice to the central passions of his life -- the beauty of uncertainty and doubt. The courage of questioning everything. The interactive joy of reciprocal criticism as colleagues help build a model of how the universe works. Nor the power of science to repudiate bigotry, opening an age when you can write books without being burned. Gimpel might have tried to portray these things Sagan loved... while at the same time using the poetical method of a dream to pry scientific eyes even wider, opening them to other things. If this had been my task, I'd have used the metaphor of the Creator's Workshop. Einstein said that the laws of nature were laid out almost like a textbook, as if designed to be discovered in wonderful steps by eager students. Sagan is like a young apprentice, excitedly poring over blueprints after having snuck into the Master's lab (the door had been left unlocked.) Ah, but a somewhat rude and disrespectful student. Einstein avowed that the blueprints must have been drawn by somebody and left there deliberately. Sagan seems to be saying they drew themselves. Despite this disagreement, it can be argued that both of these scientific archetypes, the devout Einstein and the atheist Sagan, are doing something holy. The Workshop is all about apprentices learning the Master's very tools of creation - and it is good. Gimpel cannot acknowledge this, because to him all theological legitimacy lies in the past. In Torah, in Talmud, in the arguments and rulings and mystical promises of great sages. Science is nice, but something lower, at the level of artisans. It's not on a plane with the studious work done by Yeshiva boys. Yes, it is irritating to see sons of Jews - Marx, Freud, Feynman, Sagan - ignore the obvious fact that they inherited great mental gifts down the line of a people and a tradition that they then proceed to spurn. On the other hand, it is their very tendency to provoke, question and argue that I find most appealingly Jewish about them! We are the only people I know, whose sages tell stories about G-d's delight at being "defeated" in intellectual argument by His children. We raise smartalecks, wise-guys, questioners. Nu? So teach 'em some courtesy and respect. But keep questioning. Lest there be any confusion, let me say that I really do like Peter Gimpel's book! I laughed out loud and learned a thing or two! My disagreements arise out of the delight at disputation that has become a favorite Jewish Passtime. I urge people to buy both Gimpel's book and Sagan's, and argue to their hearts' content. But returning to the core matter, theologically speaking, I must say that the strongest case is manifest in the differing levels of success achieved by the grandsons of rabbis who continued to study Talmud, and those grandsons of rabbis who changed "majors" in order to study science. The latter are being rewarded with genuine grace, power, glory and insight into the fabric of the cosmos. By one way of interpreting it, the Creator is allowing them to unroll His blueprints and publish the plans on the internet! Theologically speaking, can this possibly have happened without permission? In other words, if you are a believer, you must conclude that science is education. It is work appropriate for children rising into their own. It's revelation. Hey, I'm making speculative conversation here. I do not claim that this interpretation is true. Only that it is interestingly relevant and applicable to men like Carl Sagan, whose occasional lapses into high-priestlike arrogance are typical of intellectual pioneers -- or prophets -- in any era. Those preening lapses deserve critical skewering, as Peter Gimpel does deliciously in rolling, hilarious verse. Still, even if Sagan spurned his roots, we can take what he offers us, picking and choosing in the manner that we are trained to do by our persnickety intellectual tradition. One that encourages questions, always questions. And this is what Peter Gimpel does, in his own quirky way. *** David Brin, Ph.D. is an essayist and a bestselling author of science fiction novels, including The Postman, Startide Rising, and Kiln People. He also travels internationally, advising government and private-sector agencies on scientific and social policy. He lives in Encinitas with his wife Cheryl, a geologist and science educator, and their three children. |
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Professor Gansa's Dream, or Science as a Naked
Lightbulb: a Jewish reply to Carl Sagan's Demon-haunted World: Science as a
Candle in the Dark. |
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