Religion and Science

The one thing that stood out to me in this book was Vonnegut’s lack of “siding” with one side over the other. He gives us the extreme and lets the reader decide where their beliefs and morals lay. The most evident of this is Bokonism. Bokonism is described as a catalyst to uniting the people of San Lorenzo because when you force a belief, or the lack of belief, people rebel and in that rebellion, they unite. Bokonon and McCabe knew this and that’s why they outlaw Bokonism in San Lorenzo. This reminds me of the Catholic vs. Protestant debacle in 16^th century England. The Catholics tried to squash Protestantism but they couldn’t because you can’t stop a metaphysical action, such as faith, you can only make it stronger. Religion is a funny thing because it can be the answer to somebody’s salvation while also being the utter ruin of somebody’s existence. Religion has saved people from despair and also been the reason for hundreds of wars and blood-shed; same can be said for science. Both science and religion can be beautiful factions of human progress and happiness, but if it’s left in the hands of evil they can be the worse weapons humans possess. I think this duality is one of the things Vonnegut was drawing on. His scientists are unsympathetic and void of human compassion so they create things like the atomic bomb without any thought or care of the consequences should they end up in the wrong hands; and it did and it killed thousands of innocent people. Religion has been used to torture, oppress, and destroy human life while claiming to save in the name of God. At “Papa” Monzano’s deathbed he asks for the Bokonist’s last rites to be read to him because he states, “I agree with one Bokononist idea. I agree that all religions, including Bokononism, are nothing but lies” (148). And he’s right, but I don’t think it’s meant to be negative. I think he means that religion is faith-based, but people act like it’s based on proven fact, like it’s a scientific truth, which completely degrades the whole point of religion. In the next sentence he says, “I am a very bad scientist. I will do anything to make a human being feel better, even if it’s unscientific” (148). Science lacks the humanity that religion possesses in spades. As we discussed in the Picasso at the Lapin Agile, science and religion/art should not be at war with each other. They should not compete, but instead work together for the betterment of mankind.