If we do not attempt
the perilous journey into the infinite, fraught as it is with
unknown dangers of which nightmares are made, we could well end up
with a civilization devoted to the worship of the unknowable. And
that would be of the utmost danger to each and every one of us, for
it could spell the end of our culture as we know it, and even of
the human race itself.
We can appreciate
this better if we look at past civilizations which flourished on
earth for a limited period and then decayed away. For example, the
Sumerian, Egyptian and Aztec cultures all persisted for many
centuries. They reached great heights in the arts and practical
sciences, yet in none of them did the understanding of the world
around them advance very far. For over two millennia the Sumerian
civilization, for example, was the cradle of culture in the Middle
East, and developed advanced legal and agricultural systems. Yet
the complete dependence of the Sumerians on the Gods of the temple
and of nature caused blinkers to be put over men's eyes. Their
whole lives were guided by the signs and omens of the Gods. The
security and tranquillity afforded by the advanced society of
Sumeria was not sufficient to allow its inhabitants to develop
sufficient control over the forces of nature to withstand the
onslaughts of neighbouring, less developed, societies. While the
Sumerians, worried if the omens of the Gods were propitious the
uncaring barbarians, raped and pillaged their cities and destroyed
their civilization.
A similar situation
arose for the Aztecs. They had developed a correct calendar, a
system of counting which included zero and high architectural and
artistic skill. Theirs was an urbanized society, with the city of
Tenochtillan containing over three hundred thousand people at the
time of the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. Yet their
lives were also dominated by ritual and worship of their Gods. This
undoubtedly had a highly debilitating effect on the culture.
Despite a strongly militaristic society the Aztecs were finally
dominated by a band of about five hundred armoured Spaniards led by
Hernan Cortes. The Aztecs were to a certain extent destroyed by
their own religion, since they initially accepted Cortes with open
arms as their white God, Quetzalcoatl, making a prophesized
return.