by <unknown>
As for some cheap tactics like "sell some NZT to make money" or "steal high voltage electricity to charge the USB drive", they were out of the question. He would not try those even if he was desperate.
[ol][li data-annotation-id="1c976812-071c-6c72-1e37-90edcca73e78"]A class of antibiotics that may be lethal if consumed after drinking alcohol. Chen Chen is teasing the drunk Zhou Jie[/ol]
Chapter 11: At the End of Science Lies Theology? |
Chen Chen did not know when he had fallen asleep. He only knew that he had been looking up all sorts of information on the internet to better combat challenges that might arise in the future.
The development of the internet had created a scenario of "information explosion". People now could easily acquire boundless knowledge on the internet.
Even so, few could convert this knowledge into actual wealth.
This was not a question of perseverance but the limitations of one's logical thinking and level of judgment.
The information on the internet was as vast as an ocean. This ocean of data was full of various rubbish and fake news. Anyone would need astonishing acumen to distinguish the good from the bad.
However, when a person with extraordinary judgment was bestowed with this knowledge, the internet ceased to become an obstacle.
On the contrary, they would be able to fully utilize the advantages of the internet.
It was in such a state that Chen Chen had browsed through various academic websites and forums.
While doing so, he had even picked up some hacking skills on his own, so that he could circumvent the restrictions and filters placed upon forum guests.
Chen Chen did not know what time he had fallen asleep.
It seemed to be after two in the morning. When the effects of the drug wore off, exhaustion engulfed him like a tide.
Chen Chen did not even have time to turn off the computer before he lay back and conked out.
Nonetheless, Chen Chen's sleep was not a restful one. The residual effects of the drug had excited his brain to an unusual degree and he suffered nightmares throughout the night.
"Oh no, we woke up late. It's Old Wang's class this morning!"
Through the fog of sleep, Wang Wei's anxious voice rang out by his bed. Chen Chen opened his eyes reflexively to find that it was early morning the next day.
Chen Chen sat up but was overcome by a wave of dizziness and a splitting headache.
He could not tell where the source of discomfort was. It was like a severe cold. He felt weak all over and his stomach was churning.
Before he could even speak, Chen Chen's expression shifted. He quickly covered his mouth, hopped off his bed, and rushed to the toilet.
"Barf!"
Retching noises echoed from the toilet. Wang Wei, Li Bo, and Zhou Jie exchanged a look.
"We didn't notice anything yesterday. Why is Lil Chen's reaction worse than Nostril's?"
Wang Wei stared at Zhou Jie who was hungover and asked, mystified.
"Is Lil Chen heartbroken too?" Zhou Jie scratched his disheveled head in a dispirited manner.
"I'll say! No wonder he's so poor he can only afford buns."
Li Bo shook his head, sighing. "He must've spent it all on his goddess. I've said before, lapdogs don't get a happy ending."
Fortunately, Chen Chen was busy puking and did not hear what they had said. Otherwise, he would have blown his top.
After a bout of vomiting, his stomach felt somewhat better.
Chen Chen rose and turned on the tap, splashing his face with no regard for its temperature.
The bone-cutting iciness hit him and he shuddered once. His wilting spirits immediately recovered.
"Thud thud thud."
Outside, Wang Wei knocked on the door. "Lil Chen, can you walk? Do you want to call in sick?"
Chen Chen opened the door, his face still dripping, and said weakly, "I'm fine. I might have the flu."
"So, you took cephalosporins, huh?" Zhou Jie asked.
"…"
'So he still can't get over that comment?'
Chen Chen could not be bothered to chit chat. After washing up, he went out of the toilet and put on his socks and shoes.
Wang Wei urged him on like a nagging mother. After all four of them hurriedly got ready, they went down together and dashed toward the canteen.
"Lil Chen, don't starve yourself if you're broke. I still have money left over this month and can lend you some."
At the canteen, Wang Wei recalled that Chen Chen had been eating buns yesterday. He patted Chen Chen's shoulder as he spoke.
"I still have enough for now. If I run out, I'll tell you."
Chen Chen waved his hand. He swiped his card, buying a cup of soy milk and two buns, which he ate as he walked toward the teaching block.
After downing a cup of hot soy milk, Chen Chen could feel himself coming alive. He exhaled loudly, creating a cloud of mist.
Winter solstice was coming…
Four of them tiptoed into the classroom. At the moment, the front seats had been taken. They could only look for seats in the back row.
"Alright, let's start the class."
Professor Wang Xi saw that the class was nearly full and began his lecture.
"Before we begin, let's talk about the relationship between theology and science."
Professor Wang Xi was different from the other professors. He seldom lectured according to the textbook. It was more likely for him to explore external topics to arouse the students' interest.
For instance, speculating about the origin of life or investigating immortality, and so on.
Currently, the old professor was chuckling as he paced. "First of all, who has heard of the saying, 'At the end of science lies theology'?"
Everyone below the platform was taken aback as they glanced around dubiously. Finally, almost all of them raised their hands hesitantly.
"Well, that's good. This means that everyone is rather concerned with science.
"In that case, let's examine this sentence, 'At the end of science lies theology', who said this, and what its arguments are."
Professor Wang Xi's expression turned solemn as he embarked on this topic.
"First of all, let me say that this line seems rather reasonable at first glance. On the internet, for example, people would often bring up how many scientists had studied theology in their last years.
"The quintessential figures are Newton, 'the father of early modern physics', and Einstein, 'the father of modern physics'.
"As the originator of Newtonian mechanics, Newton could be said to have spurred on the world's scientific progress by himself. As for Einstein, he's known as the greatest scientist of the twentieth century. Even so, why would these two titans of science end up studying theology?"
Professor Wang Xi put on an enigmatic expression and lowered his voice. "Did they discover some other secret that lies behind the science?"
Most people looked at each other in puzzlement after hearing this, unsure of what Professor Wang Xi was driving at.
"In the end, I stayed up all night researching, trying to find the answer to this question."
Professor Wang Xi made a face of mock relief and continued speaking.
"Everyone knows that Newton was born in 1643 AD. In that era, the whole of western society was governed by theocracy. After Newton was born, he received a theological education, which means that from the moment of his birth, he became a Catholic.
"That wasn't all. If you looked through Newton's life, you'll find that he spent most of his time searching for the code God used to create the universe. In his later years, he intensified his research into theology, trying to prove the existence of God.
"Out of Newton's whole life, 80% of his works were theological, numbering over 1.4 million.
"All this cannot be separated from the time and place he was in. In an age where religious influence pervaded the nation and unbelievers were persecuted, it's perhaps understandable that a physicist would be influe
nced by the idea of God."
There were soft titters around the room.
"Herein lies the crux of the matter. It wasn't that Newton only delved into theology late in his life. Rather, he had always been a theologian first, a scientist second."
Chapter 12: Science Does Not Have An End! |
Professor Wang Xi spread his hands. "As for how the internet claims that Einstein studied theology in his later years – well, that's even more baseless.
"Einstein had clearly stated on many occasions that he did not believe in any religion. You can check this on the internet. Before his death, he wrote a letter on religion and philosophy.
"In this letter, Einstein elaborated his lifelong view of God. Thus, later generations called this the God Letter!
"However, the word 'God' as used by Einstein did not refer to any religious god, but rather, 'Spinoza's God'– the physical laws of the world."
At this point, the professor's expression grew serious.
"It's not just Newton and Einstein. When I was online, I even found a survey circulating through the internet, something called a 'Gallup Poll'.
"The poll states that, out of the 300 most famous scientists over the past three centuries, other than 38 whose beliefs couldn't be ascertained, 242 of the remaining 262 believed in God. There were only 20 non-believers!
"I believe that anyone in this room who's been online would've heard of this poll. Nevertheless, when I reviewed the literature, I couldn't track down the source of this survey. This so-called Gallup Poll was a poll that no one has heard of in academia…
"Moreover, three centuries ago, modern science wasn't born yet. What we now consider to be modern science only has a history of more than a century. Why didn't this survey use a group of scientists over the past century as its sample, but instead took scientists from an ancient era 300 years ago?
"Forget about 300 years. Even just 200 years ago, the influence of religion was still tremendous. Even if some of those scientists were atheists, would they dare publicly declare their true beliefs in the repressive atmosphere of that time?"
Professor Wang Xi paced around as he spoke. Each of his refutations was greeted with utter silence.
"With this suspicion, I still couldn't locate that Gallup Poll. However, I found a contrary survey…
"This survey indicated that in 1914, among the members of the North American Academy of Sciences, 27% still believed in God. But in 1998, this percentage dropped to 7%. Surely this was a rather drastic decline?
"Of course, even if only 7% of those scientists believe in God, that's still a long list of names, heh heh…"
Professor Wang Xi chuckled softly. "I'm sure that some of you must be rather indignant by now, thinking 'You said that the first poll, which investigated the religious beliefs of scientists, is false, so how do you know if this other survey is true?'
"Still, I'm afraid that this survey is real!"
With that, Professor Wang Xi turned on the projector. A screenshot of a document appeared on the large screen.
"This paper was published on 23 July 1998, in one of the world's top scientific journals – Nature, page 313, volume 394. Its title is – Leading scientists still reject God!"
There was a burst of vigorous applause from the room.
"Thus, let's return to the original question."
Professor Wang Xi strutted a little. "'At the end of science lies theology'– since it's neither Einstein nor Newton who said this, who came up with it then? After plowing through plenty of scientific literature, I still couldn't find the answer.
"Therefore, I made a bold guess…"
Professor Wang Xi turned around with a grave expression. "This saying must've come from some enlightened netizen!"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The students erupted into laughter and many even clapped spontaneously once more.
"There are many similar rumors such as 'Scientists spend thousands of years to reach the mountain peak, only to find Buddhist scholars and theologians waiting for them' or 'Religion without science is blind, but science without religion is incapable of progress', and so on."
Professor Wang Xi was visibly fuming by now. "If you search for those keywords online, you'll find that the internet is full of such rumors. These rumormongers even fabricate various famous sayings that are rich with philosophy. And because these rumors are all 'positive', they would even be spread by authoritative websites to a frightening extent!
"Whereas the posts which refute these rumors are few and far in between, drowned in an endless deluge of rumors…"
After a sigh, Professor Wang Xi continued saying, "I don't deny that there are still many things in this world that modern science can't explain such as the 'soul'.
"I don't know if there are souls in this world, but even if there is, the soul is then merely an undiscovered 'lifeform' or 'natural phenomenon'.
"Modern science has no way of explaining the existence of the soul. This doesn't mean that the soul transcends science. It's only because science hasn't progressed far enough to define the principles of the soul's existence."
Professor Wang Xi laughed slightly. "I know some of you, after hearing all this, will advise me objectively – don't have 'blind faith' in science. I'd be puzzled, nonetheless – when dealing with science, is there such a thing as 'blind faith' or otherwise? You might as well treat science as a religion.
"I don't mean that everyone should antagonize religion. After all, religion is a system of belief. It puts every human and being in the hands of an almighty God. Although it has many flaws, it brought prosperity and stability to humans in an era of ignorance and primitiveness, providing fertile ground for the seed of science to be sown.
"Science is distinct from theology because it requires no faith. At the same time, it holds no opinions of its own; it directly uses empirical data and experiment results to prove itself.
"Our approach to science should be one that discards subjectivity and assumes objectivity because the results of an experiment will not be swayed by human opinions.
"Whether you believe it or not, like it or hate it, persist or relinquish, the results of scientific experiments remain right there!"
Professor Wang Xi's voice slowly rose in volume, brimming with power.
"Science isn't a religion. It's the operational law and the microscopic particle composition of this world. It's a way to describe this world by assembling the demonstrations and conclusions of countless experiments!
"It's a completely objective existence. Whether you've noticed it or not, it has always been there, ever immutable!"
The applause below the platform grew louder. Innumerable students stood up, applauding earnestly.
In the professor, they saw the figures of those scientific predecessors who had dedicated their lives without hesitation to preserve the truth.
Ascoli, who first discovered that the Earth was spherical; Copernicus, who stood firm on his heliocentric theory; Servetus, who figured out pulmonary circulation; and Galileo, the pioneer of modern experimental science…
In that instant, everyone had a flash of insight.
Theology did not lie at the end of science, because…
Science did not have an end!
[ol][li data-annotation-id="8a8d9470-10e8-f84c-66bd-acb126d17e64"]Author might be mistaken here. This first realization is usually attributed to Pythagoras, Plato or Aristotle.[/ol]
Chapter 13: Establishing the Plan |
Professor Wang Xi's lecture had ignited the indefatigable spirit of every student present.
Even Chen Chen was stirred up by this.
Theology and science were two opposites. One existed within the thoughts and faith of people while the other was the objective law of the world.
One was abstract, the other was concrete.
Even so, as times changed, religion was undergoing constant development and decline too.
Chen Chen, who possessed the USB drive, understood this very well.
After all, over the past few days, he had experienced the mystical USB drive which could instantiate various items from movies, despite being unable to accommodate movies with fantastical elements.
However…
Chen Chen suddenly frowned. He was reminded of an unsettling fact.
If movies with fantastical elements could not be placed into the USB drive, what about horror movies that were already there – how were they transferred into the drive?
"Don't tell me that…"
Chen Chen's pupils suddenly narrowed.
At this moment, he felt his blood run cold. A chill traveled up his spine straight to his scalp, making his head numb!
"They could be placed into the USB drive – doesn't that mean that the ghosts in those horror movies could exist in this world?"
It was terrifying to consider…
In that case, was Professor Wang Xi right? Their existence did not mean that they were beyond the boundaries of science. Rather, modern science was not developed enough to obtain proof of their existence.
'This won't do. I'll have to find a way to delete those movies from the USB drive…'
Chen Chen thought to himself. If he did not delete those horror movies, he would not be able to get a good night's sleep in the future.
It took him great willpower to hold on until the end of the class. Chen Chen felt like he had transcended this physical plane. Forcing his powerless limbs to move, he returned to the dorm in exhaustion, packed his laptop, and hurried to the library.
One could only borrow books in the library. He would still need his laptop to study and compare academic papers.
Having experienced the miraculous effects of NZT-48, Chen Chen felt more assured. If he was not worried about his brain exploding, it was fully possible for him to stuff hundreds of textbooks or thousands of academic papers into his head within a month.
Moreover, this kind of "stuffing" was not rote memorization but a comprehensive, integrated understanding.
It was even not an exaggeration to say that he could complete his studies on core classes throughout his entire university course in a week!
