By Ted Horwitz
The Perspective article by Roger Churnside – The Bright Side of Magic and Witchcraft (TT, Perspective, Oct. 8) – argued that the Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) should go slow on calling for legislation that would curb activities involving “witchcraft.” Apparently people are being swindled by practitioners of such dark arts as witchcraft, sorcery and spells and OIJ wants to have the legal backing to stop these con artists. While Professor Churnside “agree(s) that this problem should be looked into” he then claims that “As a scientist and humanist, I do not discard knowledge and practices of magic out of hand.” The rest of his article goes on to review two books and cites two thinkers as a way to back up his argument.
While he may have meant it as an academic exercise, Professor Churnside’s perspective is surprising and a bit disconcerting coming from a professor emeritus at the University of Costa Rica as well as an Anglican-Episcopal minister. When a number of U.S. school districts are debating the teaching of intelligent design as a legitimate alternative to evolutionary theory and a poll in 2007 found that 62 percent of U.S. citizens say they believe in the devil, it is important for educated people to take their arguments seriously.
The truth is that there is no place for magic in the modern world. I am not talking about the incredible illusions of magicians like Penn and Teller or Chris Angel or the wondrous feats of Houdini. Nor am I referring to the magical feeling of a starry night or the love one feels for a significant other. I am referring to the age-old superstitious belief in incantations or charms or spells thought to have supernatural power over natural forces. There simply is no scientific evidence proving that such things actually work or have ever worked.
For most of human history, mankind has had little understanding and even less control over the natural forces around him. Volcanoes, earthquakes, lightning – events which we understand today to be caused by shifts in the earth’s crust or by electrical discharges in certain cloud formations – were once thought to be evidence of angry gods. It took many generations of thinkers to put aside superstition and develop an objective method of observation – one based on hypothesis, experimentation and measurements as well as logic, reason and mathematics – to arrive at this understanding. Today, we refer to this way of thinking as the scientific method, and it has been the hallmark of mankind’s success in his understanding of the natural world. But this was not always the case, for other widespread assumptions were simply taken at face value, including the following:
The sun, moon and stars are eternal and were set in the sky by supernatural forces. (We now have evidence that the sun and earth were formed from interstellar dust and gravitational forces about 4.5 billion years ago.)
Human beings spontaneously appeared in their current form. (We now have evidence that humans, like all living creatures, evolved from common ancestors.)
Disease in someone’s body is a sign that the devil or “evil eye” has got a hold of him. (Modern medicine has taught us that many diseases are caused by bacteria or viruses.)
It is not easy to grasp some of the concepts of modern science – Darwin himself struggled for years before he wrote his seminal work “On the Origin of Species.” But since its publication in 1859, natural selection has, through fossil, geological, anatomical and molecular analysis, been shown to be the best framework to understand how species differentiate themselves.
Since the ancient Greeks, great thinkers have built upon each other’s hard work to advance humanity’s understanding of how the natural world operates. Euclid developed geometry, Aristotle Natural Philosophy and Eratosthenes accurately figured the circumference of the earth and moon. This allowed Anaxagoras and Aristarchus (love these Greek names) to deduce the size of the sun and its approximate distance from Earth. Generations of scientists, often in the face of religious persecution, uncovered the physical and chemical laws that govern the natural world.
Is there a place for myth in modern Costa Rican society? Absolutely. My Tica girlfriend tells me about “La Mica” a wild monkey with the face and upper body of a woman who apparently can only been seen at night in the forest, “La Segua” a beautiful woman who in times of old would ask for ride and turn her face into a horrible horse and “La Mano Peluda” – my favorite – a detached hairy black hand that lives under people’s beds and grabs you when you least expect it. Frankly, I love hearing these stories and thinking about the purposes that they might have been used for.
Witches, sorcery, ghosts, voodoo, zombies, vampires and magic do indeed have a place in Costa Rica and come Oct. 31 I too will be dressed up as one making my way between parties in San José. But on Nov. 1, like most realistic people, I’ll put away my costume and stick to using reason and science to understand the natural world. I encourage OIJ in their efforts to do the same.
Ted Horwitz graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in history and concentration in the history of science. He moved to Costa Rica in 2005 and founded Off Road Costa Rica, a 4x4 tour operator based in Tamarindo where he emphasizes teaching his clients about the flora, fauna and biological diversity of his adopted country. He can be reached at tedhorwitz@gmail.com
