Magic and Science are Soul-Mates & Siblings

On Subjectivism #2

Magic and Science are Soul-Mates and Siblings.  They’re a Match Set.  Birds of a feather.  Two of a kind and kindred spirits.  In fact, they’re twins.

Does this surprise you?  

Setting aside Arthur C. Clarke’s famous statement that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” how can I say that Magic and Science go together?

Doesn’t science deal with the real world?  It's based on repeatable, verifiable, peer-reviewed results from experiments guided by rigorous methods.  

Whereas Magic is… well, it’s nonsense.  Wish fulfillment.  It’s unproven and absurd.  Just talking about it ruins your credibility.  How can you say that Magic and Science are soul-mates?

In the Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis notes that, “There is something which unites magic and applied science.  (Applied science here means technology.)

For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue.  

For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.  

The solution is a technique.” 

Or technology.

Lewis is saying that Magic and Science are born from the same impulse—the desire to shape the outer world to our internal wishes.  We rejected Magic because it didn’t work.  Science does.  But the desire and the goal of both is the same.

And we love our technology.  Go to Amazon, click “Buy” and the doorbell rings.  Change the color of your light bulbs through an app on your phone—like your phone was a magic wand.  Change the look of your face through filters on your phone.  Curate your online personality.  Create your avatar for the metaverse.  

I believe that Science is a great gift to the world and thank God for it—especially Medicine.  But all this power could make us think that the whole world itself is Malleable, Moldable, Plastic.  And like a Magician, we can bend everything and anything at all to our will.  Only we use high tech given to us by market forces. 

But does this mean that everything can be shaped to our liking?  Everything can be changed to fit our inner impulses?  Is there no Reality above us to which we must conform?  

Is it all Subjective?