Contact - Carl Sagan [68]
Communicating still more directly to her at this moment was the Reverend Billy Jo Rankin. She had not known until the last moment that Joss had invited Rankin, and she was surprised at the news. There had been continuous theological disputation between them, on whether and Advent was at hand, whether Doomsday is a necessary accompaniment of the Advent, and on the role of miracles in the ministry, among other matters. But they had recently effected a widely publicized reconciliation, done, it was said, for the common good of the fundamentalist community in America. The signs of rapprochement between the United States and the Soviet Union were having worldwide ramifications in the arbitration of disputes. Holding the meeting here was perhaps part of the price Palmer Joss had to pay for the reconciliation. Conceivably, Rankin felt the exhibits would provide factual support for his position, were there any scientific points in dispute. Now, two hours into their discussion, Rankin was still alternately castigating and imploring. His suit was immaculately tailored, his nails freshly manicured, and his beaming smile stood in some contrast to Joss's rumpled, distracted, and more weather-beaten appearance. Joss, the faintest of smiles on his face, had his eyes half closed and his head bowed in what seemed very close to an attitude of prayer. He had not had to say much. Rankin's remarks so far-except for the Rapture rap, she guessed-were doctrinally indistinguishable from Joss's television address.
"You scientists are so shy," Rankin was saying. "You love to hide your light under a bushel basket. You'd never guess what's in those articles from the titles. Einstein's first work on the Theory of Relativity was called `The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.' No E=mc2 up front. No sir. `The Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.' I suppose if God appeared to a whole gaggle of scientists, maybe at one of those big Association meetings, they'd write something all about it and call it, maybe, `On Spontaneous Dendritoform Combustion in Air.' They'd have lots of equations; they'd talk about `economy of hypothesis'; but they'd never say a word about God.
"Y'see, you scientists are too skeptical." From the sidewise motion of his head, Ellie deduced that der Heer was also included in this assessment. "You question everything, or try to. You never heard about `Leave well enough alone,' or `If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' You always want to check out if a thing is what you call `true.' And `true' means only empirical, sense data, things you can see and touch. There's no room for inspiration or revelation in your world. Right from the beginning you rule out of court almost everything religion is about. I mistrust the scientists because the scientists mistrust everything."
Despite herself, she thought Rankin had put his case well. And he was supposed to be the dumb one among the modern video evangelists. No, not dumb, she corrected herself; he was the one who considered his parishioners dumb. He could, for all she knew, be very smart indeed. Should she respond at all? Both der Heer and the local museum people were recording the discussion, and although both groups had agreed that the recordings were not for public use, she worried about embarrassing the project or the President if she spoke her mind, but Rankin's remarks had become increasingly outrageous, and no interventions were being made either by der Heer or by Joss.
"I suppose you want a reply," she found herself saying. "There isn't an `official' scientific position on any of these questions, and I can't pretend to talk for all scientists or even for the Argus Project.