It was one thing to look at the sky and see the lightning and make up stories about gods who threw spears four thousand years ago. There was no technology to dispute it. Were there some people who wondered about how flashes occurred and what relation they had with the rumbling thunder and the exhileration they felt during a storm? More than likely. They had no words for it and no communication tools with which to report it.

There is evidence that people on opposite sides of the earth or in separate countries come up with similar ideas. And that's a good thing. That's how scientific theories are developed and improved upon. Alfred Russel Wallace studying animal life, for example, in the Dutch East Indies in 1854, found that animals north of a certain area had the characteristics of those found in China and Siam. Animals to the south were inhabited by marsupials like those in Australia. With careful documentation he took his findings to England and compared his ideas with Darwin who was puzzling over evolution. But Wallace was more curious about how the differences came about and looked to geography. Did the lands move to bring about those differences? What he surmised and picked at like the pocketed mammals route out their fleas, he suspected parts of the earth moved independently. Not until technology to measure earth movements and compare minerals had developed, was it possible to verify that, indeed, the earth's crust was in pieces and moved. From that eventually grew the science of plate techtonics.

Consider the geology of the Columbia Basin shaped by catastropic floods 16,000 years ago. Thomas Condon, a pioneer geologist, postulated a "Willamette Sound" in 1871. J. Harlen Bretz recognized the effects of tremendous deluges of almost inconceivable force and dimensions probably brought out the present configuration of our area. Interpretation of the complicated geologic events took considerable imagination and the resulting picture was not one that fellow geologists wanted to hear. Technology had to be developed to verify Bretz hypothesis, and eventually it was.

Geology fascinates me at the moment with the disaster of the earthquake in Sumatra but technology is needed to verify every scientific hypothesis. Only after high speed photography of bird flight were airplane engineers able to figure out how to sculpture and manipulate a form to get tons of steel into the air and propelled for thousands of miles.

The point I want to make is that science brings out the reality beyond magic. The truth of flight feathers or of violent forces underground or of refracted light in a rainbow is far more awesome than angels and unicorns.

We can dream of fantastical things like a Father looking out for us or of seeing dead family and friends after we die, but they are just dreams. No one really looks after us but ourselves. There is no afterlife. We best love and be happy by living this life to the best of our ability in whatever role we decide fits us.

Naomi Sherer