The First Indispensible Steps

In nearly every field of thought, they (the Greeks) took the first indispensible steps. The statement means more than is apparent on the surface.
- Edith Hamilton, "The Greek Way"

It was amazing to me to read about everything that the Greeks discovered, so many things that I thought were only known to modern man, were discovered previously by them, and then forgotten! Ignored! We saw a light and then were plunged back into darkness. Such a tragedy.

Here is another passage that blew my mind. I was talking about this one for days after I read it...


In the world of antiquity, those who practiced the healing art were magicians, priests versed in special magical rites... The Greeks called their healers physicians, which means those versed in the ways of nature. Her in brief is an exemplification of the whole trend of the Greek mind, its swing from antiquity and toward modernity. To be versed in the ways of nature means that a man has observed outside facts and reasoned about them. He has used his powers not to escape from the world but to think himself more deeply into it. To the Greeks, the outside world was real and something more, it was interesting. They looked at it attentively and their minds worked upon what they saw. This is essentially the scientific method. The Greeks were the first scientists and all science goes back to them.
In nearly every field of thought "they took the first indispensible steps". The statement means more than is apparent on the surface. The reason that antiquity did not give birth to science was not only because fact tended to grow more and more unreal and unimportant. There was an even more cognent cause; the ancient world was a place of fear. Magical forces ruled it and magic is absolutely terrifying because it is absolutely incalculable. The minds of those who might have been scientists had been held fast-bound in the prison of that terror. Nothing of all the Greeks did is more astonishing than their daring to look it in the face and use their minds about it. They dared nothing less than to throw the light of reason upon dreadful powers taken completely on trust everywhere else, and by the exercise of the intelligence to banish them. Galileo, the humanists of the Renaissance, are glorified for the courage in venturing beyond the limits set by a power that could damn their souls eternally, and in demanding to know for themselves what the universe was like. No doubt it was high courage, great and admirable, but it was altogether beneath that shown by the Greeks. The humanists ventured upon the fearful ocean of free thought under guidance. The Greeks had preceded them there. They chanced that great adventure all alone.
- pg. 32

Even now, I live in that fear. I was raised to avoid the world. The world was a bad and evil place. I am disobeying God by having any interest in it. It makes no sense to a secular mind, anyone raised outside of a hyper religious family. But there are a lot less secular minds out there than the internet would have you believe. There's a lot more of us than of them. So much tragedy has happened to my family, to many families, and they've used rosaries and scapulars and prayers and songs and fasting and many other things to feel like they have some control over it all, or they would say that they've given God some control over it all, that they've persuaded him towards mercy. Isn't God, by His very nature, merciful? But what of all the problems my family faces? And what happens to me when I should face tragedy? Sure, my life is good now, they'd say, but what happens when all that goes away? And it's not an "if" with them, it's a "when". Surely then, all this foolish talk about science and logic and a denial of magical or supernatural forces that control everything and everyone, surely that will all shrivel up and die, won't it? And then you'll be ashamed of this blog, ashamed that you wasted your time on the Greeks, ashamed that you were stupid enough to put your hope in the faith that there's a reason and order in God's plan instead of just realizing that we will always be in the dark, we'll always be Job. It's best to tremble in shadows, to gain all one's pleasure from spiritual ecstasy instead of wallowing in the filth of a dying world.

My parents, my mother in particular, things have happened to them that are beyond understanding. Of course, they would feel the way that they do. But it's no way to live. Edith
Hamilton called the superstitious mind "the way of the East" and the rational mind "the way of the West". She would say that they are at war in my soul. I think they are at war in many people's souls. I have to believe in a God who loves us, who wants the best for us, but the body rebels, wars happen, people are unkind, jobs are lost. God takes our lemons and makes lemonade, but it's not magic, and it cannot be controlled by magical means. It's not magic, it's mercy. Isn't it said to be better to light one candle and SEE the truth than to sit and cower in the darkness. But maybe the truth is ugly. Maybe it is best to just turn out the lights....