Consecrating Science: A look into the speculative merits of David Suzuki’s The Sacred Balance
The Sacred Balance talks on humanity’s place in the natural world. What makes it dissimilar in most documentaries is its inclination towards not confining the natural world into the realm of the sciences – the technical and methodological side of it. It further dwells into the mystical and spiritual side of the natural world — something that can be accessed not solely by the scientific approach, but also through the realm of imaginative thinking.
The gist of the documentary revolves on the primary law of ecology: the inter-relatedness of everything. It further crossed the dense boundaries of science, religion, and arts. David Suzuki deliberately used the term “sacred” all throughout the documentary to imply that there are aspects in the natural world that is inherently of holiness and reverence. He even stated that for scientists, this thinking may be seen as nonsensical and ludicrous, for it defies that attitude of science that is inclined into logical and rational thinking – something that does not cover the idea of “holiness” and “divinity” of things.
This further leads to the discussion of reductionism. Science is reductionist by nature; it is a method of gaining insights in which everything is reduced into “bits” and “pieces”. While this approach is necessary since knowledge is not always holistic, partly this can be blamed for it is partly because of this approach that humanity has overlooked the larger picture of things. Science took us further out into the space and deeper into the cells, and because of this, the idea that there is a larger picture wherein everything is connected has been somehow overlooked. Suzuki said he used to see a fruitfly as just a bug of genes to work on, and failed to see it as a creature of beauty and awe, the way he did when he was a kid. Science – molecular biology for this matter – had reduced us into cells and genes, in the truest sense, and with this, we have somehow forgotten our admiration and wonder on nature, and that we belong to the natural world.
The documentary also highlights the thought that viewing the natural world is not confined to the “scientific” approach, for the nature also covers issues that are profoundly social. In the film, we see the different approaches of viewing the world – some culture dance their stories and myths; some do re-enactments on cultural celebrations; some through representational visual art. Here, we see art as a reflection of the different cultures, and these differences in how we perceive the world determines how we live it. This cultural determinism further shows the social aspect of our worldview – and culture is something that can not be accessed by the scientific line of reasoning alone.
Moreover, another “spiritual” approach of perceiving the world is the Gaia view of the planet as one living entity, wherein it is made up of the elements earth, water, air, and fire which maintain the cycle of life. This may be seen as a subject of ridicule by scientists, even though it has foundations of science but still, it is deeply rooted on human tradition. As depicted by the documentary, all throughout the world we see how different cultures see the significance of these elements in human life. The Hindus see divinity in water; the Aborigines of Australia see themselves as the keepers of the sacred fire. The Gaia view claims that we all come from the four “sacred” elements, and we are simply going back to it. We do not lose the idea of “us” when we die; we are just re-lived in other forms in nature. Thus, as we see a flower, a stream, a tree, we see “us” – just in another form. These attitudes, these perspectives are profoundly “spiritual” and not leaning to science’s partiality towards rationality and logic.
Here, we see a different way of viewing the natural world. The Sacred Balance shows that while there is of course the significance of the scientific approach on explaining the natural world, there are still aspects in it that are, in the words of David Suzuki, “worthy of respect and reverence”. Thus, nature is not just reducing life and life forms into mere cells, genes, and DNA sequences. Reductionism is such an effective approach of understanding things, but to use it as a philosophy of life leads us to overlook that in the wider perspective, there are aspects in life that are “sacred”.
Episode 1: Journey Into New Worlds of The Sacred Balance started with David Suzuki and his grandson maneuvering into the world of virtual reality in arcades. The same applies in the documentary, wherein a different perspective of realty and the natural world is being presented. Science taught us of the solar energy, carbon cycles, hydrogen bonds, and the atmosphere. But going outside the realm of the natural sciences, we would take notice that reality is still social- and culture-based. There are “sacred” and “spiritual” notions that can not be accessed by scientific approach alone, but with a touch of imaginative, speculative, and “spiritual” thinking. Thus, the irony is akin to consecrating and “holy-ing” science.
