Garcia, Abegail G.

Talaran, Jhona C.
CBET-01-302P
“The Magician’s Twin”

When we talk about science, it obviously states that it has enough evidence to

support a claim. Now, you might be wondering why science or scientist(s) is called “the

magician’s twin” when magic is not supported with any evidence, right? According to

Lewis, science is supposed to be the realm of the rational, the skeptical, and the objective.

Whereas, magic is supposed to be the domain of the dogmatic, the credulous, and the

superstitious. Thinking about that, the definition of science and magic are different or

contrasting with each other. However, Lewis stated that the serious magical endeavor

and the serious scientific endeavor are twins and this is supported by three significant

claims: science as religion, as credulity, and as power.

According to Lewis, Modern Science can offer a similarly powerful alternative to

traditional religion. Religion is the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling

power, especially a personal God or Gods. To make it simple, religion talks about a

person’s faith in God. In a biblical way of thinking, it is easier to understand that God

created the universe through his power which is understood to be magic but there are

several scientists who formulated a claim in contrary to the biblical teachings. One of them

is Michael Dowd who believed that God is simply a myth. According to him, God is not a

person. Instead, He is a personification of one or more deeply significant dimensions of

reality. Hence, all the things that we see in the universe is what matter has done and not

God. Another scientist is Phillip Johnson who stated; “in the beginning were the particles.

And the particles somehow become complex living stuff. And the stuff imagined God, but
then discovered evolution.” Despite these claims, it is still believed that science and magic

are interrelated with one another through religion where in God used His magic to create

the universe and Science’s primary explanation to how the world started is also based on

religion.

The second claim of Lewis in comparing science and magic is through credulity.

Credulity is the tendency to be too ready to believe that something is real or true. Lewis

stated that scientific thinking no less than magical thinking can spawn a kind of credulity

that accepts every kind of explanation no matter how poorly grounded in facts. In general

thinking, this explains that we believe in the thinking of the majority. If a thing seemed

obviously true to a hundred men, then it was probably true in fact. Credulity is somehow

like theory where in there are several theories that doesn’t have enough evidence to

support or to prove a fact; however, we still believe in it when we observe or realize that

a lot of people believes in it. Similarly, magic doesn’t have evidences with regards to its

credibility but we still believe that magic exist as it is the belief of the majority.