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And Another Thing

Paul Johnson

Wednesday, 9th July 2008

The truth little Red Rum can teach those clever dons

One of the most moving stories in the history of animal life is the racing career of Red Rum. This little horse won the Grand National in 1973 and 1974, came second the next two years and then, amazingly, won it again in 1977. This third victory, the only such in the history of the race, left the hard-bitten racing crowd in tears. The horse had a proud habit of cocking his ears as he passed the winning post ahead of the field — he knew he had won. He lived to the ripe old age of 30 and is buried beside the starting gate at Aintree.

No one can quite explain why certain animals make huge efforts to achieve distinction which in a human context we would call heroic. My view is that such endeavours are attempts, part instinctive but also perhaps part conscious, to escape from the fatalism which surrounds all animal life. A horse is born, lives, usually in some kind of servitude to humans, breeds and dies. There is nothing he can do about his fate but accept it. Animals in the wild are no less imprisoned by their environment. Yet animals, occasionally, perform extraordinary feats of courage and endurance, sometimes with what we can only call a moral object. There are many well-documented instances of dogs risking their lives to save their master’s. Such creatures exhibit an altruism they are not supposed to possess and, even more important, appear to be fighting against fate, to achieve a kind of freedom of the will — over events, and over their own frail bodies. This is quite different from, and superior to, the freedom to roam — much closer to what St Paul meant when he wrote of the freedom we find in Christ.

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Cogito Ergosum

July 10th, 2008 3:31pm

This article typifies the inchoate rage of the religious mind against the idea that science is the key to understanding our world and our place therein; and that the results of science from the steam engine to the jet plane and modern medicine have liberated the more thoughtful humans from the fatalism he abhors.

Egg

July 10th, 2008 4:35pm

Of course science is the key to understanding the material elements of the universe; but when it comes to matters like telepathy, poltergeists and religious experience, for which there is ample evidence but which does not fit in with a materialistic view of the world, some scientists (the more honourable ones in my view) accept that they have no explanation for them, while others (the fundamentalist and often militant atheists to whom Paul Johnson refers - I name no names) simply refuse to consider the evidence. I'm afraid that in my view simply makes them bad scientists.

Vernon Howell

July 10th, 2008 8:36pm

Er... how has the jet plane liberated humans from fatalism precisely? Liberated them from a certain amount of gravity perhaps, but fatalism I think not. On the contrary there is a new strand of fatalism which holds that flight is destroying the planet and we are all doomed. Your technological-rationalist optimism is so 19th century, my friend.

Cogito Ergosum

July 11th, 2008 6:01pm

To Egg 1635/10/7/2008:

It is science rather than religion which is more likely to accept that currently there is no explanation for some phenomenon. Some puzzles do take a long while to crack. In the examples you quote, however, there is historic justification for considering in at least some cases the possibility of human fallibility, ranging from wishful thinking to outright cheating.

To Vernon Howell 2036/10/7/2008:

The jet plane and other modern machines make travel much easier and quicker. Travel broadens the mind, at least for the more thoughtful humans.

Vernon Howell

July 11th, 2008 8:08pm

Yes for some people travel broadens the mind, but not necessarily in an atheistic or materialist direction, unless your definition of 'thoughtful' is atheistic. Also, I point out that many travellers spend a lot of their time visiting ancient sacred spaces (temples etc), or museums which are full of sacred art. Finally, back on the fatalism theme, there are many secular fatalisms- whether socio-economic or biological- deterministic. So 'liberation' from belief rarely if ever entails the kind of existential liberation I think you are making claims for.

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