A Thought-Provoking Scientism:

My Take on Three-Body Problem

Everybody talks about the recent Netflix Series: Three-Body Problem. Canceling my geobiology field trip this weekend, I had some time to watch this as a self-reward for finishing my fellowship project. With Marjan coco pandan syrup and Cadbury chocolate. Hehe.

Overall, I think the series is different from any other science fiction movie. It doesn’t use the mainstream narrative of aliens invading Earth and humans screaming for help. It goes beyond that simple story. Aside from being science fiction, the series is also a sophisticated damning insult for religion. It shows how religion is nothing but a social phenomenon and how our belief in The Unseen, though uniquely human, “looks stupid” in the eyes of “scientists”.

Okay, let’s discuss this.

Human encounter with aliens is the major theme of science fiction. We’ve watched War of the Worlds, E.T., Prometheus, etc. Even though there has been no scientific evidence that any intelligent being exists out there, we do believe the universe is too vast for us to exist alone. This is called “The Fermi Paradox”. Steve Benner, a chemist and synthetic biologist who has spent decades of his research career finding ways to detect life outside the earth, says it is unlikely that we could find this intelligent life outside the earth today. Most astrobiologists would agree that the first living we would find in space is a simple form of life: something that resembles bacterial life. But yet, all science fiction movies present this superior intelligent being as their character. Prometheus movie presents this being as the one who actually “inoculated” life on earth. They were our creator, in other words: our God. It’s kind of disturbing to think that the God I’ve been worshipping so far is an alien. But yeah, that’s what the movie offers. I’ll save the discussion of theology later below.

The Three-Body problem also presents a superior intelligent alien as its character. But the story is so complex as it reveals how the encounter questions our nature as humans. The first contact between humanity and the superior alien civilization began in 19060s China where Dr. Ye, a woman physicist, was involved in a secret military project somewhere in Mongolia. Having endured so much ordeal from the era of the Cultural Revolution, she had her animosity towards humanity. The alien (called the San-Ti, and later “Our Lord”) warned her not to reply to their message. But she replied to it. She thinks humans cannot help themselves, they need a savior, a messiah. It sounds the same as the concept of God in Christianity, right?

Decades later, she successfully made a community that believes that the alien is their Lord. This entity can monitor them anywhere anytime, literally the ability of God of the Abrahamic religion. Too often, the movie shows that these “believers” were so blatantly deceived. Questions about these Lord, arising from small children and ordinary people, were answered in the firm belief of the “prophets”, which say “Our God will protect us,”, “If they can do something to us, then it is the will of Our Lord,”. Damn, that’s the very basis of my belief and it is now shown as something stupid. Okay then.

Now, what’s the problem?

Several theoretical physicists mysteriously died one by one. And some young physicists are involved in solving the problem. The San-Ti thinks theoretical physicists would empower human beings more than ever. That’s why they’re targeting them. The San-Ti too has lost its trust in Ye and her community because they learned that humans can lie (after Dr. Ye’s partner read the Red Riding Hood to them). The San-Ti then tries to invade the earth sooner.

In this movie, the young physicists in the UK are heroes. It shows that reality explained by modern science is the real one. The San-Ti too also comes from a planet orbiting three suns (in an exoplanet study, this is not impossible) and asked physicists to solve their problem. So something is wrong, why does this omniscient entity ask for help? Maybe I missed the point because I sometimes forward the playing line due to boring conversations of the smart young physicists’ romantic lives. I am not familiar at all with theoretical physics too and I found there is too much jargon inside. Maybe I am dumb, but I think putting jargon could also mean showing off authority. Most people would believe what you say if you speak jargon. This is a criticism from Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a Muslim philosopher, on people’s attitudes toward modern science. Why is it so easy for us to believe what scientists say when we do not know anything of what they’re talking about?

So, I would say that this movie is a scientism. It puts too much trust in science as exemplified in many quotes. “What do you think you’re doing? You’re trying to kill someone you never met for something you never met?” (it criticizes the jihadis as it was Arabic man did that). It shows the weakness of science in one scene though, — when the nanofiber is used to destroy Judgment Day. But there is nothing compared to several scenes that provoke our thoughts on religion. Is our God an alien from far away galaxy? Are we praying to aliens so far?

One needs a dose of theology after watching the movie. Having the idea that aliens could watch us and create us does not mean they meet the criteria as God. This belief, which transcends millennia, is the main feature of humanity. In the Islamic creed, we call it fitnah, which we incline to the belief of the Supreme Being governing the universe. But knowing what you do and accidentally created you does not mean the entity is your God. In our belief, God must have the ability of unlimited knowledge and that is part of His attributes. In Islam, we have 99 names of God. And if an entity only has two out of it, it does not mean it is God.

Another thing is a philosophical question about our existence on Earth. While looking for life out there if we do not know how we got here in the first place. My project on the science of the origins of life has shown me that scientists fail to answer this question despite 100 years of intensive research across disciplines. Philosophers underline some problems, including in the definition and the epistemology. One highlight is now that scientists are moving away from the historical question ( how life could emerge naturally in prebiotic earth) to an experimental one (finding life as a universal feature through chemical and computational experiments).

So, if we haven’t settled on our own mystery on Earth, why wandering so far? This might sound conservative. Indeed, I am a newly conservative convert. I do think there’s so much thing to do here on earth. Our planet is dying, people are suffering, and the inhabitants of the earth are disappearing. Why do we speculate on what is true and be an arrogant species? Why don’t we look into our hearts to purify it from greed and arrogance?

I wonder how many young people would leave religion if they watch this movie? If they see science as a superior way of knowing the truth, without realizing its potential fallbacks and imperfection, how could they get along with religion which offers them ways to polish their hearts?

That is a view from a conservative woman hoping there is a harmony of science and religion. And also a woman who has not read the full series of the novel.