Dear all:

It has been a long time since I read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy so some of you who have 
read it more recently may have a better recall.  But the intensity of opinions offered lately about 
the scales have somehow brought the discussion of truth and beauty in that book to mind because 
the varied way we all perceive truth.  

Then I started wondering why our dicussions about particular methods or particular tools are so 
fraught with passion.  Face it, we are a passionate group because we are in an uphill battle to win 
hearts and minds to the obvious fact that not breastfeeding entails huge risks to a vulnerable 
group that has no voice of its own:  our infants.  Not just our own personal infants, but the infants 
of our own species. 

But why the heated discussions about our internally divergent views that crop up again and again 
in the way we practice?  Why do I look upon one tool as harmless as using a measuring cup in the 
kitchen with about a similar level of utility in cooking while others put it in the same category as 
unnecessary epidurals?

For some reason, the book about Ice 9 by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. came to mine (again, it was long ago 
that I read it) but the basic story that I remember is an army colonel who is having problems with 
his troups and mud.  Marching through it, vehicles stuck in it, mud is a huge problem.  A scientist 
thinks he has the solution:  Ice-9.  It freezes water and fixes the problem because the vehicles can 
drive over the ice without getting stuck and troups can march over it without sinking into it.  But 
the big hitch is that all the water in the world freezes - thus the end of the world.

We are following an era when we put science on a pedestal.  Science was as revered as it was in 
the Star Trek Next Generation series.  That series always depicted the crew as supremely rational 
professionals who always came through with the right solution.  Rational and professional won the 
day.  Until, lo and behold the evil Borg - the cyborg products of that same rational professional 
scientific world who went awry, became evil and wanted to absorb all individuals with the 
admonishment that "you must comply".

We had the era where science thought they could do better in telling us what to feed our infants.  
We were told giving human milk was "primative" and "messy" and "not as good as this scientifically 
derived mixture" and "you must comply".  Now, too late, the consequences of this huge 
overconfidence in science in regards to infant feeding were totally wrong and science has proven it 
beyond reasonable doubt.  

La Leche League is what kept the flame or faith alive during the era of "science".  I think about how 
religious faith was persecuted in China or seen as incompatible with science during the Sputnik 
era and how La Leche League has often been portrayed by the mainstream.  La Leche League 
leaders have been unfairly called fanatic, Nazis and other horrible names when they should be 
revered for keeping breastfeeding going when no one else would.

Similarly, there have been periods of existence when we have put religion on a pedestal.  During 
the dark ages to question the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was to risk being burned at the 
stake.  Scientists had to renounce their views about the world being round, the sun the center of 
the universe.  Almost every religion I can think of has had periods where strife between competing 
views has lead to terrible and deadly wars. 

Yet both faith and science have contributed wonderful things to our world.  Who can dispute the 
beauty of faith in performing spiritual transformations of the soul or the wonders of science that 
have enabled us to see into the stars and discover black holes and nebula -  things of wonderous 
beauty and awe.  Faith and science can be mutually enhancing and at times in direct conflict and 
opposition.

It is neither faith nor science that are at fault when the gifts they offer are used to diminish or 
destroy.  Faith and science are also both ways of comprehending our universe that can also be 
used to enhance, enrich and amaze.  It is how we use faith and science in reflection to our 
universe that makes a difference.

So I see our heated discussions as very similar to our struggle as humans to come to terms with 
our feelings about faith and science which often go through periods of intense dramatic tension, 
individuals, communities, cultures, countries.  

Which brings me to my favorite scifi series of the moment - Battlestar Galactica.  The plot is that 
we created the Cylons who were our servents.  They rebelled and wiped out most of us and we are 
at war.  If you watch but one episode you will think you have figured out who are the "good guys" 
and who are the "bad guys".  If you watch a different episode you might reach entirely different 
conclusions.  If you keep watching you discover that every character has a rich complexity of good 
and evil.  And least you think science fiction has everything to do with science hasnothing to do 
with religion - many of the good science fiction authors do struggle with various religious issues 
and the tension between science and religion.  Battlestar Galactica is no different.

So, don't stop at one episode in your world view.  Keep watching.  Ideas expand. Things change.  

Best regards, Susan Burger

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