Religion, Science, and Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle
Summary:
Religion and science are close cousins in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. Vonnegut's fictional religion Bokonism was one based on lies. Humankind's search for truth and meaning in life is eternal, and we generally choose either science or religion to find them.
Religion and science play opposing roles in the real world, although, in Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, they are noticeably similar. It's human nature to be searching for the truth to life. The common person in the novel is so in need of a "guide" to follow for the truth, that they are willing to follow anything, even if it is a lie; hence the purpose of science and religion. Yet their purpose is similar, they both embrace different roles in leading the idiotic human society for the search for meaning.
Vonnegut creates a fictional religion in the novel called Bokononism, carried out by the "Books of Bokonon." The first sentence of the book gives us a warning stating, "All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies." Bokonon, aka Lionel Johnson, created these lies for the inhabitants of San Lorenzo, which was populated with poverty everywhere. No one outside of the island cared or even wanted to take San Lorenzo. "When France claimed San Lorenzo in 1682, no Spaniards complained." When McCabe and Johnson arrived shipwrecked onto San Lorenzo, they wanted to create a "par-a-dise." Bokonon created the lies known as bokononism to build that "there-is-hope feeling" for the inhabitants; he wanted to hide the truth because "truth was the enemy of the people." Concealing the truth, Bokonon supplied lies known as religion, knowing that would be the only way to bring joy to San Lorenzo.
Felix once said, "science was going to discover the basic secret to life someday." Through the other end of the spectrum, science is also in the search for meaning. "He said if everybody would study science more, there wouldn't be all the trouble there was." It was documented on a paper that science finally found that meaning, "protein." When both the bartender and one of Felix's scientist heard this, it didn't effect them at all. Unlike the lies in religion, this new discovery did not bring joy to neither the bartender or Sandra. Instead of giving them lies through information to be at ease, he offered them "to study science" to be at ease.
The day the atomic bomb drop, Felix Hoenikker is playing cat's cradle, which is a series of X's across someones hand, created with strings. The game, cat's cradle, has no literal meaning as there is "no damn cat, and no damn cradle." Newt Hoenikker emphasizes the fact that cat's cradle is a search for meaning; as people are creating something that really isn't there, which metaphorically ties with religion. "Everything must have a purpose? Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this." According to Bokonon, God created man for no reason at all, as to children play cat's cradle for the same reason. God is leaving man for the search for truth, or like playing cat's cradle, the search for meaning.
The search for the truth is never ending. Everyone either follows science or religion to find that truth. As a result, neither could ever fill that void. The fact is that human society needs that answer to the truth and will continue to search for it. They will always be searching for that meaning, playing cat's cradle. "See the cat? See the cradle""
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