Relationship Between Religion And Humanity

The novel proposes that while humans have empathy for all living things, androids, being purely logical entities, can only simulate empathy. “Empathy is the important principle of a Mercerism, the newly established theology/religion created by technological production to which all surviving humans belong and the spiritual fusion of Mercerism is an actualization of human empathy. ”( Sims, 2009) But, advanced androids, for instance, Rachael and Roy are also capable of showing empathy towards its kind and the novel suggests that some androids show more empathy than human when confronted into such situations. By presenting androids as an alternate and sophisticated version of human, Dick is asking what are the essence of humanity that separates humans from androids. However, I find it interesting that androids in the novel do not have the requisite empathy necessary to participate in this religious event, Mercerism. This surely made me wonder if religion is a theology that always finds itself embedded into the very essence of humanity; in this case with the help of technology. In this essay, I am interested in analyzing the relationship between religion and humanity and how this relationship is relevant to the androids. Humans are seen to merge with Mercerism when they are desperate to find some hope or something to resonate with humanity or to share the happiness with someone else. Mercerism was built on an idea of being able to empathize with others whether it be happiness or hopelessness, which seems difficult with fewer people remaining on the Earth to interact. The advancement of technology, however, has made it possible for humans to share the experience of empathy with the religious leader of Mercerism, Wilbur Mercer.

Every human left on the earth have an access to an empathy box that has an ability to merge the consciousness of all individual users and deposits them into the consciousness of Wilbur Mercer on his climb. “However it is a union of two consciousness and the individual’s mind is not controlled by Mercer and vice versa. Individual awareness is maintained for each user, but each also becomes mentally aware of all the others. ” ( Sims, 2009) Those who use the empathy box find themselves ascending with Mercer, being hit by rocks supposedly thrown by the killers (an entity of absolute evil) and, through these wounds, feeling Mercer’s pain and becoming one with him. This journey is the expression of both failure and success, of sharing empathy with both sorrow and happiness. From within this synthesis, each individual has the knowledge that he or she is not stumbling through reality alone, that there is, in fact, an “other” with whom we can actually connect and commiserate. This theology, Mercerism, Dick provided in the novel is much powerful than the previous religions by the technological achievement of the empathy box and the psychological opportunities it provides its users. Rick’s desperation to own a real animal over the android animals is more about earning respectful status from his neighbors than appreciating the animal’s life and taking care of it. Isn’t it inhumane to own another life just for the social status? But, then from another perspective, if it is applied to the current world, we all humans are selfish in nature and it is reasonable for anyone to want better social status and life. Rick alike all human wants to share the joy of having that respectful status with others; such as his wife. Unlike androids, who killed the spider without any hesitation and empathy, Rick will, however, be happy to own a real animal, maintain respectful social status and share that happiness with his wife, without having any harm on the animal. I think the novel clearly shows that humans show empathy with the involvement of an animal which is the basis of Mercerism. After retiring a few androids, when Rick bought a real goat to his home, Iran is happy about the purchase of goat even though, she was unhappy about Rick’s job of retiring androids.

She also insists Rick for fusing with the Mercer in order to share the happiness with Mercer and thank for the goodwill of them. Dick is asserting that the purpose of creating religion is to help us share happiness and express empathy towards others. Androids, however, have opposite views about Mercerism. Androids despite being more physically and intellectually able than humans, are still considered as a human creation and thus inferior to human. Expressing empathy towards others is shown as something only humans are capable of since androids were engineered to not have human emotions. But, according to their ability and environment, some androids show attachment and care towards other androids but not with humans or other lives. This is best shown by the contrasting acts of Isoder and Pris; while Pris is cutting down the spider’s legs, showing no empathy to another life, Isoder immediately recognizes the lack of empathy of Pris to other lives and feels pity towards the spider. “Pris, with the scissors, cut yet another leg from the spider. All at once John Isidore pushed her away and lifted up the mutilated creature. He carried it to the sink and there he drowned it. In him his mind, his hopes, drowned, too. As swiftly as the spider. “ (Dick, 1968, p. . 95) Another example would be of Rachael. Being an android, she shows affection and empathy towards Rick but, only in the end to be revealed that she was doing so to manipulate Rick to not retire the androids. She clearly shows empathy towards other androids and an ability to manipulate human and save them but still not fully empathize with Rick. When Rick finally retires all androids, Rachael expresses the frustration by killing his goat.

Again, here by killing a real goat, Rachael is not showing any empathy towards another life; at least no human will ever kill an animal. I think Dick is asserting that while Mercerism, as a religion, helps humans to unite together and find their identity through the experience of empathy, the same religion divides human from androids. While androids are desperate to be considered human, it is interesting to note that they do not understand or appreciate the value of Mercerism, beliefs, empathy, sharing joy and sorrow; all those things that every human have. In fact, the androids actually rebel against Mercerism and creation of empathy box. The real reason androids despise Mercer appears to be that the religion completely excludes them from its practice and the empathy of its practitioners. As the android Irmgard Baty perceptively points out, the purpose of the empathy box isn’t to make human beings kinder or more sensitive—if it is, then the empathy box has clearly failed (Dick, 1968). Rather, the purpose of the box is to remind human beings that they have a common identity (even if this identity is an illusion) and that they are different from and superior to androids, which is very true.

The technological advancement providing humans the freedom to confirm their humanity by producing androids to imitate and serve them is the most unempathetic act but still done by the human. While this does not mean that humans are incapable of empathy, Dick is also asserting that there’s nothing empathetic about just being a human. Dick takes a final test on the relation between religion and humanity when a beloved television show called ‘Buster Friendly & his Friendly Friends’ exposes to the world that Mercerism is fake and the acts of Wilbur Mercer was recorded on a Hollywood studio. “We may never know, nor can we fathom the peculiar purpose behind this swindle. Yes folks, swindle. Mercerism is a swindle!” (Dick, 1968, p. 209). Buster Friendly can be considered as an opposite representation of Mercerism and was actually run by an android scientist. Since they have a short lifespan of 4 years, they are inclined to expose Mercerism, a plan supported by other androids as well as.

Dick compare Mercerism at this point with our current religions and confronts the readers by questioning the reality of the religion we follow in real life. Does it really matter if the religion or the religious figures are real? Will this have an effect on the beliefs and practices we follow based on the religion? Physically and emotionally upset, both, by the news of Mercerism and by the horrible torture that Pris conducted on the spider, Isoder tells androids that “Mercerism isn’t finished”, and fuses to empathy box. This again shows the faith of humanity that Isoder has on Mercerism. Even when the whole religion is exposed as a fake simulation, Isoder still leans towards empathy box to deal with his nihilism. Upon merging with empathy box, Isoder after experiencing the decay and death of everything around finds a mutilated alive spider that symbolizes the spark of new life that always finds a way in even the most desolate of landscapes. He has found a new hope he was looking, after merging with Mercer and no longer care about the realness of Mercerism as long as he has faith in it. Wilbur himself confronts to Isoder about the announcement; "It was true. I am a fraud. They're sincere; their research is sincere.

They did a good job and from their standpoint Buster Friendly's disclosure was convincing. They will have trouble understanding why nothing has changed. Because you're still here and I'm still here" (Dick, 1968, p. 96). It is to be noted that Mercerism is more resilient than Buster friendly or other religion because it idolizes every life; animals, humans, and even androids. The spider Mercer gave to Isoder might be electric, but that does not matter because androids have life and experiences too. I find this theme of religion being able to humanize everyone’s lives very profounding. Religion, thus I perceive as a common ground for every being to unite, share experiences and be hopeful for good. This relationship between religion and humanity is strong enough to be inseparable is what I think differentiates human from androids.