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life, for all any of the rest of us can tell. That makes him a scientist like
the rest of us--insofar as biology's a science."
"Thank you," Ruiz-Sanchez said. "With a little history in your education,
Paul, you would also have known that the Jesuits were among the first
explorers to enter China, and Paraguay, and the
North American wilderness. Then it would have been no surprise to you to find
me here."
"That may well be. However, it has nothing to do with the paradox as I see it.
I remember once visiting the labs at Notre Dame, where they have a complete
little world of germ-free animals and plants and have pulled I don't know how
many physiological miracles out of the hat. I wondered
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A Case Of Conscience, by James Blish then how a man goes about being as good a
scientist as that, and a good Catholic at the same time--or any other kind of
churchman. I wondered in which compartment in their brains they filed their
religion, and in which their science. I'm still wondering."
"They're not compartmented," Ruiz-Sanchez said. "They are a single whole."
"So you said, when I brought this up before. That answers nothing; in fact, it
convinced me that what I was planning to do was absolutely necessary. I didn't
propose to take any chances on the compartments getting interconnected on
Lithia. I had every intention of cutting the Father down to a point where his
voice would be nearly ignored by the rest of you. That's why I undertook the
cloak-and-dagger stuff. Maybe it was stupidly done--I suppose that it takes
training to be a successful agent-provocateur and that I should have realized
that."
Ruiz-Sanchez wondered what Cleaver's reaction would be when he found, as he
would very shortly now, that his purpose would have been accomplished without
his having to lift a finger.
Of course the dedicated man of science, working for the greater glory of man,
could anticipate nothing but failure; that was the fallibility of man. But
would Cleaver be able to understand, through his ordeal, what had happened to
Ruiz-Sanchez when he had discovered the fallibility of
God? It seemed unlikely.
"But I'm not sorry I tried," Cleaver was saying. "I'm only sorry I failed."
There was a short, painful hiatus.
"Is that it, then?" Michelis said.
"That's it, Mike. Oh--one more thing. My vote, if anybody is still in any
doubt about it, is to keep the planet closed. Take it from there."
"Ramon," Michelis said, "do you want to speak next? You're certainly entitled
to it, on a point of personal privilege. The air's a mite murky at the moment,
I'm afraid."
"No, Mike. Let's hear from you."
"I'm not ready to speak yet either, unless the majority wants me to. Agronski,
how about you?"
"Sure," Agronski said. "Speaking as a geologist, and also as an ordinary slob
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that doesn't follow rarefied reasoning very well, I'm on Cleaver's side. I
don't see anything either for or against the planet on any other grounds but
Cleaver's. It's a fair planet as planets go, very quiet, not very rich in
anything else we need--sure, that gchteht is marvelous stuff, but it's
strictly for the luxury
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A Case Of Conscience, by James Blish trade--and not subject to any kind of
trouble that I've been able to detect. It'd make a good way station, but so
would lots of other worlds hereabouts.
"It'd also make a good arsenal, the way Cleaver defines the term. In every
other category it's as dull as ditch water, and it's got plenty of that. The
only other thing it can have to offer is titanium, which isn't quite as scarce
back home these days as Mike seems to think; and gem stones, particularly the
semiprecious ones, which we can make at home without traveling fifty
light-years to get them. I'd say, either set up a way station here and forget
about the planet otherwise, or else handle the place as Cleaver suggested."
"But which?" Ruiz-Sanchez asked.
"Well, which is more important, Father? Aren't way stations a dime a dozen?
Planets that can be used as thermonuclear labs, on the other hand, are
rare--Lithia is the first one that can be used that way, at least in my
experience. Why use a planet for a routine purpose if it's unique? Why not
apply Occam's Razor--the law of parsimony? It works on every other scientific
problem anybody's ever tackled. It's my bet that it's the best tool to use on
this one."
"Occam's Razor isn't a natural law," Ruiz-Sanchez said. "It's only a heuristic
convenience--in short, a learning gimmick. And besides, Agronski, it calls for
the simplest solution of the problem that will fit all the facts. You don't
have all the facts, not by a long shot."
"All right, show me," Agronski said piously. "I've got an open mind."
"You vote to close the planet, then," Michelis said.
"Sure. That's what I was saying, wasn't it, Mike?"
"I wanted to have it Yes or No for the tape," Michelis said.
"Ramon, I guess it's up to us. Shall I speak first? I think I'm ready."
"Of course, Mike."
"Then," Michelis said evenly, and without changing in the slightest his
accustomed tone of grave impartiality, "I'll say that I think both of these
gentlemen are fools, and calamitous fools at that because they're supposed to
be scientists. Paul, your maneuvers to set up a phony situation are perfectly
beneath contempt, and I shan't mention them again. I shan't even appeal to
have them cut from the tape, so you needn't feel that you have to mend any
fences with me. I'm looking solely at the purpose those maneuvers were
supposed to serve, just as you asked me to do."
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A Case Of Conscience, by James Blish
Cleaver's obvious self-satisfaction began to dim a little around the edges. He
said, "Go ahead,"
and wound the blanket a little bit tighter around his legs.
"Lithia is not even the beginning of an arsenal," Michelis said. "Every piece
of evidence you offered to prove that it might be is either a half-truth or
the purest trash. Take cheap labor, for instance. With what will you pay the
Lithians? They have no money, and they can't be rewarded with goods. They have
almost everything that they need, and they like the way they're living right
now--God knows they're not even slightly jealous of the achievements we think
make Earth great.
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