Formation
In the novel Foundation, the Foundation, a large colony of scientists on the planet Terminus, find themselves cut off from their supporters in the Galactic Empire and threatened by the newly-independent neighboring Kingdom of Anacreon, which covets their possession of scientific knowledge and nuclear power. The leader of Terminus, Mayor Salvor Hardin, visits three other nearby kingdoms and convinces their leaders that allowing Anacreon to conquer Terminus would make that kingdom powerful enough to conquer them in turn. The three other kingdoms force Anacreon to back down.
Hardin goes on to offer scientific and medical assistance to all four kingdoms, reasoning that this will make them less likely to join together for a combined assault on Terminus. The barbarized inhabitants of the four kingdoms believe that the Foundation's technicians are magicians. Being unable to make these people understand the difference between magic and science, the technicians finally give up and allow themselves to be worshipped as holy men. Back on Terminus, Hardin accepts the situation, and organizes the Foundation's technical assistance program as a religion. The technicians are organized into a priesthood, and the Foundation's ambassador to each kingdom becomes the High Priest, with Hardin himself assuming the role of Chief Primate of the whole religion.
The resulting religion is never given a formal name in the novel, but it is referred to several times as the "religion of science", hence the name "Scientism".
Read more about this topic: Scientism (Foundation)
Famous quotes containing the word formation:
“It is because the body is a machine that education is possible. Education is the formation of habits, a superinducing of an artificial organisation upon the natural organisation of the body.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“I want you to consider this distinction as you go forward in life. Being male is not enough; being a man is a right to be earned and an honor to be cherished. I cannot tell you how to earn that right or deserve that honor. . . but I can tell you that the formation of your manhood must be a conscious act governed by the highest vision of the man you want to be.”
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“That for which Paul lived and died so gloriously; that for which Jesus gave himself to be crucified; the end that animated the thousand martyrs and heroes who have followed his steps, was to redeem us from a formal religion, and teach us to seek our well-being in the formation of the soul.”
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