Science and magic are a spectrum but there are indications in the biblical scriptures of innocent, more holy positions on the spectrum. Noah in Genesis and the Book of Enoch, backed up by records of him in contemporary writings of his time, Epic of Gilgamesh, Sumerian King List, etcetera, is a man who while objecting to the more supernatural magic end of the spectrum, the part of angels in Chalcolithic metallurgical techniques, took pains to run tests we would recognise as early scientific tests, without resorting to the supernatural. He ran a famous experiment. The Flood rain had subsided and the water had not yet gone down. He let loose successive birds to see what would happen, to provide indication of the status of the floodwater out of sight. The first bird came back quickly so he knew the water was probably still at a high flood level. Later another bird, famously a dove, returned with an olive twig in its mouth, the image of which has stayed with us ever since, so Noah knew there were trees appearing above the subsiding flood water. Finally, later still, the bird he released did not come back, and because he chose a carrion bird, this implied the dead bodies from the Flood were now exposed and accessible as food for the bird so it could stay away. None of this required angels. Noah, writing part of the Book of Enoch before the Flood occurred, had lamented the inclusion of angels, invoked by metallurgist alchemists, to help with alloy making. “An angel is in the fire!” Noah was famous for practicing and preaching perfected right behaviour. So we find in the beginnings of modern Western civilisation a similar move, compelled by the Church, away from alchemy magic arts invoking spirits and the supernatural towards natural magic arts with experimentation without invoking spirits in those experiments. This was later known as modern science. Yet it is misunderstood. Just because it carefully has to avoid invocations, does not mean it has to hold to the materialistic and atheistic views that spirits do not exist. Perhaps those who succeed in convincing themselves that spirits do not exist find it easier to practice this art of modern experimental science, but that does not have to be so. Noah is an example. He believed in God and knew about spirits and even interacted with holy spirits at a high level, more than most, but he did not invoke them in his experiments. He did not try forcing the hand of any spirit. He was righteous enough to recognise the invocation of spirits, forcing them to engage with alchemist techniques, as fleshly, unholy, and unworthy. He kept his experiments materialistic but his lifestyle spiritual.
