Reality and Superstition in Silas Marner

Despite the scientific advancements that have made the twenty-first century's technological marvels and unprecedented understanding of natural forces commonplace, debates still rage between empirical reason and unprovable faith or superstition.  Debates such as these are not new.  Nearly two hundred years ago, new theories about geological time and the evolution of all species challenged long-established religious beliefs.  The ensuing debate broke free of the rarefied confines of theological discourse and made its way into larger society, appearing in the literature of the times.  In the novel Silas Marner, Victorian intellectual and novelist George Eliot explores empirical reason and irrational faith, ultimately bringing them together in a philosophy with room for aspects of both.  With the title character's tale, Eliot argues that while there may indeed be supernatural or divine forces at work in the world, those forces can achieve no good without human reason and choice.