158. Thank you to human beings, the birth of Gensokyo
As far as the girls I've seen so far are concerned, Levi thinks that their so-called Gensoky without common sense seems to be just a clear difference from the real world in terms of scientific and non-scientific cognition, right?
Magic or spells, as well as other physical or martial arts such as the use of 'qi', which can only be seen in literary and artistic film and television works in the real world, and in fact, as long as people with normal and mature common sense think that they do not exist, in Gensokyo, it is ingrained in common sense that no one will doubt. However, Lévy has always found this theory a bit strange.
The people who live in Gensokyo think that those supernatural phenomena are natural, but isn't that because they are originally supernatural beings such as youkai or gods, and they are born with such abilities? Although there are ordinary people who don't have any special abilities in Gensokyo, and there is no difference between them and humans in the outside world, but those people are not because they have often seen all kinds of abnormal phenomena caused by non-humans since they were children, and even walking on the streets of their human villages can casually encounter other beings that are not humans, such as Reizen, who often carries a medicine box to the world to sell medicines, and Alice, who likes children and will go to the world from time to time to perform puppet shows for children.
Since you can see and even know non-human beings such as monsters and gods since you were a child, it is natural to take their existence as common sense. On the other hand, the reason why human beings living in the real world deny the existence of those unscientific beings is, on the one hand, that the scientific theories they have cannot explain and prove the causes of those supernatural phenomena. But on the other hand, isn't it because there is no conclusive evidence that unscientific supernatural phenomena actually exist?
Because the existing scientific theories cannot explain why a human being, who is no different from ordinary people in terms of appearance and body organs, can jump ten meters high and even fly in the sky without the help of any external force, these are considered to be conjectures that do not conform to scientific common sense. But seeing is believing, and Levi doesn't think most people in the world would be so stubborn as to see someone jump on the roof of the school as soon as they stomped their feet, and they had to say that they were dazzled, and that kind of person didn't exist.
The reason why humans no longer believe in the existence of yokai gods makes it difficult for them to survive and reverence, Levi does not understand the 'ecology' of yokai, gods, or other goblins and ghosts. If human beings' disapproval, or even strong 'denial', will affect their survival, then Levi thinks that the reason is not that human common sense has changed, and suddenly he doesn't believe in those phenomena that he can occasionally witness back then, right?
In the opinion of Levi, a layman who is neither proficient in science nor magic, he thinks that if the reason why the monster gods are going to Gensokyo is indeed because humans gradually do not believe or deny them, then it should be more reasonable because of the development of science.
At that time, mankind was still very backward, and there was almost no technology. There is only a limit to what humans can do on their own, and agriculture, such as planting and breeding, which is dependent on nature for food production, is quite dependent on nature because of its limited capabilities. The rainfall is abundant but not excessive, the sun is full but not strong, and there are no pests and no other animals trampling on it, so that we can exchange for a satisfying harvest on the basis of human efforts. And a year with all these conditions is clearly hard to come by, and nature is full of changes, from gifts to human beings and terrible disasters.
At that time, human beings were incapable of resisting and changing nature due to backwardness, so in addition to doing what they could, the only thing left was to try to pray to the gods, to the gods, to the immortals, and even to some monsters and goblins who were in charge of nature, to help them, and not to let nature send disasters that made it difficult for them to live.
With the development of human technology, some disasters that are not very extreme have gradually become less fearful. The weather is dry and lacks water for irrigation, which can be diverted from places with abundant water using various techniques. Extreme heat or cold weather can also protect human crops and livestock in a variety of ways. There are also various pests such as those that were desperate in the past, which can also be limited and remedied to at least a certain extent by scientific means. Because of the development of science, human beings can do more and more, and they need to pray to gods and so on. Even if there are still occasional wishes that require the gods to be invoked, it is often quite difficult to fulfill, and even those gods who possess magical abilities beyond human beings may not be able to do so - at least not easily at any cost, and some even require a considerable degree of sacrifice, so that those beyond human beings can no longer gain their awe and faith by helping humans fulfill their wishes.
In the same way, those youkai who do not rely on faith, but simply make humans fear and fear to obtain their existence, because humans have become more and more powerful, even if a few humans are still weak, but when they are gathered together and equipped with powerful modern weapons, they can also cause a considerable amount of damage to the monsters, and they no longer make humans so fearful.
Even some monsters and goblins who were born in nature and do not need to rely on humans to survive are like other animals in nature, because of the development of the world by humans, the living space is decreasing day by day.
Levy felt that these were probably the real reasons why non-human beings could no longer live freely, and forced them to create a world like Gensokyo, in which they could live freely. And the reason why humans have changed from the common sense of the existence of yokai gods to the common sense that these don't exist is just that the yokai gods are slowly no longer dealing with humans who have become powerful, and the humans who are good at forgetting for generations have long since remembered the world they once lived in.
Because of these thoughts, Levi has always felt that even if the world really became known to everyone about the existence of magic and so on, it would not cause too serious consequences. There may have been some chaos at first, but now humanity is so powerful that at least not the average sorcerer with bad intentions can do whatever it takes. And the world below the surface of the water has always had its rules and laws, and the more powerful the existence, the more bound it will be. Lévy really didn't think it would turn into a world war between swords and magic and science.