Mercerism in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Mercerism is a fictional religion in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which is based off of the experiences and teachings of Wilbur Mercer, a man who is portrayed as endlessly climbing up a mountain while stones are being thrown at him. This martyr-like character's "death" suddenly brings upon many "devices" called empathy boxes, which allow for people to merge, or join a virtual reality in which they can connect with Mercer through their minds, and experience the suffering he felt. This is to stimulate the empathy in humans, which is necessary for humans and their relationship with technology and the differentiating characteristic between them and androids in this post apocalyptic story.

The androids claim that once anyone actually looks deeply at mercerism they will realize how much of a hoax it is (which is coming from a bunch of non-emphatical beings), and once the humans do realize this, their already weak faith will shatter. However as the story goes on Rick Deckard, the main protagonist who hunts illegal androids on Earth under the title of Bounty Hunter, continues to believe in this false religion, even after it's been proven false by a show hosted by Buster Friendly. And while Wilbur Mercer is presumed to fake, Rick still has a spiritual connection with the ideals of Mercerism, which is a good example of how and why the human faith will still believe in Mercerism.

Near the end of the novel, Rick starts to "hallucinate" by seeing Wilbur Mercer. Later he has an experience which is similar to the Mercer's hill climb, where Rick begins to climb a hill and is hit in the face with a rock. He realizes that he has merged with Mercer himself and cannot unmerge, and what takes the cake is this scene: "But I'm Mercer. I arranged it: I found the toad.

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Found it because I see through Mercer's eyes." (237) where he finds a toad on the road, an animal that was very precious to Mercer. Dick uses Rick to demonstrate how strong the human faith is in mercerism, by showing the main protagonist as becoming the founder of the religion. This also brings up the point that faith can also be used as a determining factor between humans and androids. If someone has no faith in a religion that is all about empathy, then that too makes them an android.

Philip K. Dick's use of this pseudo religion, Mercerism, is sort of a rope that ties faith with empathy. An underlying principle of most religions is love(or empathy), and being able to reach out through others through the preachings of some mystical beings. And what keeps religion around is the faith of a follower; that what they are learning and preaching about really works. Mercerism is all about having some emphatical response, which is of course something androids can't do. Just like what keeps people believing in a religion, Mercerism also has the people's faith (as it is the dominant religion of this fictitious Earth), which means that faith and empathy (of all sorts) do in fact go hand in hand.

An interesting phenomenon in the book is the relationship between science and religion. A fairly common excuse to someone not being able to justify something is by leaving up to god's will or powers. Scientists of course do not like this, and therefore say that this "god" nonsense can be explained if we use some research. The relationship between these two factions is very conflicted. However in the book, Mercerism is seen as a bridge between religion and technology. In fact, the religion is mostly based off of the fictional world's intense involvement in technology, Mercerism seeks to empathize with nearly everything (except in Rick's case with the androids), even mechanical animals. Rick even says that "The electric things have lives too. Paltry as those lives are""(239). Rick, a firm believer in Mercerism which seeks to bring out the empathy in people, says that even technology have real lives (which can interpreted as souls) which counters the relationship we have in real life between science and religion.

The book also has an interesting stance on the authenticity of Mercerism, which is the dominant religion in the book. It's not; In the book, the guy who claims to be Mercer gives a short message during Buster Friendly's show." "I am a fraud," Mercer said. 'They're sincere; their research is genuine. From their standpoint I am an elderly retired bit player named Al Jerry. All of it, their disclosure, is true."" (90). Mercer comes out straight saying that he is in fact a phony, and he is actually just some gu named Al Jerry. But while the guy who the religion is based off of doesn't exist, the ideals (tenets) of Mercerism are very much real, and they remain real because of the people (Rick, Isidore etc.) who believe in them.

So is faith a problem in this book? Yes. More than empathy, faith can be seen as a bigger difference between an android and a human. Also, faith can really alter a human's morality, as having faith in Mercerism does to Rick (where Mercerism has given him a sense of duty in killing these androids which goes against his morality, and Mercer giving him the "he is not alone" treatment). However there are some things that faith does that actually benefits the post- apocalyptic humans. Faith gives them a soul. It gives them a spiritual connection to a hope, a belief, which in turn gets them to be empathic towards most phenomenons (again not with Androids as they don't feel empathic towards anything and thus, as Rick believes, removes their right to the highest thing a human can have; their life).

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