I once read a Christian minister say that God must be re-introduced in order to say no to humanity. I also heard a man from Louisiana say that mother nature is unhappy about such things as genetic therapy and that it was going to react against people.
These people are complete hypocrites. They have done nothing about real wrongs done by people, such as burning the Amazonian rainforest or flooding the atmosphere with CO2. Instead they attack the good things that people have done – things such as scientific knowledge and technological progress.
So we have any number of people claiming that things such as genetic therapy is playing God. Meanwhile they do absolutely nothing to confront real wrongs done to God – wrongs such as burning down and poisoning nature. It is fine to destroy; it is not fine to create.
This shows how far we have gone.
Should God be introduced to say no to humanity? That depends on what people are trying to do. The name of God should be used to confront real wrongs, such as destroying nature. It should be made to stand aside in light of scientific and technological progress. Such things are not playing God. They are making the best of man. In particular, they make it possible to apply human intelligence toward solving the world’s problems, improving people’s quality of life and correcting damage that has been done to nature by other people.
If you think that it is OK to destroy but not OK to create, then something is wrong with you. And then it is you to whom one needs to say no. There is much greater merit in doing genetic therapy or curing cancer or building artificial intelligence robots than there is in burning down the rainforest or flooding the atmosphere with CO2. As for Mother Nature, she would be much more unhappy about us burning the Amazonian rainforest than about us pursuing scientific and technological progress.
The people who attack scientific progress while endorsing ruinous business practices have no business claiming to speak for God. A man who truly loves God would not be destroying what God has created. As for humanity, the worst of it is not found in its scientists and engineers. It is found in people who burn Amazonian rainforest and flood the atmosphere with CO2. If one seeks to re-introduce God to say no to humanity, it is to these people, not scientists, that he needs to say no.
The antipathy to science has gone on for long enough. People have their air conditioning, their TVs and their trucks because of science. Their prosperity is not only due to business; it is due to a much greater extent to science. There have been many places with market system, and most of them were poor. The reason we are wealthier than Medieval Persia or Tsarist Russia is science.
Of course scientists and engineers can be foolish as well. There are many people with scientific worldview who claim that religion, spirituality and romantic love are irrational. This is a shortfall of these people. It does not however discredit physics, chemistry or biology. These are important fields, and we need them.
I have value both for science and spirituality. I also have value both for civilization and nature. I want to see the best of all worlds, where both nature and civilization are treated well. Both are amazing accomplishments, and both deserve to be treated with care and respect. This means, minimize harm and maximize benefit. Stop ruinous practices such as burning the rainforest and flooding the atmosphere with CO2. At the same time vigorously pursue scientific and technological progress.
The people such as the ones I’ve mentioned above are doing neither of the above. They are doing nothing to confront environmentally ruinous practices; meanwhile they stand in the way of progress. Their stance is worse than misguided. It is evil. And it is to them that one needs to re-introduce God.