FAITH, HOPE and SCIENCE

I realize that what I have to say on this tri-une of consciousness may well be controversial to many. So I would like to say upfront, though I Believe in and deeply revere the underlying Divine spirit that drives the universe, my faith in the growth and ultimate purpose of science is almost as profound.

The scientific mind is an essential tool in the development of human consciousness. Without the advances in technology that scientific research is providing us with, we would not have the means to manage our planet and deal effectively with the exponential pressures of our population impacting on the global environment.

But with that great power comes great responsibility and in the arena of deteriorating ethical behavior, the Lodge of Science has much to answer for.

Using science to build atomic bombs illustrates the point to some degree, but the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, reveals only the tip of the ice-berg.

The real cancer lies in the protestant reaction science has had to all the Catholic religions of Belief.

In the process of indoctrinating every child on the planet in compulsory school classrooms into a purely analytical mind-set, science has catastrophically under-mined mankind's intuitive grasp of the motivating power of spirit. When Belief in Divine design gone, faith and hope in an eternal after-life, goes with it.

When the full realization sets in - that the only future mankind can hope for, lies in the finite field of scientific exploration - with the end realization that when science can go no further, we will be trapped on this tiny planet on the edge of our galaxy, and never ever get to see or experience the full meaning and purpose of Creation - then surely a collective boredom must set in and drive us over the edge of sanity into the madness of mass suicide.

Some would say that we stand on that brink already. If there is no God, there is no Heaven. If there is no heaven there can be no hell. So death is simply oblivion and life is meaningless. So if one is desperately poor with no chance of ever enjoying great material wealth and one has access to WMD.s - what the hell, why not push the button?

For many that stark reality is spoiling their sense of a meaningful existence, and science is indirectly responsible for that hopeless feeling.

Before the challenges of science, every culture on the planet believed in a God of their own choosing. Religious devotion motivated every culture to build massive monuments to their Gods and established the cultures we all enjoy today. Without learning grammar via Scripture, the scientific intellect would never have evolved.

The initial reaction of the administers of religion to science was unquestionably disgraceful. There are still many churches that remain disrespectful to science. The result, instead of some form of civil accommodation between the Church and Science, there has been a steady and growing reaction of protestation. While most of the Church has gradually leaned forward to embrace science, the reverse compliment has not happened to any significant degree.

The concept of an invisible God cannot be disproved. Thus the unbending attitude of science to Faith and Hope is not only unethically disrespectful to Ages of ancestral belief, it is also irresponsible. This wrong, unless righted, will spell the end of us.

It is not for religion to prove that God exists, for by its very definition it must be based on Faith and Hope and Charitable expression, not on any certainty. Thus if there is to be an argument, it is up to science to prove that God does not exist. And until such definite proof is forthcoming, the only ethical stance of any scientist to his or her culture, is to either bow in respect of the unknown, or keep one's opinion to one's self every time the name of God is mentioned.