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Science has created problems for mankind. Science is a blessing all right, but it is not an unmixed blessing. Science has made life easier and more comfortable. Science has made it possible for us to communicate with each other readily and quickly and it has made travel easy and fast. Machines have enabled man to save hours of manual labour. But science is responsible for the present-day arms race and the threat of nuclear war under which mankind exists today. In view of the threat of total annihilation of mankind posed by nuclear advancement, there is the fear that science has failed mankind. How can a scientist defend this view?
It is a fact that science has given us the spirit of objectivity and positivism that is necessary for the development of human knowledge. But it is also a fact that this spirit, when carried to unreasonable lengths in an unimaginative manner, militates against the original intentions. The scientific method thus becomes misused. The spirit of positivism is exaggerated to such lengths that anything that is not proved by crude laboratory experiments is dismissed as superstition. A complacent world believing in the creation of man by God was shaken when Darwin came out with his theory of evolution and the origin of the species. Science makes us forgot that there is “much in philosophy than dreamt of in heaven and on earth.”
The scientist would say that the most diabolical use of science has been in the cause of promoting the baser human instincts and that it is politicians and statesmen who are to blame for this. Man uses science and technology for purposes of aggression; he uses the discoveries of science to win wars. In the past men used only bows and arrows and swords to fight with one another. But today thanks to science, he ha. at his disposal guns, planes, ships, submarines, missiles, etc. The race for weapons has led him to the discovery of nuclear weaponry. He can even carry on biological and chemical warfare. In the Vietnam War harmful bacteria were used among peasants to spread diseases. Chemicals were used to destroy acres of food crops. This is an instance of how scientific knowledge can be abused.
The monopolisation of knowledge and machines has led to the subjugation of one class by another and of a poorer nation by a richer nation. The mass-produced consumer items have captured the market, thanks to machines. This has resulted in the craftsmen and weavers going out of job.
Multinational corporations from the richer nations sell old and hazardous drugs in the Third World. Some of these corporations are engaged in the manufacture of deadly gas and the leakage of this gas, as it happened in 1984 in Madhyapradesh in India, can kill thousands of people. The activities of some companies are a blatant violation of the very spirit of science which seeks to improve the lot of mankind through its discoveries. The scientist cannot be blamed for this. It is man’s greed that is responsible – he wants profit at any cost.
It is true that science has improved man’s living standards. But this has been achieved at a great cost to human fellowship. The old community feeling has been lost. In the past there was co-operation among people; today co-operation has given way to competition. The culture of material acquisition and possession has grown to such an extent that the worth of man is measured in terms of wealth and possessions, and not in terms of character, intelligence and achievement. As Paulo Friere, the Latin American educationist, says: “To be is to have”. Men today strain hard to possess status symbols, and not to develop spiritually. Science has come to, mean materialism and material progress. Science in a way is responsible for the destruction of spiritual values. But the scientist cannot be found fault with for this. Man’s spirituality is at stake because of his materialistic tendencies.
Man’s dependence on science has made man a slave to machines. He cannot live without mechanical aids. Man who has invented robots may be controlled by them. All the things scientists have invented can be put to misuse.
Many keen observers and writers have been calling our attention to the loss of a sense of values and to the resulting deterioration of large segments of contemporary society. They tell us that we have been living under the illusion that more motor-cars, labour-saving devices and the like will bring happiness and usher in a better life. Without a strong sense of values and of direction, however, the human spirit tends to weaken or deteriorate. Technical devices can liberate man from drudgery and open up new possibilities for cultural development. They can also have a dehumanising effect and be potentially dangerous if there is no self-discipline and dedication to enduring values. Frederic Lilgo in The Abuse of Learning establishes the point of view that Hitler’s Germany was a nation of highly trained specialists who were only interested in facts and were confused about values and that, as a result, moral paralysis set in. The crisis today is due to the over-emphasis on science and technology at the expense of cultural values. The steady increase in the crime rate, especially among juvenile offenders, can be attributed to this lopsided emphasis on science and technology.