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Understandably, religion has been rejected by many people of science for its resistance to scientific progress, its dismal record, and its hypocrisy and cruelty. A Professor of microbiology John Postgate points out: “The world’s religions have . . . brought the horrors of human sacrifice, crusades, pogroms and inquisitions. In the modern world this darker side of religion has become dangerous. For unlike science, religion is not neutral.”
Now comparing that with the assumed rationality, objectivity, and discipline of science, Postgate claims that “science has come to occupy the high ground of morality.”
Has it, science really seized the moral high ground? The answer is no. Postgate himself admits that “scientific communities have their share of jealousy, greed, prejudice and envy.” He also adds that “a few scientists have shown themselves capable of murder in the name of research, as happened in Nazi Germany and Japanese prison camps.” And when National Geographic assigned an investigative reporter to find out how a fossil hoax ended up in its pages, the reporter spoke of “a tale of misguided secrecy and misplaced confidence, of rampant egos clashing, self-aggrandizement, wishful thinking, naive assumptions, human error, stubbornness, manipulation, backbiting, lying, [and] corruption.”
Yes, of course, it is science that has given mankind horrific instruments of warfare, such as weapons-grade disease organisms, poison gas, missiles, “smart” bombs, and nuclear bombs.
So if you wonder whether science is about to replace the Bible and dispense belief in God, consider this point: If all the brilliant scientists with their powerful instruments have been able to gain only limited understanding of the natural world, would it be logical to dismiss out of hand the matters that lie beyond the reaches of science to investigate? Quite to the point, at the end of your article on history.
A Encyclopedia Britannica concludes: “After almost 4,000 years of astronomy, the universe is no less strange than it must have seemed to the Babylonians. (Eccl. 3:11)