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THE QUESTIONS
SCIENCE
CAN'T ANSWER
by
Gene H. Hogberg
In the past 15 years, physical knowledge about the universe,
our own planet earth and its unique life forro s, has virtually exploded.
Now scientists say that they will tackle such questions as
" Why
is there matter?"
" Why
is there life?" and
"What
is man ?" But do the
answers to these questions lie within the field of science'?
N
EVER
b e–
fore have
sc ienti f ic
topics bee n so
popular with the
general public.
From spectacu–
lar telcvision series
about the marvels
of our universe, to
hot-selling,
colorful scientific
magazincs for thc
layman, scient ific
discovery has be–
come the "in
thing."
Young people talk
about being ' 'into
space' ' or "into
:z:
DNA. " Knowledge
itself, to use economic terminolo–
gy, is a growth industry.
Yet , paradoxically, violent
crime is also a growth industry
throughout the Westcrn world.
There is precious little knowledge
of how to prevent ultimate
nuclear cosmocide, how to have
rewarding marriages and happy
family life, and how to live in har-
May 1981
mony with our–
selves and o u r
physical environ–
ment.
Why?
Needed: New Way of Scien tific
Thi nking
Scientists themselves are not un–
aware of this apparent "good
and evil' ' paradox .
This was very much
in evidence at the
147th annual con–
ference of t he
American A::.socia–
tion
for
the
1\dvanccment of
Sciencc ( AAAS)
hel d in Toronto,
Canada. thi!> past
winter and atLended
by this writcr.
Brit ish professor
John W. Bowker
pcrhaps sum–
mariz.cd man–
kind·s dilcm–
ma most cf-
fcctivcly
when he
referred to
our "prodi-
gious scien-
tific achieve–
mcnts on the
one hand' ' anJ
"ou r
i mpo–
tencc to con–
trol thcir con–
sequences on thc other--an
increasingly versatilc capacity for
sel f-destruction."
H ow then can mankind be
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