SCIENCE’S ROLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1938, Page 8

SCIENCE’S ROLE

PLACE IN CIVILISATION. Ours is a civilisation which has cherished science, which has given freedom to science, which has adopted the spirit and applied the results of science in a degree that no civilisation in history has done, say the “Christian Century,” in comment on the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Science has become the common denominator of civilisation. So when scientists rise to defend their freedom and offer science as the cure of our social illness, it is inevitable that they will be asked to give a steward’s account of the freedom which science has enjoyed in the past. Any attempt to answer this demand will lead, in our opinion, to the conclusion that science itself is part of the problem which civilisation now confronts. The scientific movement as a whole has been too proud; it has claimed far too much for itself; its messianic role is considerably deflated in the face of the present debacle which threatens mankind. For civilisation now confronts no question so profound as this: What to do with the knowledge which science has given us? Our knowledge has outstripped our devotion. The springs of faith and humility > have been allowed to dry up. In his preoccupation with science, man has made an idol of his own knowledge and has follen down before it.