RELIGION AND SCIENCE
Sir,-There seems to be a tendency in some quarters to lay at the door of Science the blame for the present ills of the world. Apart from the fact that the usage of the term in general sense is loose and inexact-in fact meaningless -we must at all times recognise the fact that wars and violence are no new visitants on earth. They have been, and are, unfortunately, an integral part of life in all its forms as it exists on this planet. It is indisputable that the history of the human species is largely a record of war, fanaticism, and violence.
In a world where the verdicts of the various relevant sciences were adopted, megalomaniacs could never rise to dictators. Nor could fundamentally unethical doctrines such as Fascism and Dictatorism rear their ugly heads. The truth is that human society except in a limited and sporadic manner has not yet consciously adopted as a social imperative the vast amount of empirical knowledge made available by science. It is true that some few departments of scientific know-ledge-chiefly technology and chemistry -have been employed in furthering and facilitating death and destruction, but Science in its entirety cannot be blamed for this state of affairs, There should be no need to employ so obscurantist a term as "spiritual" to oppose the geality of Materialism. The word ethical used in the subjective sense is much more applicable and correct.
LIONEL
COONEY
(Christchurch).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 290, 12 January 1945, Page 5
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242RELIGION AND SCIENCE New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 290, 12 January 1945, Page 5
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