07 Nopember 2006 - 04:44
Do not seek in science all the answers to mans problems, says Pope
Benedict XVI says there is no necessary conflict between science and faith,
but technology and scientific progress cannot answer questions about the
meaning of life and death. Scientists should not use their knowledge against
human life.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) Scientific progress, which the Church views with
great favour, cannot lead to the denial of the transcendental. Should this be
done in the name of the scientific methods supposedly absolute power to
predict it would mean the loss of what is human in man. Failure to recognise
mans uniqueness and transcendence could then open the door to his exploitation.
It is these terms that Benedict XVI spoke again this morning about the
relationship between faith and science, sciences alleged absolute power to
predict, and the dangers in denying the existence of God. He did so in an
address to the participants to the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy
of Science in the Clementine Hall.
The increasing advance of science, and especially its capacity to master
nature through technology, the Pope said, has at times been linked to a
corresponding retreat of philosophy, of religion, and even of the Christian
faith. Indeed, some have seen in the progress of modern science and technology
one of the main causes of secularization and materialism: why invoke Gods
control over these phenomena when science has shown itself capable of doing the
same thing?
Although the Church looks favourably to scientific progress, the Pope said that
Christianity does not posit an inevitable conflict between supernatural faith
and scientific progress.
The very starting-point of Biblical revelation, he insisted, is the
affirmation that God created human beings, endowed them with reason, and set
them over all the creatures of the earth. In this way, man has become the
steward of creation and Gods helper. If we think, for example, of how modern
science, by predicting natural phenomena, has contributed to the protection of
the environment, the progress of developing nations, the fight against
epidemics, and an increase in life expectancy, it becomes clear that there is
no conflict between Gods providence and human enterprise.
Man cannot however unconditionally place in scientific progress so much trust
as to believe that it can explain everything. Science cannot replace
philosophy and revelation by giving an exhaustive answer to mans most radical
questions: questions about the meaning of living and dying, about ultimate
values, and about the nature of progress itself.
Furthermore, scientists must also be ethically responsible. [S]ciences
ability to predict and control must never be employed against human life and
its dignity, but always placed at its service, at the service of this and
future generations.
If today the world turns to scientists for solutions to the problems that
threaten the environment and the urgent need to find safe, alternative energy
sources available to all, science cannot presume it can provide a complete
deterministic answer to all the issues of our future.
[T]here is a higher level that necessarily transcends all scientific
predictions, namely, the human world of freedom and history. Whereas the
physical cosmos can have its own spatial-temporal development, only humanity,
strictly speaking, has a history, the history of its freedom. Freedom, like
reason, is a precious part of Gods image within us, and it can never be
reduced to a deterministic analysis. Its transcendence vis-à-vis the material
world must be acknowledged and respected, since it is a sign of our human
dignity.
Baca berita dari Asia News
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