Science - Good And Bad?

[EnigmaticOne]

I didn't read all this thread so dunno what the general outcome is....

my thought on science is that it has brought us some valuable knowledge and probably saved many lives antibiotics for example....it has led to an understanding of how the world around us works. (on a cellular level)

The flipside is that science has also caused the loss of many lives, the atomic bomb for example, and I'm not happy with how science is progressing. Mutant and genetic modification and other ethical issues worry me greatly about science. The continual pushing of boundaries scares me....cos where will it all end?

I also fully believe there is, in some big secret underground type lab thing, a cloned human somewhere.....

you mark my words....

Edited March 27, 2007 by EnigmaticOne

[kilgore trout]

I just find life extremely unsatisfactory without the notion of an underpinning and sustaining Reason.

Even if there is indeed "No Reason", it does not address the fact that for some of us, the Reason is everything.

at the moment you have no solid reason for existance, but ya are doing fine, eh? so ya need no reason for your existance, ya have survived thus far without one.

i have no idea wether there is a goal we are all existing for, but it seems to me, from experience, that i can be perfectly happy being completely clueless about the greater meaning of life, wether there is one or not.

so it seems to me that a meaning to life is not essential to my enjoyment of life, its something, like my personal worth, that its best just to put to one side, while i get on with the fun (or pain) of living.

it seems to me that the quest for a meaning to life is just to try and answer the question "am i safe?" in all its forms, such as "is there a god?" "am i a good person?" "is the universe just?"

[Arnold Layne]

at the moment you have no solid reason for existance

Urm, I would beware assumption KT

I have a view of things, hard to explain in words but a view none the less.

Edited March 27, 2007 by Arnold Layne

[squirrel]

5. There may not be a reason for existence.

But we don't know, and that's frustrating. Although if there is a reason, it might easily not be comprehensible to us.

Personally I find it hard to believe that everything, us, the animals, the planet itself, happened by blind chance. Evolution certainly does happen, but I'm not convinced it's the only thing going on. Something seems to send DNA software updates, telling it how best to modify the organism to take advantage of/survive through local conditions. Perhaps it's a failure of my imagination, but I don't think just random mutation plus survival of the fittest and a very long timescale can account for the huge changes in form animals have undergone. How do you evolve from a fish into a land animal, or from a land animal into a dolphin or a bird? Only with some form of intelligence making carefully thought-out tweaks to the design of the organism, I submit.

[Boojum]

The question of meaning is one for philosophers and, yes, religion (that's what religion is REALLY about, the rules & dogma are to my mind human additions about control, the real point of religion is to try and explain the metaphysical questions, why are we here, what is the reason for existence, what is love, why should we care ?). I don't think it's a question science can answer. And religion doesn't have THE answer, it merely asks the question, it's up to you to find your own answer. That's why I'm not keen on organised religion, too much focus on the rules. Religion is a personal thing, it's about finding your answer in your own heart. They are the 'truths' that go beyond 'fact'.

[Father McPot]

And religion doesn't have THE answer

Of course it does...

You just have to open your heart to jesus :wink:

[Arnold Layne]

The question of meaning is one for philosophers and, yes, religion (that's what religion is REALLY about, the rules & dogma are to my mind human additions about control, the real point of religion is to try and explain the metaphysical questions, why are we here, what is the reason for existence, what is love, why should we care ?). I don't think it's a question science can answer. And religion doesn't have THE answer, it merely asks the question, it's up to you to find your own answer. That's why I'm not keen on organised religion, too much focus on the rules. Religion is a personal thing, it's about finding your answer in your own heart. They are the 'truths' that go beyond 'fact'.

I'm reading from the same beermat Booj

Pint?

[Boojum]

Don't mind if I do

[GREENDUP]

Reality is full of wierd shit like religion and science and theres no escaping it arghhhhhh bastards!

[utokia]

If science was able to discover how the universe/life was assembled - the code.. would they make it open-source?