the reach of science

listening to: Thrice - The Abolition of Man

i love philosophy.

Our trust and belief in science is interesting. Some think it can, does and will give us the answers of our world. Scientism (please don't confuse with scientology) wasn't always so prominent, mainly because science itself hasn't always been around as it is today. Once science and the scientific method showed us the potential it had for gaining knowledge, we devoted ourselves to it. We looked to it for understanding and answers, answers for everything. We ask science to give us meaning and purpose, but that's wrong.

Science is based on the scientific method and the controlled experiment. You have a hypothesis and you test it under varying conditions to come to conclusions. The thing about control though is that we cannot control everything. The realm of science is therefore limited only to things that we as humans can control, and we can only control what is under us, inferior to us. Science leaves no room for something greater than we are. This is why science and religion clash. Science can provide no meaning for life or reason to live (other than perhaps living for the sole purpose of continuing the species). Science can't quantify, control or prove religious experiences, so they end up opposing each other. We ask science to give us meaning, but it's out of the scope of science to do that. If we are to have a meaning for our lives, it has to be something that is greater than ourselves. Science holds no ground with things beyond us as humans.

The more we comprehend our world (understand via science) the more meaningless it becomes to us. The greater faith we put in science to give us all the answers, the more disillusioned we'll become when science can't give us those answers. When the only source we trust for knowledge can't give us the knowledge, we'll assume that there is no meaning to the things we don't have answers for. Mainly, science can't give a meaning to life, so we'll end up concluding that there is no meaning.

I believe science is approaching the ultimate extent of its reach. I don't mean to say that I don't think we can get much more technologically advanced than we are now, but science has been reaching into the realm of humanity, what it means to be human. I'm talking about robots, artificial intelligence. We're attempting to create man from machine. When we make that robot that is as fully "human" as we can create, I think we'll soon find out just what it is that makes us truly human, and it will be more than we could ever instill in anything by our own hands.

Science and religion are opposed to each other only because we believe that science can answer the same questions that religion can, but that is overstepping the bounds of science. We can gain no meaning, only information from science. It's not the scientist's fault, we as a society, as a world expected too much from something that is limited only to what is beneath us. There's more to being human than chemical reactions.

"The Abolition of Man is within,
the reach of science,
but are we so far gone that we'll try it?"
-Thrice - The Abolition of Man-

Wake up, everyone,
It's not too late,
To save the remnants of our hearts,
So stop giving up,
Our last shot at love;
Our only chance to find the meaning of,
The beat beneath the blood.

We laugh at honor and are shocked when,
We find knives in our backs;
We follow those who cheat and steal.
Look, in my eyes,
You won't find your way back;
Our only compass smashed under,
Our own heels.

Reason abandoned to appetites,
And addicts’ arms.
Shotguns and silence,
Have always been the best of charms.
…
The Abolition Of Man is within,
The reach of science,
But are we so far gone that we'll try it

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the video also has Deadbolt in it, the first song ever heard by Thrice, and one of my very favorites to this day.