Ethics (5)
A NEW BEGINNING FOR SCIENCE
By John McConnell
Instead of "The End of Science" proclaimed by some, we can now have a new beginning of science. We now know a great deal about the largest and smallest physical items -- from quarks to quasars and from solar systems to galaxies. It's time to focus on the metaphysical mysteries -- which scientists have neglected.
Is there another dimension of reality that accounts for psychic phenomena, for ESP, for miracles of healing and answered prayer? Am I something more than my body and brain? Is there life after death? Does the human adventure have a purpose?
In the past conflicting creeds have sought to answer these questions. Can science, with its logical methods of evidence and general acceptance of its major findings now prove useful not only in the discovery of physical facts but in finding the ultimate cause and reason for their existence? Logic requires a first cause for the cosmos. To exist, creation must have a creator, a creator of ultimate wisdom. The greatest wisdom we can imagine is the wisdom of creative altruism, or divine love. And of course the creator must be conscious of his creation. Otherwise, I am superior to the creator of the cosmos, for I am aware of what I create.
There is chaos in the cosmos. But we know that chaos cannot produce order. Computer experiments demonstrate its impossibility. And, in the midst of the chaos of the cosmos we find the existence of living organisms repeatedly creating beauty and order through the power of love: giving to one another with mutual benefit and benefit to others.
The highest form of life on our planet is its people, who will now decide its future. Let scientists now join the effort for the knowledge needed to make the right choices.
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July 28, 1996