Thoughts On Science & Religion

There is a quote by Albert Einstein that may be apropos:

“In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them hither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside
~Albert Einstein

I think science and religion are sides of the same coin - sometimes I think opposite sides, sometimes I think just a quarter side (if a coin had 4 sides) because I think there are aspects of our search for knowledge (such as magic) that we deny and suppress. Science has caused a tremendous amount of suffering and will continue to do so as long as we don't challenge ourselves to really look at what we need. I know I can be extreme in this according to most American standards, but I am willing to trade a lot of moden comforts in order to lessen my impact on the world and use my fair share of natural resources. This is an abundant planet and there really is enough for everyone to live a life of comfort and health...but not if that life includes a lot of wasteful, impractical, next to useless gadgets that are side-effects of scienific research at best, and potentially lethal to people and the planet at best.

This makes me think of a short sci-fi story I read once, I will have to dig it up. basically this guy from earth goes to another planet or alternate earth (I forget which) where he sees a magnificent city filled with towering buildings. At the edge of the city there is a small village of huts. He goes through the city and finds that though it is filled with marvelous machinary and computers and cars and flying machines it is completely deserted and filled with dust. He assumes all the inhabitants must be off somewhere doing fantastic science things and adventures like flying around the world with their jet-packs or traveling via their matter-transmitters or living inside the computers or whatever. So he goes to the village to see if they will put him up. He assumes the people there must be the servants of the city or something like that. The people are friendly but have little to no desire to talk to him about the city and seem turned off by the fact he is so impressed by it. Finally one village man tells him that they long ago turned their backs on that life and way of thinking. The earth man gets angry and calls them fools, and tries to take over the village with the intention of starting the city up again. The village man easily stops him with the just the power of his mind - you see, when the city inhabitants turned away from science they turned within to a life of contemplation and study of the human mind and soul. They learned how to use the mind's fulll potential and tap into their soul's power.

I liked that story a lot and I think that's basically the way we're going to move forward as a species, especially considering that we use less than, what 10% ? of our brain's potential now. I believe we are at a very early or primitive stage of scientific development and a very early and primitive stage of social development and the emotional development of most adults does not match their intellectual capacity...so that with both, we are in effect like a toddler who has learned to start a fire. My hope and prayer is that we manage to evolve as a species before we burn ourselves up.

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