Pope warns of 'seductive' science

The Pope has warned that science can be seductive, and that it should not become a good in and of itself. I would tend to agree, especially in the age of genetic engineering:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict warned Monday of the "seductive" powers of science that overpower man's spirituality, reviving the science-versus-religion debate which recently forced him to cancel a speech after student protests.

www.theglobeandmail.com... GAM.20080128.wpopescience0128/BNStory/Science/home

The URL doesn't seem to be working. I get "this page doesn't exist" or some such.

The protest was at a university in Rome if memory serves, and was a backlash against something the pope said about galileo, not to mention copernicus.

The RCC has never been a friend of science, if that science threatens them in any way, shape or form.

Here is the link:

www.theglobeandmail.com...

reply to post by Silenceisall


Yes.
And the adjective "seductive" should be understood in the original sense.
(Which ain't as "fun" as it sounds...)

I wonder how many people will misunderstand it... again.






[edit on 28-1-2008 by Vanitas]

I think that in this case the Pope is making reference to genetic engineering. I share his concerns.

reply to post by Silenceisall



Yes, I can imagine...
In my personal opinion - and I do share the fascination with the sheer possibilities of it all -, genetic manipulation, most especially cloning, is about as close as mankind can come to "Satan" - and survive...

But whatever he says, I don't think it's going to matter very much - certainly not to those responsible for conducting such research.









[edit on 28-1-2008 by Vanitas]

Vanitas: I would not go quite so far, but I share your concern. My main problem with genetic engineering is that we are launching into it when we do not yet understand ourselves as spiritual beings. The hard-nosed scientist who is an atheist and believes only in the glory of science is like a blind man. If he had sight he would no be so quick to mess with the stuff of life.

I'm pretty certain he means Kari Byron



Who can argue with that?

The protest was at a university in Rome if memory serves, and was a backlash against something the pope said about galileo, not to mention copernicus.

Oh, but do let mention them.

I would really, really like to know what exactly did he say, and in what context.

Because the last time he was being accused of "inflammatory" remarks, it turned out - as it were, because the media never really let it OUT, not to the same degree as they purveyed the accusations - that it was all bunkum. Worse: intentional "misunderstanding".

I happen to know (as if it weren't known to others...) that Ratzinger is not only an intelligent man, he is also an incredibly cultured man, in the best sense of the word.

And I also happen to be VERY familiar with the media (including the Italian media), so forgive my skepticism vis-a-vis those claims...





[edit on 28-1-2008 by Vanitas]

reply to post by Silenceisall


Oh, don't mind me: I am just in one of my very combative moods today...
(And you did notice my quotation marks regarding the unmentionable, right? )

Anyway, it promises to be an interesting debate.
But I'll have to catch up with all of you tomorrow, because it's almost 11 P.M. here... ; )

Hey God is the ultimate scientist. He made a woman out of spare ribs.
Trust me it ain't from magic.

We're getting there though. We've already starting working on half-human, half-cow embryos. So we will have a race of Minotaur that could worship us.

We could genetically control their lifespan and if we are smart, we'd put them on another world and adjust them to its environment. Like Mars or something. Give them the idea of a place we Gods live on called heaven but make if puzzling so they don't know it's really Earth. Limit their technology so that everything we do will seem like a miracle and then use them for whatever we need without them even knowing it.

It's perfect!

Then again...some liberal will sneak down there and start telling them all that we are secretly keeping information from them, that they are actually slaves and that in order to understand they would need to learn who they were. Knowledge. No problem though...we can just tell them that this buzz-kill is actually the devil and he wants to have them burn in hell forever.

That should work for a while at least.

Hmmm....on second thought it's been done.

reply to post by TheWalkingFox




Fox you stop it.

The Bible says humans should only live 70 years. Thats good so the ignorant people who blast genetic research will die out soon and our great grandchildren will be able to benefit from the technology that ignorance keeps from us.

From my point of view he means, beware of the seductive force that science will bring into your life. People with scientific knowledge will think they are all powerful and can do what they want(whether thats through mind control, genetics or whatever).

Man is stupid without any spiritual teachings, no matter how brainy he or she think they are. I can tell you how rotten to the core people can get when they think they have power through scientific knowledge to control things like other peoples lifes.

Too true, science has never had any ethics attached to it, that saying if it can be done, it will be done somehwere.

Just one last thing, no matter how much scientific knowledge or iq a person has, they will never be able to understand someones elses thoughts. Everyone thankfully has been given there own world to live in, and no one else can interpret that.

That may be against what many believe but its true, and its just one example of what he means, and what possible things may be on us tyoday and in the future.

When the very leaders of your religion become fearful of science's ability to disprove your religion... perhaps it's time to re-visit your choice in faith.

Science isn't a choice, or a faith. It's just a collection of tested facts and deductions based on those facts... if something in your life conflicts with science, the problem isn't the science.

Originally posted by andy1033
People with scientific knowledge will think they are all powerful and can do what they want(whether thats through mind control, genetics or whatever).

Probably because it's true. Be it 100 or 1000 years, man will have shook off his restraints of religion and realised that science is the true answer to our problems. Not a deity.

We can keep people alive far longer than they should live naturally, travel to other planets and if we really wanted to, destroy anything that gets in our way. That's our right, we've got the ability and we should use it at every opportunity. I'm not talking about the destruction, but of all the good we have the capacity to do.

It's people like the Pope who are holding the human race back. Think of a world without religion, of how great a place it would be, so many wars would be averted, so much adversity abolished. For hundreds of years religion governed the genius's of yesteryear and we have suffered greatly for it. If these men and women had simply been allowed to disagree with what they knew was wrong, we could be so much more right now.

The way I see it, if we can clone a human chimera, or visit Mars, or do whatever, why shouldn't we? Because a 2000 year old book tells us not to? i think that's really quite sad, if religion has to stay, it should keep well away from areas it doesn't, or simply wont, understand.

The pope is only protecting the power of church and religion in the worldly matters of science.

He needs to keep his nose in his own business, the church, he have pleanty of problems already.

How dare the Pope stick his nose into something that is of no matter to him.

That would be like me saying 'don't get bogged down with religion, you might just get beheaded/crucified/burnt at a stake/ thrown to the lions...'

I think most of the posters here are confusing the Pope's sensible message with his religion. To me, it does not matter if the point is made by the head of a religion or a guy off the street. I have the same problem that most of the you have with the dogma of religion, but that does not obliterate his point. maybe it would help you to think of it in terms of spirituality and not religion. We are generally very unaware of our spiritual nature and of all that that implies, so when it comes to genetic engineering caution is justified. All he is saying is that science should not be considered a good in and of itself.

[edit on 29-1-2008 by Silenceisall]

What about seductive religion?
To me this is a greater danger, ill stick to science.