Science made its discoveries and progressed quite comfortably on the assumption of universal causation without the necessity for teleological explanations or divine intervention. It dealt with a amoral universe indifferent to the aspirations of men, and an ethical humanism was the best that could be hoped for. Even such an ethics need not be universal, for different societies seem to have followed different moral codes which suited them and ethical relativism was the scientific truth about the nature of moral values. Of course, there are those who still cling to the dogmas in the face of science or believe in them in a non-literal sense. But the position remains very much the same although people are no longer optimistic about the ability of science to usher in a brave new world of peace and plenty. It has also been granted that mechanistic explanations of the universe need not necessarily rule out teleological ones. Science too has given up the crude materialism of the eighteenth century and scientists no longer attempt to explain the universe on machine models, while some scientists have denied that strict determinism holds in the sphere of the atom. But all this is still a far cry from religion. - Zen Zeng
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 06:03:01 +0000
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