Morality of scientific research

[Hermione]

The idea of doing scientific research had always appealed to me until now. Now I am wondering if it’s a moral pursuit given the current state of the world.

I am not expecting that I would ever discover anything, but I am wondering if it would even be moral to try. For example, had Einstein not published his theories, we could very well have been free of nuclear threats right now! Current research in genetics will likely end up making it possible for terrorists to acquire even deadlier biological weapons. I’m afraid to even think of what possibilities nanotechnology could give to countries like North Korea, Iran, and others.

So the question I would ask is if it’s moral to do scientific research at a time when there are countries and people who are doing everything they can to do significant damange to human life.

Do you think God would want a person to do general scientific research that could either benefit or harm humanity, or both?

 

[Alterum]

A very pertinent question. Unfortunately, if “good” countries don’t keep up with the technology, then “bad” countries might overtake us in the long run!

 

[HagiaSophia]

Hermione:

but I am wondering if it would even be moral to try. For example, had Einstein not published his theories, we could very well have been free of nuclear threats right now! Current research in genetics will likely end up making it possible for terrorists to acquire even deadlier biological weapons. I’m afraid to even think of what possibilities nanotechnology could give to countries like North Korea, Iran, and others.

So the question I would ask is if it’s moral to do scientific research at a time when there are countries and people who are doing everything they can to do significant damange to human life.

Do you think God would want a person to do general scientific research that could either benefit or harm humanity, or both?

The first question perhaps you need to ask yourself is, if good and moral people do not enter the field then who are we leaving it to?

The pope certainly thinks it’s needed; he has held the single largest gathering of medical researches in Italy’s history a year or so ago and he has approved the establishment of a research center in Rome to study these various questions now influencing the ethics of stem cell research. . He has appointed many outstanding scientists to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the church has a long history of being involved in research and discoveries of science. Fr. Georges Le Maitre and the big bang theory, Jesuits and quinine, the field of tropical medicine, the astonomy labs now in the US and Italy…one is given gifts, these are God given, surely God means for us to use them to do good as best we can. Me mum used to say, “we are not given the responsibility for what other men do, we are given the responsibility for what we do and so we do the best we can.”.

 

[Darrel]

Hermione:

The idea of doing scientific research had always appealed to me until now. Now I am wondering if it’s a moral pursuit given the current state of the world.

I am not expecting that I would ever discover anything, but I am wondering if it would even be moral to try. For example, had Einstein not published his theories, we could very well have been free of nuclear threats right now! Current research in genetics will likely end up making it possible for terrorists to acquire even deadlier biological weapons. I’m afraid to even think of what possibilities nanotechnology could give to countries like North Korea, Iran, and others.

So the question I would ask is if it’s moral to do scientific research at a time when there are countries and people who are doing everything they can to do significant damange to human life.

Do you think God would want a person to do general scientific research that could either benefit or harm humanity, or both?

People will do great evil in spite of technology. Science has brought wonderful things into our lives. Sin is the reason it is corrupted and that won’t end by suppressing advancement.

-D

 

[puzzleannie]

Science is the study of God’s creation and as such is a good thing. Like all good things it can be perverted by immoral people with immoral intent who place themselves and their science above God. There are immoral scientists just as their immoral parents, immoral priests, immoral doctors, immoral cops, immoral people in any profession or vocation you can name. That does not make the profession or vocation immoral.

 

[Hermione]

But do the benefits of understanding the world and building technology outweigh the risks of giving very evil people the power to destroy every single human being on the earth and for that matter the earth itself?

 

[chemcatholic]

There is a lot of science to study that is not going to lead to the destruction of mankind. You could study new energy sources, environmental sciences, or medical research (not involving embryonic stem cells) to name a few. If you’re worried about something you discover or research being used for evil, then pick an area that won’t come anywhere close to evil.

Peace

 

[ktm]

Knowledge isn’t of it itself evil - actions and people are evil.

No doubt addition and subtraction were used during the design and construction of the first atomic bomb. Does this mean we should never have investigated arithmetic?

 

[Steve_Andersen]

Hermione:

… For example, had Einstein not published his theories, we could very well have been free of nuclear threats right now! Current research in genetics will likely end up making it possible for terrorists to acquire even deadlier biological weapons. I’m afraid to even think of what possibilities nanotechnology could give to countries like North Korea, Iran, and others. …

Scientific papers aren’t like a poem or a novel where if it is not wtitten down or published then it is lost forever

scientists don’t work alone in a vaccum

their theories generally reflect the “state of the Art”
many people are gernally working on similar problems with similar data sets
If Dr. A doesn’t publish the odds are that Dr. B will

regardless of What Einstien did there was Borh and Fermi and a host of others

trying to keep the genie in the bottle just won’t work

the benifits of technological innovations far outwiegh any problems

 

[Ghosty]

If Dr. A doesn’t publish the odds are that Dr. B will

Indeed, it’s often a race. Scientists have to carefully balance doing more detailed research, and getting their stuff out before the next guy. The competition can be absolutely neck-breaking.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

The original purpose of scientific research was to better understand the glory of God’s creative power. The search for knowledge is the use of the mental faculties God gave us. All of this is good.

Like anything else it can be done improperly, or the results used for evil ends. To control this is the challenge of living as a rational being.