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This article is an excerpt from Godvernment: Government as God
Sam Harris, in his book The Moral Landscape, makes a wonderful case for how science
can be used to unequivocally define and measure both good and bad, where bad is
what moralists refer to as evil.
He argues that the current morally
neutral stance of science is both hypocritical and unscientific.
He comes at his topic from the
viewpoint of being both atheist and anti-religionist.
The most enduringly valuable
element of his work is that he uses science to demonstrate to scientists and
anyone else who cares to listen that right and wrong, good and bad, are not
relative. They are, in fact, measurable
absolutes.
While I appreciate Mr. Harris’
break from the prevailing scientific hypocrisy, and I agree with his assertions
that good and bad are empirically demonstrable, I know that his approach will
never result in inspiring people to be good, at least not in the finest senses
of the word.
People aren't rational
The reason I predict his ultimate
failure on this front is that his approach is utterly intellectual. The problem with the intellectual approach—the
rational approach—is that people are ultimately irrational.
While we can become intellectually
100% convinced of some fact, until we feel the need to align our lives with
that fact, it will be just as though we were ignorant of that fact.
An example of this prevalence of
irrationality over rationality is doctors who smoke.
Scientific research has
demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt the causal link between smoking and lung
cancer. Yet, because there is not an
instant and 100% incidence of lung cancer in every smoker, some medical doctors
will continue to smoke, regardless of the force of the evidence against it.
This prevalence of the irrational
over the rational results in cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort people
experience when they consciously act in conflict with something that they
intellectually know to be true (or when they hold multiple contradictory
beliefs at the same time).
I hope that Mr. Harris prevails in
his efforts to establish a scientific approach to measuring good and bad, but I
fear that even if he succeeds, his ignorance of the reality of God and our
relationship to Him will prevent his approach from having the power to actually
change the behavior of any significant segment of the population.
Even the consummate cynic L. RonHubbard, the founder of Scientology, recognized that he had to reach both heart
and mind for his self-avowed tax shelter/religion/business to thrive. He incorporated the mystical notion of prior
lives and “n-grams” to motivate people to hand over incredible amounts of money
to achieve the very effects of repentance and obedience to God, which Jesus
Christ offered without money and without price.
Aside from the inability to capture
both the heart and mind (the former concept is denied by science), science
inevitably will fail us for another simple reason: science, at its farthest
limits, is bounded by what the human mind can imagine to be real.
Centuries ago, humanity could not
imagine that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Scientists of that day based their theories
and made discoveries and assertions of truth with the idea of the Earth as
center being the foundation of their work.
Not so long ago, scientists
believed that all things were comprised of just four elements: earth, wind, fire, and spirit. They couldn’t even imagine the Periodic Table
of Elements with its 112 entries. Even
this Periodic Table has been expanded over time from 94 to its current
state. This expansion occurred in spite
of those scientists who asserted that the current table was the complete
catalog of all possible elements.
When Sir Isaac Newton published his
Philosophiæ Naturalis
Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), in
1687, scientists believed that they could explain everything in the universe
through math and reason. With the
reluctant acceptance of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, scientists had
to concede that Newton hadn’t actually figured it all out. With the introduction of quantum theory, we
have a situation where relativity has to be ignored to accept some evidences that
appear to support quantum theory, and quantum theory has to be ignored to make
sense of facts that support general relativity.
Not many years ago, astronomers
thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the universe. That was taught as scientific fact in
universities and secondary schools the world over. Then, they discovered more galaxies and
revised their scientific facts to match the new data. For a time, they believed that they could
quantify the number of galaxies. Now,
with ever more powerful devices, they find that when they look in areas of the universe
which they had previously thought were empty, they find galaxies beyond number.
While I am delighted to see the
progress of science, I cannot put my faith for a knowledge of absolute truths
in any endeavor that is limited by the finite and flawed mind of humanity,
either individually or collectively.
God let us know that our imaginations are inadequate when it comes to understanding what He has in store for us.
"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love Him."
And elsewhere, through his prophet Isaiah (verses 58-59), He said,
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so
are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Finally, He told us plainly that He is more intelligent than all of us put together when He said,
"And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do
exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other;
there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am
more intelligent than they all."
Science will inevitably fail to save humanity simply because scientists don’t have all the facts. Neither do governments. Only God has all the facts.
Follow Tom on Twitter: @ThomasKSheppard
Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM).
The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein.
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