Science is not Enough:
Science is the God of the 21st century. It has provided all the material comforts and physical and mental powers to man. It has shortened time and distance and revolutionized the means of communications. It has invented a number of machines that have relieved man of much of his drudgery (dull, difficult work and physical exertion). Electricity has become a mode of all work. Science has given food to the hungry, clothes to the naked and home to the homeless. It has given eyes to the blind, to the deaf, legs to the lame and life to the dying, so to say. It has enabled man to fly over mountains like a bird, to swim underwater like a fish and to go into the recess of the earth like a rat. Science has carried man into outer space.
Medical science has done wonders. It has given relief to the suffering human race, it has prevented and cured many fatal diseases. In many other ways, science has increased human comfort, safety and happiness. It helped us cultivate an objective and dispassionate outlook of life. It has dispelled ignorance and superstitions. The faiths of yesterday have become the superstitions of today. Science has made us methodical, logical and clear-headed.
Science today is like an Alladin’s Lamp performing wonder after wonder and making conquest after conquest. Atomic energy has brought about a complete revolution in our control over the vast force of Nature.
But if science is a blessing, it is not an unmixed blessing. It has its destructive side, too. The destruction done by modern weapons- atom and hydrogen bombs shows the miraculous but satanic power that science wields today. Science has made modern war very destructive and painful. War today is a naked dance of death, a cruel carnage (killing) of mankind and a period of national and international travan (pain and suffering). Even peaceful citizens- women, children, old men, animals etc. are exposed to bombing from the air and economic blockade from the sea. Inventions like atomic and hydrogen bombs are the fatal gifts of science to mankind. It is feared that if recourse is taken to an atomic war it would wipe out the entire humanity in no time.
The greater the force of Nature, which man has conquered, the narrower has grown his heart. If you have a thunderbolt like an atomic bomb in your hand, you require the strength of anger or a god to control yourself. Science has dethroned God and signed the death warrants of humanity. It has enslaved man and made him a machine without a heart to feel.
Another evil effect of science is that it has made people irreligious and sceptical. Their belief in God and spiritualism is shaken. Science lays stress on the matter and not on the spirit. “Vain is your science” is not the foolish cry of men like Gandhi and Tolstoy.
From the above, it is easy to conclude that science is not enough. Science has, no doubt, given us material comforts but it has denied us spiritual joy. It has deprived us of true leisure and aesthetic delight in things. It has not afforded us any knowledge of the ultimate aim of life- the chain of birth and death and the salvation of the human soul. The method of science is no longer applicable to our inner spirit, to the realization of truth and appreciation of beauty to our emotions and inner recognition of goodness and to over sensitiveness to art and literature. Much that is vital in life is beyond the scope of science. It may not be possible for science to reveal the ultimate mysteries of life and the universe around us.
There are two sides to man’s life- the material and the spiritual. Science rules over the domain of matter but it has no sway over the kingdom of spirit where religion alone is the supreme ruler. There are problems like man’s relation with God and Nature, the question of birth and death, the immortality and migration of a soul, the idea of sin and virtue. These problems science has been unable to explain so far, although they form an integral part of our life. In view of all this science shall have to be supplemented by religion and philosophy in order to have a full and complete picture of the universe and human life.
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