When Science Kills Hope

For some reason, starship travel has never been a pipe dream of mine. A desire to exceed the speed of light in my travels has never occurred to me. The possibility of meeting aliens or UFO encounters doesn't excite me. I have zero desire to introduce genetic modifications into my future offspring. The option to defy death is not something I'm interested in.

I'm writing this on an excellent computer. Still, I'm not sure that I enjoy my computer any more than I used to enjoy the effect of a newly sharpened pencil on a crisp white sheet of paper or the feel of making my way through the smooth pages of a mammoth encyclopedia, or the fun of recording favorite songs off the radio onto a stuttering cassette tape or viewing a classic movie on a flickering, whirring VHS bought at a car boot sale. The truth is that progress is complicated; it isn't always for the better, and in the process of making room for the new, it often kills the old. Even if we had the opportunity to experience the thrill of a brand-new autonomous vehicle, we will undoubtedly long for the days we got behind the wheel ourselves. While we enthusiastically welcome technological advancement, we often fail to appreciate the many things it eliminates.

Development occurs in both directions. Science has some benefits but also drawbacks—possible side effects of treating one illness with another. Inconvenient adverse reactions to medicine are inevitable. The current pandemic shows that all medical treatment is a balancing act between evils. Which is excellent, so long as the patient's needs come first.

Nonetheless, there are ethical concerns when medical care is contingent on payment. As research and commercial funding appear to go hand in hand these days, this raises the question of whether or not corporate interests will trump those of patients. The recent increase in the wealth of New Tech is not a good sign for the general populace. After Bezos has won over his customers and wiped out the competition, he will put profit ahead of anything else. Hope for a better future, more material comforts, and the promise of scientific salvation rests today on corporate profits and economic growth.

Certain technical advancements have been shown to benefit society, but there is far more evidence that the wealthy elite is benefiting from these developments. To make matters worse, these would-be multibillionaires decided to intervene just as we realized the potential of accessible mobile communication and internet access. At first, our thoughts may turn to "who can we save?" but then, "how much money can we make?" The Covid era showed we care more about keeping the big company afloat than preserving human lives. The jingle of cash registers can be heard as we unravel the mysteries of the known cosmos. This would be wonderful if the earnings were being put towards paying down national debts, enhancing public services, or protecting endangered animals. Plenty, however, to demonstrate that the market for luxury items has been artificially inflated.

How does this affect who we are and how we live our lives? 

It will have an overall detrimental effect. Once again, our society had regressed to a time when people believed that if they built a tall enough tower, they might be able to see God in the clouds. Instead of being motivated to provide shelter for many people, the Tower of Babel was built out of sheer hubris. Its eventual collapse set back scientific progress by centuries. This suggests that there may be a countervailing relationship between wealth and decency.

Don't get me wrong; exploring uncharted territory is an admirable goal, but in today's world, Babel serves as a rocket ship for billionaires who are constantly on the prowl for the next big thrill. Branson is ready to fulfill, at least for some people, their curiosity about weightlessness and the globe's curvature. While some of us dig through the couch cushions for an extra £175k to pay for a ticket, millions more are curious not about weightlessness and the curvature of the Earth but about whether or not they will be able to feed themselves, clothe themselves, and provide a good education for their children, all of which remain well beyond the reach of even the most competent politicians. But what good is a house on Mars when affordable housing is still a problem on Earth, where climate change is already wreaking havoc on urbanisation? Is science becoming an exclusive club that caters to a select few while dashing the hopes of the masses? To illustrate this point, imagine that a group of scientists, backed by billionaires, discovers the formula for eternal life. Would the method be implemented globally? Or, to be more realistic, how many people would be permitted on space rockets if we had to flee our poisoned planet (poisoned by terrible economic choices)? Who can afford self-driving cars, domestic robots, or genetic alteration, among a thousand other possible futures?

If only a select few people are in heaven, it's not heaven. Only those who put their faith in God can be saved. Jesus is the pilot of our sole available escape craft. Hope in the Lord, the Bible promises, "will refresh our strength," and "the God of hope will fill us with pleasure and peace" (Romans 15:13). Science (Psalms 111:2) and riches (Deuteronomy 8:18) are both gifts from God, and they can certainly be used to our advantage; but, science that is taken out of God's hands and hijacked by selfish financial desire is not just wrong but deadly.

To boil down the existential crisis: in the eyes of science, everything counts, but nothing has any significance

Everything that can be observed is essential to science, but nothing is significant because nothing exists outside of matter. Together, matter and money have created a new article of faith: the belief that everything else is irrelevant. As a result, we pin our expectations for contentment and joy on material possessions that provide only temporary satisfaction. At the same time, we dismiss the more pressing issue of ensuring our species' long-term well-being (and its eventual salvation in eternity).

The inverse is true in the Christian religion. That everything is meaningless, yet everything is meaningful at the same time

The matter is as nothing; it is dust to the religious mind. Hence the shape of the Earth or the coming of extraterrestrials are of no consequence. But to the religious mind, everything has significance because we have hope for an eternity of tranquility in the presence of the Almighty once we die. So, hope can be restored via faith in God, the only solid foundation to build. Everyone who believes in something other than God will be let down.

And how exactly does that faith in God bring about that feeling of optimism? In other words, if I am a parent who cannot afford shoes for my children, but I have faith that God will provide for us anyway, then the lack of shoes is of no consequence. I tell my kids that when they run barefoot through the streets, they can connect to the world, have a deeper appreciation for creation, and discover a more profound purpose in their lives. Unreachable things like the sun, stars, and moon are celebrated in art, romance, and fantasies, all of which add to the wonderfulness of existence. Meanwhile, the marriage of science and finance fuels a never-ending quest for profit and developing ever-more-expensive consumer items. Dreams of owning a superyacht, race automobile, or space rocket can only provide temporary gratification to the physical senses before being cast aside with the other used toys of yesteryear. Meanwhile, kids who wear generic or no-name sneakers while running consider themselves duped.

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