Risca Gwent
Much earlier in my life I thought I was a son of the Enlightenment. I believed with, I thought ,a lot of justification that the use of reason would solve all problems. Science and Technology were conferring untold benefits on mankind, especially in health and education. The indescribable carnage of WorldWar I was a blip in this unstoppable march of progress to a Utopia . I thought much of the thought in Theology and especially Theology was very interesting , but it did not deal with the real world . If I contracted appendicitis, the condition was diagnosed, I was anaesthetized , out was cut the offending organ and seven days later I was out and about. Without medical skill I would formerly have dies in great pain.
The battle of the Somme in the opening years of World War I was marked by 60, 000 British men being killed on the first day. Millions of young men on both sides of the conflict perished and their names live for evermore on thousands of cenotaphs in western Europe. I believed then that the march to my Utopia was temporarily halted because of a mighty power struggle when the oligarchs of the dominant Austria-German Empire looked to an expanding empire which they could achieve by force of arms.The carnage and savagery of the war was without precedent at that time. But this was a war to end all wars.
I fought in a tank in the last war. Again the world was plunged into a huge conflict in which hundreds of millions of people died, many by summary execution, many in cities destroyed by bombing. Six million Jews were systematically gassed on an industrial scale. Twenty million citizens of the Soviet Union were killed in a barbarous and utterly brutal conflict in eastern Europe. The megalomania of a madman Hitler and his complete contempt for life , including the lives of his own people, were more than matched by the brutal Stalin whose savage and completely inhuman regime was marked by executions based on no guilt of any kind. The narrative of the way in which both the German in eastern Europe were plundered , raped and slaughtered and the way in which the slightest failure of troops to achieve an objective was remunerated by execution, is only now becoming known in the west.. The drive in countless millions of men, women and children was survival
Clearly something fundamental has undermined a belief in the supremacy of reason. Science and Technology have , without argument, conferred enormous benefits on mankind.. Let us take the disciplines of Embryology and Genetics. The issues involving birth; life and death have suddenly become more acute. Birth , life and death are the common experiences of all human beings. Many people hold to the view that all life is sacred. May we ask questions ? What is meant by 'life' ?What do we mean by' sacred'? Sacred to whom?
'Abortion is always wrong' say many. Always? What do we mean by 'wrong'? Science cannot answer this question. If scientists try, they usually dodge the issue.
If the word 'wrong' is used, it can only be used in a universal context. . If one thing is right for one, but wrong for another, it is hard to see that right and wrong exists. They become just a matter of opinion. Here is a profound question that science cannot answer and the best scientists will say that this is a matter for philosophers.
Let us tale the issue of abortion further. A child is dying of an incurable disease. The parents sit by in agony of mind and the child continues to suffer pain. The geneticist is consulted and claims that a remedy is available. If the child can have gene therapy, the child will live. A damaged gene in the child must be replaced by an undamaged gene. The only way to employ gene therapy is to take a transplanted undamaged gene from the cells of a foetus, the foetus must have the same genes as the sick child.. The parents must try for another baby. They succeed and the father's sperm impregnates an ovum of the mother. At that point , many say, life begins for the foetus, although but a single cell and that life is sacred. A human soul is engendered. The geneticist can now take a cell from the foetus , splice it and inject into the sick child and the child is cured. The foetus must now be discarded.
What is right and what is wrong about this life-saving procedure. A sacred life is created. It is thrown into a hospital incinerator by a nurse. Has the nurse no feelings about this? Is the surgeon to be indifferent to destroying life? Is birth to be just an instrument? If so , can we justify designer babies? The undamaged gene has to be taken from cells of the foetus. Which cells? Stem cells or germ cells. The germ cells are the more effective , but this has a great influence on the future of the human race, Perhaps a catastrophic influence.
Science and technology have no claim to answer these problems. They are fundamental questions which can only be answered with reference to personal belief and conviction. But on what do we base our beliefs and convictions? On opinion where my opinion is as good or as wrong as yours? We must have a code of beliefs on which we can base our judgements. Some things are universally right or universally wrong. Only if we have this standard are we able to make a judgement on the example given above.
I have discarded therefore my heritage from the Enlightenment (not entirely, of course.) But I am thrown back on the claim of St. Paul that 'three things last forever – Faith, Hope and Love. But the greatest of these is Love'.
My position is that in this extremely complex world, we are being forced back into Theology where we have to make up our minds where we stand in relation to the Creator. Further rejection of the claims He makes on us is leading to catastrophe.