October 4347Written by: Structural engineer Lyn Kopp, Ambassador of the Ataraxian Confederation
The Hosian Democrats recently won a majority (55.6%) in Adelia and became the second largest political party in Hutori. Normally this wouldn't concern us if not for the religiosity of the party. The "Religious Change Act" sought Hutori to adopt a state religion, promote religion in schools, and give special tax exemption to religious organizations. Fortunately the bill was supported by nobody except the Hosian Democrats, who felt that religion will "protect us from hardships and corruption". Now, we normally like to keep a distance from Hutorian internal politics, but we have a vested interest in promoting technological development throughout Hutori, something we believe is highly dependent on the nation's focus on science and technology. Thankfully despite the Hosian Democrats religious focus, their track record seems fairly promising. For example, they supported a national space program and the adoption of environmentally-friendly fuels. Our concern with them lies with their attempt to corrupt the education system and national identity with a religious zeal, but also primarily in the following statement:
Elizabeth Love wrote:Our belief is that scientific advancements while good, do not amount to the supreme power of our Elyon. We hope that the Ataraxians will see the error in their sinful ways, by trying to advance beyond the natural world they are destroying any relationship they once had with Elyon. We can only pray that they will awaken and destroy these ridiculous communes and live a life of faith and religion.
This statement ironically comes from a party that claims to promote "peace" and "love". Not so loving of them to encourage the self-destruction of entire communities in the name of "faith". Their love of the "natural world" is also troubling.
Of course we cannot escape the actual natural laws of the universe, that is the laws of physics. We will however try to free humanity of disease, improve technology, and continuously strive to build a smarter, more connected, and ultimately more knowledgeable world. We could care less if this brings us less closer to an apparent omnipotent being who has seen fit to send us zero technical documentation and ultimately leave us to our own devices. An omnipotent being who seemingly only exists in human imagination.
Here's the main problem with religions today. They claim that their purpose is to fill the human need for hope and faith. They are however a rather miserable thing to have hope and faith for. Religion has never cured a disease, it has never solved a problem of engineering, nor has it objectively made any contribution to human progress. As a conduit for hope, it is useless. Science has brought humanity a higher standard of living, has brought the world together through mass communication, and has enabled people to be free of many terrible diseases that plagued former generations.
Hope and faith is important and it is especially important that we have hope and faith for the right things. Science has proven to have the capability to solve our modern problems. Why not have hope for that? Why not have optimism (faith if you will) that through investing in scientific research, we can develop better technologies that in turn we make our world a better place. Why not instead of promoting blind devotion to religion, we promote critical thinking, evidence-based conclusions, and the ability of science to enlighten us about the functions and true laws of the universe.
Science is not a religion, as unlike a religion, it is constantly adapting itself to new evidence. This is how we have been able to create vaccines and give people arguably a better life. So, what if that brings us away from the "natural world". The natural world is a place of disease, of brutally slow evolution and frankly, a place of barbarity. If we are as a species to succeed, we must use every tool we can muster to improve our lives and the world. There is absolutely no point in keeping us in the dark, of promoting ignorance, or being shy of technological progress.
Science doesn't do itself and praying isn't going to help us either. What will help us is rigorous scientific research and development. For that we need intelligent engineers and scientists who rely on rational, critical thinking to solve problems. Let's put our ignorance behind us. Let's embrace the only proven method of understanding and improving the world: S-C-I-E-N-C-E.