Science, Religion, and Ethics: The continuing debate

1
Science, Religion, and Ethics The continuing
debate
Tuesday, November 26th, 2002

• Seminar presented by Jaime Corinaldi, Erin
  Murphy, Brian Brijke
• Topics of discussion
• The early year of modern science
• Scientific advancements through time and the
  controversy they cause
• Modern controversial scientific research
• The conflict between science and religion
• The role of ethics in scientific study

2
Overview

• The advancement of science has not come easily
  as it has had to deal with opposing religious
  forces. Whether or not the advancements have been
  beneficial to science is clear, however, whether
  they were ethical and deserve the praise of
  society remains unclear. The history of science
  has been dark but if it seems like clearer times
  are ahead, you are mistaken. Presently the
  situation between the scientific, bioethical, and
  religious communities are being tested to the
  extreme as society deals with issues such as
  abortion, cloning, euthanasia ... and many more
  morally perplexing subjects. The centre of all
  this controversy and moral anger spans from the
  same source for both sides of the argument. One
  group finds it ethical to perform these
  controversial experiments in order to save lives
  in the future, however, religious groups focus on
  the human life being sacrificed or religious
  beliefs being broken and conclude the end does
  not justify the means. This debate has been
  continuing throughout human history and this
  seminar examines the past, present, and future of
  this continuing debate.

3
Overview of the ethics and controversy of science
throughout early history

• Early Greece - Science was mostly philosophical
  thinking more than experimentation and
  observations.
• Modern science relies more on experiments and
  observations than the Greek thinkers did.
• The early people did, however, manage to create
  some great structures, such as the Egyptian
  pyramids, and still found some mathematical
  formulas, such as the Pythagorean theorem. As
  early as 2750 BC the Egyptians had doctors
  Science was mostly philosophical thinking more
  than experimentation and observations.
• At the end of the dark ages, the printing press
  was invented. This allowed for a significantly
  easier publication and spreading of information.
  Soon, a scientific revolution occurred. The ideas
  of the past were questioned, and experiments were
  performed to see if the previous theories were
  correct. Many soon failed to stand up to the new
  observations and calculations. The new theories
  caused great controversy when they first came out.

4

• One example of these controversies is the one
  over the Earths position. Ptolemy had said that
  the Earth was in one place. In 1543, Copernicus
  said that the planets revolved around the sun,
  instead of everything revolving around the Earth.
  Galileo was a famous supporter of this theory,
  and found evidence to back up these teachings.
  However, The Church did not approve of these
  teachings, and ordered Galileo to renounce his
  work, which he did do. Later, he again supported
  this view, and again was forced to renounce it.
  Around this time, Kepler developed his three
  laws, the telescope was invented and refined, and
  Napier found logarithms. In 1620, Bacon published
  his book on Scientific method and Inductive
  reasoning. Descartes published his book
  Geometry, and a few years later Pascal invented
  the mechanical adding machine. in 1650,
  Archbishop Usher estimated by reading the Bible
  that the earth was created on October 23, 4004 BC
  at 900 AM, an early example of people attempting
  to determine the origin of the Earth and the
  time. In 1666, Newton developed calculus, a feat
  repeated by Leibnez independently 9 years later.
  Newton published Principia in 1687, defining
  motion.

5

• Witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. which
  occurred around 1692. In 1796, Edward Jenner
  developed vaccination. He discovered the vaccine
  for smallpox, and saved many lives with this
  method. However, how he came upon this method is
  debatable in terms of the ethics. After hearing
  the belief that someone who had contracted cowpox
  could not contract smallpox, Jenner decided to do
  some testing. He got a sample of fluid that was
  infected with cowpox, which merely caused sores
  and scarring as compared to the potentially fatal
  smallpox, and exposed James Phipps to this virus.
  Phipps was volunteered by his father, and was
  only eight years old at the time.
• in 1856, a Neanderthal skeleton was found in
  Germany. Three years later, Darwin published his
  Origin of Species, a book that has caused great
  debate over whether to chose evolution or the
  belief that a God created the universe, a debate
  that still continues to this day. In 1866, Gregor
  Mendel published his work on heredity, but this
  work was largely ignored until 1900,when it was
  rediscoverd

6
Overview of the ethics and controversy of science
throughout early history

• Early Greece - Science was mostly philosophical
  thinking more than experimentation and
  observations.
• Modern science relies more on experiments and
  observations than the Greek thinkers did.
• The early people did, however, manage to create
  some great structures, such as the Egyptian
  pyramids, and still found some mathematical
  formulas, such as the Pythagorean theorem. As
  early as 2750 BC the Egyptians had doctors
  Science was mostly philosophical thinking more
  than experimentation and observations.
• At the end of the dark ages, the printing press
  was invented. This allowed for a significantly
  easier publication and spreading of information.
  Soon, a scientific revolution occurred. The ideas
  of the past were questioned, and experiments were
  performed to see if the previous theories were
  correct. Many soon failed to stand up to the new
  observations and calculations. The new theories
  caused great controversy when they first came out.

7
Science and Religion can coexist peacefully?

• There are several instances where a scientific
  point of view can help to support its theological
  counterpart.
• The Big Bang Theory
• In the beginning there was light
• The Qumran spoke of the nebulae
• There are numerous occasions where science and
  religion contradict one another
• Darwinian Theory of Evolution through the process
  of natural selection

8
The Conflict

• Throughout the course of history scientific
  advancement has come with controversy
• Human Autopsy
• Ethics has confined science and continues to do
  so today
• Human cloning
• Whether or not the fact that the ethical conduct
  is an important part of science has an overall
  positive
• effect remains unclear.

• The tendencies of the extremists, both religious
  and scientific, cause a difficult situation for
  society to create ethical guidelines which
  scientists are to obey in their research
• So what measures can be taken in order to
  accommodate both and reach a reasonable
  equilibrium?
• Understanding where a limit can be made
• If God created man, and man became scientist,
  then if scientist created man, would scientist
  become god?

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The role of Science in Religion

• Science needs ethics to maintain order and
  stability, therefore there will always be a
  conflict between science and religion.
• Scientists try to push the limits
• Many scientists hold strong religious convictions
• The role of religion and science and separated
  but also connected in their work as they have
  found a peaceful balance

• There is no such thing as a simple solution when
  dealing with such complicated situations
• Subjects such as abortion, stem cell research,
  and genetic engineering will always divide
  opinions.
• There will always be disagreement where science
  must draw the line and the line will continually
  expand, however, ethical conduct, even though it
  might hamper advancement, in the end it might
  benefit the scientist

10
A Timeline of Science

• 1923 Production of insulin to treat diabetes
  1925 Teacher was fired from biology teaching
  position for teaching evolution 1927 The Big
  Bang theory was introduced 1942 Establishment
  of the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic
  bomb 1945 the 1st atomic bomb was detonated,
  killing 100, 000 people in Hiroshima, Japan
  1952 the 1st sex-change took place 1953
  Watson and Crick discovered DNA has a double
  helix and the base pairs 1958 NASA was
  established 1960 development of the birth
  control pill 1974 parts of a human skeleton
  were discovered, dated over 3 million years ago

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• 1976 Cosmic String Theory was introduced 1st
  company set up to produce genetically engineered
  foods 1979 1st test tube baby 1982 1st
  successful heart and lung transplant market the
  1st human insulin produced from bacteria by
  result of genetic engineering 1983 Genetic
  marker for Huntingtons disease is found 1984
  technique of genetic fingerprinting is developed
  1st cross-species transplant 1985 gene marker
  for cystic fibrosis is found 1987 The Supreme
  Court of America rejects the idea that the
  biblical creation story should be given equal
  teaching time to evolution in American schools
  1990 Human Genome Project introduced 1992
  Pope John Paul II acknowledged the Vaticans
  error in condemnation of Galileo 1st
  xenotransplant 1996 Pope John Paul II affirmed
  evolution by natural selection 1997 Dolly is
  born (1st cloned sheep) 1998 development of
  technique to culture embryonic stem cells