Number of points:
First the question isn't quite as dumb as it may at first appear - but I will get to that later.
Second - Whilst I agree with most of the posts here that science yields great advances I do not like the idea that this justifies science. Science needs no justification. Einstein's theory of relativity didn't need the development of GPS to justify it. It is its own justification.
Science is merely one expression of the search for knowledge. That is a driving force for humanity and has been since hunter gatherer societies first developed.
There is, however, a potential problem of science looming on the horizon - which is what justifies the OP, IMHO and all that.
As science develops an ever smaller number of people actually understand it or its implications. I do worry that at some point in the future there will be just a handful of people who actually have the faintest clue as to what science is talking about - this is particularly true of the direction that quantum physics is taking.
I can see a day when a discussion between a theist and an atheist ends with:
"Because God says so!"
"Nonsense, because Lawrence Krauss (or equivalent) says so."
And neither will be able to take it any further than that.
First the question isn't quite as dumb as it may at first appear - but I will get to that later.
Second - Whilst I agree with most of the posts here that science yields great advances I do not like the idea that this justifies science. Science needs no justification. Einstein's theory of relativity didn't need the development of GPS to justify it. It is its own justification.
Science is merely one expression of the search for knowledge. That is a driving force for humanity and has been since hunter gatherer societies first developed.
There is, however, a potential problem of science looming on the horizon - which is what justifies the OP, IMHO and all that.
As science develops an ever smaller number of people actually understand it or its implications. I do worry that at some point in the future there will be just a handful of people who actually have the faintest clue as to what science is talking about - this is particularly true of the direction that quantum physics is taking.
I can see a day when a discussion between a theist and an atheist ends with:
"Because God says so!"
"Nonsense, because Lawrence Krauss (or equivalent) says so."
And neither will be able to take it any further than that.
Kuusi palaa, ja on viimeinen kerta kun annan vaimoni laittaa jouluvalot!
