Chapter 12: Science Does Not Have An End! |
Professor Wang Xi spread his hands. "As for how the internet claims that Einstein studied theology in his later years – well, that's even more baseless.
"Einstein had clearly stated on many occasions that he did not believe in any religion. You can check this on the internet. Before his death, he wrote a letter on religion and philosophy.
"In this letter, Einstein elaborated his lifelong view of God. Thus, later generations called this the God Letter!
"However, the word 'God' as used by Einstein did not refer to any religious god, but rather, 'Spinoza's God'– the physical laws of the world."
At this point, the professor's expression grew serious.
"It's not just Newton and Einstein. When I was online, I even found a survey circulating through the internet, something called a 'Gallup Poll'.
"The poll states that, out of the 300 most famous scientists over the past three centuries, other than 38 whose beliefs couldn't be ascertained, 242 of the remaining 262 believed in God. There were only 20 non-believers!
"I believe that anyone in this room who's been online would've heard of this poll. Nevertheless, when I reviewed the literature, I couldn't track down the source of this survey. This so-called Gallup Poll was a poll that no one has heard of in academia…
"Moreover, three centuries ago, modern science wasn't born yet. What we now consider to be modern science only has a history of more than a century. Why didn't this survey use a group of scientists over the past century as its sample, but instead took scientists from an ancient era 300 years ago?
Professor Wang Xi paced around as he spoke. Each of his refutations was greeted with utter silence.
"With this suspicion, I still couldn't locate that Gallup Poll. However, I found a contrary survey…
"This survey indicated that in 1914, among the members of the North American Academy of Sciences, 27% still believed in God. But in 1998, this percentage dropped to 7%. Surely this was a rather drastic decline?
"Of course, even if only 7% of those scientists believe in God, that's still a long list of names, heh heh…"
Professor Wang Xi chuckled softly. "I'm sure that some of you must be rather indignant by now, thinking 'You said that the first poll, which investigated the religious beliefs of scientists, is false, so how do you know if this other survey is true?'
"Still, I'm afraid that this survey is real!"
With that, Professor Wang Xi turned on the projector. A screenshot of a document appeared on the large screen.
"This paper was published on 23 July 1998, in one of the world's top scientific journals – Nature, page 313, volume 394. Its title is – Leading scientists still reject God!"
There was a burst of vigorous applause from the room.
"Thus, let's return to the original question."
Professor Wang Xi strutted a little. "'At the end of science lies theology'– since it's neither Einstein nor Newton who said this, who came up with it then? After plowing through plenty of scientific literature, I still couldn't find the answer.
"Therefore, I made a bold guess…"
Professor Wang Xi turned around with a grave expression. "This saying must've come from some enlightened netizen!"
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The students erupted into laughter and many even clapped spontaneously once more.
"There are many similar rumors such as 'Scientists spend thousands of years to reach the mountain peak, only to find Buddhist scholars and theologians waiting for them' or 'Religion without science is blind, but science without religion is incapable of progress', and so on."
Professor Wang Xi was visibly fuming by now. "If you search for those keywords online, you'll find that the internet is full of such rumors. These rumormongers even fabricate various famous sayings that are rich with philosophy. And because these rumors are all 'positive', they would even be spread by authoritative websites to a frightening extent!
"Whereas the posts which refute these rumors are few and far in between, drowned in an endless deluge of rumors…"
After a sigh, Professor Wang Xi continued saying, "I don't deny that there are still many things in this world that modern science can't explain such as the 'soul'.
"I don't know if there are souls in this world, but even if there is, the soul is then merely an undiscovered 'lifeform' or 'natural phenomenon'.
"Modern science has no way of explaining the existence of the soul. This doesn't mean that the soul transcends science. It's only because science hasn't progressed far enough to define the principles of the soul's existence."
Professor Wang Xi laughed slightly. "I know some of you, after hearing all this, will advise me objectively – don't have 'blind faith' in science. I'd be puzzled, nonetheless – when dealing with science, is there such a thing as 'blind faith' or otherwise? You might as well treat science as a religion.
"I don't mean that everyone should antagonize religion. After all, religion is a system of belief. It puts every human and being in the hands of an almighty God. Although it has many flaws, it brought prosperity and stability to humans in an era of ignorance and primitiveness, providing fertile ground for the seed of science to be sown.
"Science is distinct from theology because it requires no faith. At the same time, it holds no opinions of its own; it directly uses empirical data and experiment results to prove itself.
"Our approach to science should be one that discards subjectivity and assumes objectivity because the results of an experiment will not be swayed by human opinions.
"Whether you believe it or not, like it or hate it, persist or relinquish, the results of scientific experiments remain right there!"
Professor Wang Xi's voice slowly rose in volume, brimming with power.
"Science isn't a religion. It's the operational law and the microscopic particle composition of this world. It's a way to describe this world by assembling the demonstrations and conclusions of countless experiments!
"It's a completely objective existence. Whether you've noticed it or not, it has always been there, ever immutable!"
The applause below the platform grew louder. Innumerable students stood up, applauding earnestly.
In the professor, they saw the figures of those scientific predecessors who had dedicated their lives without hesitation to preserve the truth.
Ascoli, who first discovered that the Earth was spherical; Copernicus, who stood firm on his heliocentric theory; Servetus, who figured out pulmonary circulation; and Galileo, the pioneer of modern experimental science…
In that instant, everyone had a flash of insight.
Theology did not lie at the end of science, because…
Science did not have an end!
[ol][li data-annotation-id="8a8d9470-10e8-f84c-66bd-acb126d17e64"]Author might be mistaken here. This first realization is usually attributed to Pythagoras, Plato or Aristotle.[/ol]
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