Science Ethics and Religion
Uploaded by marlin_tfk@hotmail.com on Jan 25, 2009
The possibilities are endless it seems. Today’s scientific knowledge and technology is ever advancing and increasing. Science and technology has become a bigger part of our everyday lives today than most people might realize. With magazines like “Popular Science” or “Scientific American” being published every month packed full of the latest cutting edge technology and scientific discoveries, it’s easy to see that the realm of science and technology is a major factor in the modern world we live in.
However, the field of science today has morphed to some degree from what it was like say, three hundred years ago when Isaac Newton explained the basics of motion. Today, science is less a means by which we gain an understanding and appreciation of the world around us, as it is an application of that knowledge to utilize and employ the world around us for our benefit. These applications, we call technology. Science has made the impossible possible, and technology has allowed things to be done that no one had ever dreamed could be done. It’s about pushing the limits.
That leads us to ask the obvious question, when should the limits no longer be pushed? Simply because we can do something, does that mean we should? By asking these questions, a whole other domain is opened up called ethics. A discussion of ethics and ethical behavior will often quickly find its way to a discussion about the relationship between religion and ethics.
Science, ethics, and religion are an interesting combination but an important and relevant one today. Biotechnology, the fusion of biology and technology, is a field that often falls under criticism from ethical and religious points of view. Most notably, debates of the ethical or unethical nature of abortion, cloning, and stem cell research have arisen. In order to form a knowledgeable and well-informed conclusion about the ethics of modern biotechnology, it is necessary to study the extent of interplay between these three factors in today’s modern biotechnology and what their relationship has been historically.
First of all, a clear definition of the three terms at hand may shed some helpful light and provide a solid foundation. By definition, ethics is an attempt at creating a system of morals that define our perception of right and wrong. Ethics becomes...