Science

"Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgements of all kinds remain necessary."

-- Albert Einstein"

I believe that the more we know of reality, the better we can handle it. Science is probably the best method we have for understanding reality. This might not seems very controversial, but there are certainly those who would dispute that opinion.

The main problem I see with science is when people fail to see its limitations. Science can sometimes tell us what is true and what is false, but it can never tell us what is good or what is bad. Facts and knowledge supports us in our judgements, and in forming our values; but in the end, it's our ethical concepts and values that determines what we consider to be good or bad. These are subjective issues, and they have no scientific answers. Even if we rule more with our heads than with our hearts, we have to acknowledge that the objective, scientific truth is only one aspect of reality.

Another problem with science, is when people misunderstand or misinterpret it. It is all too common that people draw completely unfounded conclusions, such as to assume that there is a causal connection just because there is a covariation between two factors, or that they assume that the lack of scientific evidence for some thing, is equivalent to evidence against this thing. This is usually just due to lack of understanding of the nature of science, but often people who knows better use science in an unscientific way to manipulate others.

There are constant conflicts between people in the natural sciences and people in humaniora. I'm not certain that this is really a bad thing. Science needs to be questioned. On the other hand, this conflict seems to be founded on a narrowmindedness from both sides. The natural sciences on one side sometimes seems to forget that science isn't everything, and the humanists on the other side sometimes seems to be unable to accept reality for what it is, if it contradicts their values and opinions. Another aspect of this conflict is that people on both sides lack understanding for the basic systems and languages of the other side. They just see things from their own perspective, and when they read or hear something from the enemy side, they fail to understand what these people really mean.

Science and technolgy are very powerful tools though, and they can be used for good as well as bad. For science to be beneficial there are two important requirements:

Scientist must (as all the rest of us) take responsibility for all their actions and act in an ethical way.
Scientists must be aware of how incomplete their understanding of reality is. There are often unexpected side effects when we change things in this complex existence...

Why Green?