by ProfDave, ©2021
(May 13, 2021) — Reductionism is the logical fallacy that takes the part for the whole thing. I remember these frightening lines in a Chuck Colson article [Breakpoint 1/29/2009]. The world has changed in the last twelve years, but not that much – we still do it. Colson defined “scientific naturalism” as “a philosophy that the natural world is all that exists.” “Other things are subjective fantasy – like love, beauty, good, evil, conscience, ethics” and such things. “Humans are reduced to objects” by this worldview. It is one thing to focus a book or a career on one aspect of reality – and Darwin’s attempt to give nature a “history” is a case in point – but don’t make a worldview out of it. “Things” are not all there is, ever was or ever will be. If that were true, why do we seem to know that persons and things are fundamentally different? Why do we seem to know that it is not right to use persons and love things? Isn’t this the distinction that makes us most human? Perhaps obscuring it is what gets us into such trouble in contemporary society – war and slavery, ethnic cleansing and sex trafficking, exploitation and corruption in business and in public office, not to mention our bitterness towards each other. Once we start treating persons – human individuals – as material things, where will it end?
I recall one sci-fi story read long ago (title and author long since forgotten) in which the hero lost an arm in a laser battle somewhere in the galaxy. No problem. The space service raised clones for things like that. So he goes back to earth to get a new arm. In the waiting room he falls into conversation with a handsome young man in the next chair who looks just like him – except for a missing foot. The hero remembers that he had a foot replaced last year. The young man is his clone, waiting to give him an arm! After an embarrassed silence, the clone assures him that he will be OK, he is treated well. After all, that is what he was born for, but please, could the hero be more careful in the future? Hmmh.
Science is a great servant, but a terrible master. It can only determine what can be done, but it is up to those immaterial “fantasies” to determine what ought to be done. If public policy abdicates this responsibility, many, like the scientists on the Manhattan Project, may live to bitterly regret the monsters they have created.
David W. Heughins (“ProfDave”) is Adjunct Professor of History at Nazarene Bible College. He holds a BA from Eastern Nazarene College and a PhD in history from the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Holiness in 12 Steps (2020). He is a Vietnam veteran and is retired, living with his daughter and three grandchildren in Connecticut.