Science: Friend or Foe?

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Recommended: Write a paragraph on science and morality

Science: Friend or Foe?

Science, a field of study featuring a relentless stream of change and advancements, is widely viewed as both the scourge and savior of the modern world. It is true that science offers solutions to many problems, suggesting greater convenience, technological improvement, and longer, healthier lives. Still, science is far from perfect, a point that many critics are eager to vocalize. Science has been blamed for invoking fear, reaching inadequate results, and supporting the most immoral of studies. Clearly, the opinions and perceptions that people have toward science play the largest part in this complex love-hate relationship. Mary Shelley and J. Michael Bishop have a tremendous amount to say about this conflict amongst people, and they furthermore predict where science will take the world in the future.

Society cannot escape from its dependence upon science. It is worth noticing that nearly every aspect of an individual's life is affected by science in some form or another. The technology people utilize, the hospitals they attend, and the lives they lead are immersed with scientific findings, advancements, and mastery. Most individuals gladly accept these various advancements to their lives; appreciating their convenience and usefulness, society does not consistently look down upon the fruit which science has born. Regardless of these facts, the reputation of science in today's world is not one of flagrant and unrelenting praise (237). In fact, science has been referred to with many angry expressions, including "socially constructed fictions" and "useful myths" (238). The question must be asked, then, as to why science has been the target of severe scrutiny. J. Michael Bishop, leading a ...

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...e to aspire (234). Shelley's Frankenstein is indeed a reminder; her tale suggests that the ends must justify the means, and furthermore that the ends must be wanted in the first place. In a world where scientific advancement seems inevitable and happens everyday, it is clear that there will be no clean end to this complex argument any time soon. The best strategy is to both recognize the good and the bad, the successes and failures, and hope that people's hearts guide them towards the right answers to life's most difficult moral questions.

Works Cited

Bishop, J. Michael. "Enemies of Promise." The Presence of Others. Andrea A. Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 237-242.

Shelley, Mary. "Frankenstein." The Presence of Others. Andrea A. Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz. Boston: Bedford/St.

Martin's, 2000. 231-235.

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