one is the belief that the end justifies the means... that pushbutton philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering that has become the monster in the war machine.
the other is the betrayal of the human spirit. the assertion of dogma that closes the mind and turns a nation, a civilization, into a regiment of ghosts. obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts.'
it's said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. that's false -- tragically false.
look for yourself. this is the concentration camp and crematorium in auschwitz where people were turned into numbers. into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people and that was not done by gas. it was done by arrogance. it was done by dogma. it was done by ignorance.
when people believe that they have absolute knowledge with no test in reality, this is how they behave.
this is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
science is a very human form of knowledge. we are always at the brink of the known. we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. every judgement in science stands on the edge of error and is personal.
science is a tribe to what we can know although we are fallible.
in the end, the words were said by oliver cromwell: 'i beseech you in the bowels of christ... think it possible you may be mistaken.' '
- jacob bronowski, 'the ascent of man'
