Iraq and Afghanistan

The last few weeks have seen a shameful and disturbing display of the power of irrational and antidemocratic religion. The death of the Pope and the display of thoughtless admiration and devotion that surrounded the occasion, as well as the subsequent politburo-like election of a new Pope augurs poorly for the future of us all. The hierarchy he represents, and that the new Pope Benedict most explicitly represents, has through opposition to birth control and abortion been responsible for millions of unwanted and uncared for children around the world. It has been responsible through opposition to the use of the condom for millions of deaths from HIV, particularly in Africa.

But the Catholic Church is merely one of the most egregious examples of the pernicious hand of religion in the world's affairs. The fundamentalist Protestants in the United States have been in the forefront of opposition to medical advances, as well as to the acceptance into the human family of homosexuals. Their partisans have also been major backers of Jewish conquests in Palestine, primarily on the basis of their interpretation of an ancient book that tells them that the Jewish conquest will precede the return of Christ to the earth. Many traditional Jews, on the other hand, have supported the taking of Palestine from the Arabs on the basis of the simple proposition that this land was given to them by God for all time. If it was not in Jewish hands for 2000 years, that was simply an unfortunate historical error.

In India, Hindu holy men enflame the masses to violent massacres in the name of their holy men while in Nigeria Muslim divines managed to hold up inoculation against polio long enough to rekindle its spread at just that moment when the world community had almost managed to eliminate this plague. In Angola we are told that traditional religious healers in Uige have been responsible for the difficulty world and local health officials have had in controlling a vicious outbreak of the Marburg disease.

These are a few examples of the dangerous drag of superstition, especially organized superstition, on the growth and positive use of scientific knowledge and practice. This would not be a danger if this positive scientific growth were not needed to counteract the consequences of a parallel and largely unavoidable negative growth that also depends on science and the results of science. For example, there is more science to control disease, but there is also more disease to control. Development in the means of travel and communication has increased the spread of disease. For example, we are better able to find and control terrorists because of the many means of surveillance and communication available to counterterrorist agencies. But the terrorists have better and more available weapons to use against humanity because science has put these in their hands, just as it has facilitated their communication and movement. Many futurists cannot escape a growing fear that knowledge will in the end lead humanity to a point at which it self destructs. The invention of nuclear weapons and ever more effective means for their delivery seemed in the middle of the last century to herald a fiery end for all. That bullet was dodged for the time being. But science is coming up with many more bullets. Effective international organization and new methodologies and tools can help us battle the existential dangers that are bound to develop as we move forward. But they can only be successful if humanity matures enough to make full use of the science available to them, and international organization (institutionalized or functional) is able to overcome those hostilities based on inherited superstitions and boundaries that lead to the misuse of scientific advances.