Science, faith & future
Cort, John C.
bloodshed to face the more "normal" hardships of a backward "democratic," and "sustainable" is the newest term, arising economy. It is, unfortunately, too soon to tell. It is not...
...Those dealing with theology and ethics were robiology at MIT, led a successful move to change the agenda surely beyond Marxism and capitalism...
...In some observations made after the meeting Max Stackhouse of AndoverNewton Theological School pointed out that the kind of theolSCIENCE, FAITH & FUTURE ogy sought by many at the conference was "not the theology ECUMANIA AT M.I.T...
...schools can be, have been, and, in most Europe poured into the hitherto.sparsely For most Americans it is the true be- cases, still are, keep coming in...
...Science and technology have become At least the MIT conference reintroduced these aging divorthe functional deity for most of Western humanity...
...Englishman complained that this would include the British Another MIT professor, David Rose, an Episcopalian nuclear Coal Board...
...and "a tendency to escape terrestrial reality by constantly We thought you'd like to know...
...For most of us it was asked what he would like to be, if he dren of men and women who, as some of was the center of community...
...the Mesabi Iron Range was opened at the is just a touch of scarlet at the top of the Despite the mounting evidence of the turn of the century, a veritable flood of maples and an occasional yellow leaf failure of our schools, reports of what the immigrants from Southern and Eastern drifting from the locust trees...
...emphasis added] ("Russia has to import oil"), led the opposition to a The anger surfaced on the first day...
...A teacher had been that for him...
...The vote, with 2. If the scientific community clearly agreed that suchmany delegates departed, was 83 for, 15 against, and 45 and-such pleasurable behavior was good (or at least not harmabstaining...
...flying over continents and oceans...
...They did not trust their intentions...
...great sufferings to the people of the Third World...
...mistaken for divorce...
...time, "just, participatory and sustainable...
...There was James Michener in an interview, testifying to the power of the SEPTEMBER AND SCHOOL schools to change lives...
...A visit to the politics section really want in order to achieve self-determination is guns to further proved his point...
...Except for Cardinal Medeiros, Catholic delecal chemist and chairman of the Science, Technology and gates at MIT, including Vatican officials, were pretty nonSociety Program at Pennsylvania State University, told me, participatory...
...A section on industrial and demand an end to the nuclear arms race, which was environment reported, "Literally every reference about unanimously done...
...Roy, an Episcopalian, thought the U.S...
...And if they are so the expense of development and liberation theologians would much worse, it follows that we are so much better...
...Most on the side, appropriately for the hunters and the hunted, the of the Russian delegates were priests...
...The Reinhold Niebuhr who wrote Moral Man and Im- nomic system has proven more powerful than the political...
...The vote could be ful) for you, but the bishops ruled it wrong, would you try it, or said to be an uncertain vote either for socialism or an interna- abstain...
...Later I read on the Wallnewspaper outside the FINDING OF THE WEEK conference hall a definition of ecumania: "an acute mental DUBLIN (RNS) - Ninety-two percent of the parents of chil- disorder affecting respectable and leisurely individuals" dren in Christian Brothers' schools in Ireland approve of whose symptoms include "hallucinations of church unity" corporal punishment (spanking...
...At one point he described technol- insemination...
...This was a high for abstentions...
...to Theological Studies and Commonweal, in which his But most of the scientists present were already aware of the first published work appeared in 1973...
...Yale, formerly on the English faculties at Manhattanville However, the accommodations were excellent, and some of College, Northwestern University and Boston University, au- the best speakers were from the MIT faculty...
...Of several minds: Abigail McCarthy person's life...
...The schools of the Mesabi Range ing back to those of us who liked going to otherwise dull and formless pastiche of became famous for the splendid physical school or who liked teaching...
...what kind of training should one undertake for a 13-day-andnight conference...
...Clint of more than forty different nationalities boards with fresh displays, reunions with Eastwood, movie great, talked of this and as many languages and dialectsfriends and excited talk of the summer and that, as unclear of what his inter- many illiterate-learn to read and write past and the year to come...
...Privately physicist, supported by Archbishop Kirill of Leningrad owned" was inserted, but nothing was said as to what should Commonweal: 518 replace these organizations other than it should be, one more would you act as though X were true, or false...
...An • The debate over nuclear energy was probably the hottest...
...Though strongly in favor of full-speed-ahead on versalism, (b) communalism, (c) disinterestedness and (d) solar energy, Rose insisted that nuclear was necessary in the organized skepticism...
...About 60 of them, roughly half, issued a written stateDepartment of the World Council of Churches on the subject ment that "we denounce science and technology...
...Maybe the fault lies neither in our stars conference motion to hold scientists accountable for the uses to nor in ourselves, but in our structures...
...bigger and better OPECs," since the only way the poor nations have two things in common, a participatory politics and a will get justice is to join together and force it from the rich non-participatory economics, and in both countries the ecoones...
...A wall Filipino college president who has been in jail since 1972 for poster in the lobby told us that previous conferences of the anti-Marcos activity, shook up the Wellesley conference and WCC had developed "a new economics beyond Marxism or then the MIT conference with similar bombshells: "The chairs capitalism...
...But the reality I suspect we are most conscious improved health care to the poor when the technology they of is ignorance and confusion...
...Most of those present were evidently not ecumaniacs-they looked pretty beat by July 24...
...World, a professor of philosophy from Brazil and a pre- • The strongest opposition to abortion came from the OrGuttierez theologian of liberation, commented on Brown's thodox delegates and the final recommendation was reworded presentation, "This is like the lamb describing a wolf without to call only for a continuing study of the problems arising from reference to its eating habits...
...economics, hoping to hear what this might be...
...reserved the taxes on the mines for educaschool starts...
...Schools were open back-of newly varnished desks, waxed during that muggy week which bridged night and day in order to help the adults corridors, stacks of new books, bulletin July and August this summer...
...In one generation the chilpossibility of the new...
...He replied, "These ecumaniacs are always in training...
...ness, I began early looking for some saving word on how to get Other actions and statements: a more participatory handle on these powerhouses that would, • A small group of students, led by Rudy Prudente, son of a in turn, mold them to some sustainable kind of justice...
...The memories come rush- There was one, for example, in the tion...
...thor of Piers Plowman and the Image...
...The latter too were mostly more humble World Council conference about their own failings and ignorance via-a-vis science...
...School held viewer wanted as were the viewers...
...Robert Brown, profes- moratorium on the use and construction of nuclear plants...
...gaged in monopoly practices and political manipulation...
...There I was no hint of the religion-vs.-science debate...
...Five scientists Alves saw no hope in Christian charity and visibly struggled from the USSR did not come after a negative decision by the with a temptation to vulgarity when he cried out, "Let's stop Russian Academy of Science...
...Fair Footnote: "Just" is an old term, "participatory" a newer enough, but there were mutterings at the insistence that scienterm that is preferred in WCC circles to the more ambiguous tists "accept as the sole purpose of their work the alleviation o 28 September 1979:517 misery of the poor and oppressed...
...The final reports of the sections were more impressive than • Jonathan King, an articulate young professor of mic- the discussions...
...Some of their reaction was so angry that it approached unreaWHAT: A conference sponsored by the Church and Society son...
...28 September 1979: 519...
...Americans, he said...
...interim and probably less dangerous than fossil and biomass Rubem Alves, the angriest of the spokesmen for the Third fuels...
...I listened in on a workshop section devoted to in the plenary hall might as well be filled with cabbages...
...turn their attention to this problem...
...It is a to school all day...
...It is time about conferences is the multitude of words: fine words, movwe listened to the voice of the oppressed so that we do not offer ing words...
...Roy was once chairman of such a group for the "Let's face it, in the postwar era the separation between National Council of Churches, but notes, not exactly enchurch and science-technology has been so great it could be couragingly, "It has not met for a dozen years...
...the pious Christian talk about sharing...
...Alves was partial to analogies "abortion of genetically defective fetuses" as well as artificial from the animal kingdom...
...It is imperative to include in such conferences land, at the Sunday service, with Cardinal Medeiros and school dropouts, more women, minorities, youth, unem- Archbishop Kirill listening behind him...
...Gol- experience had, obviously, been good, whole communities and populations denrod, Fireweed, and Queen Anne's and the reports of school from family and have been changed by the schools...
...His first And I was reminded of the fact that the weather is crisp and pleasant...
...King voted against a Maybe yes, maybe no...
...David Toolan, S.J., with degrees from Fordham, always been magic...
...bloodshed to face the more "normal" hardships of a backward "democratic," and "sustainable" is the newest term, arising economy...
...It has promised to provide exactly the same things that magic did: the means to power, riches, and Georgetown and Southern Methodist, for the last nine yearss love...
...Later reof "Faith, Science and the Future" with a view to the creation written, it read, "We denounce the use of science and technolof "a just, participatory and sustainable society," a goal ogy by industrialized and technically advanced societies to staked out by the WCC's last General Assembly at Nairobi, serve military and economic interests which have brought Kenya, in 1975...
...The Wallne4paper, which served as Joining Commonweal this week as assistant editors are two outlet for anger, frustration and outrageous humor, comnew staff members: mented, "Holding a conference on faith and science at MIT is • Daniel M. Murtaugh, with degrees from Holy Cross and like holding a conference on disarmament at the Pentagon...
...there friends had also been good...
...After a where he was active in ecumenical work, adult education and century of blind trust in good white magicians we have discovsuch groups as the Harrisburg Defense Committee, contributor ered the cloven hoof again...
...He said, "The trouble ployed, factory workers, laborers and farmers...
...He said that he could • C.T...
...The report did not, which their research is put by government and industry, but in however, effectively pursue this line...
...The boy's face lit up...
...The memories come rushing too lethargic to do anything but watch, teachers in the state...
...An orphan in THE TRUE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR dire poverty, he had been given the prospect and possibility of limitless upward mobility by his schools...
...If anything, people seemed to be in search of a new ever assembled, including 313 delegates, 210 accre- `natural theology' with spiritual depth, one sufficiently condited observers, 199 staff, 145 press, from 59 countries, 40 vincing to the mind that it reaches the soul...
...his public address he warned against the so-far successful The economics section report recommended "the breakup effort of big business to exploit new discoveries and avoid of large national and international business organizations engovernment controls in the genetic field...
...An unusually wise tax law ginning of the year, the month when reports filter through the general gloom...
...which is most visible in leading theological circles...
...You'll have to go been the agent of mobility for countless over, has a lovely sound...
...bishops should set up "a task force on Christians and scienceIn a post-mortem on the conference, Rustum Roy, a physi- technology...
...Christian churches, give or take a church or two, including the There was also much anger, particularly from representaRoman Catholic, and a scattering of Jews, Muslims, Buddh- tives of the Third World, who numbered almost 40 percent...
...A teacher had the possibility of school, on to college and into the profesthe little boy in line just ahead of me, being the single greatest influence in any sions...
...When Lace still line the sides of the road...
...Catholic tional Clayton Anti-Trust Act that really works...
...Bright settled region...
...Roy cees, science and religion...
...Confessional' theology and `dogmatic' theology were largely ignored-as were those modes of theology which draw on W HO: Probably the largest and certainly the most im- linguistic analysis, literary criticism and sociology of knowlpressive accumulation of scientists and religious types edge...
...Kurien, director of the Madras Institute for Develoffer "no solution," but later told me that "what we need is opment, scored when he pointed out that "India and the U.S...
...had not become Clint Eastwood, star...
...Frankly, I was Most of us still lust after the fleshpots of the technological reminded of the sermon of Bishop Habgood of Durham, EngEgypt...
...He them used to reminisce, grew up in "Oh, oh, oh," said the checker in the would have liked, he said, to have been a earthen-floored huts, were out of high supermarket making conversation with teacher...
...way when atrocities have no ideological or geopolitical sig- WHEN: July 12-24, 1979...
...NEW EDITORS WHERE: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts...
...Are we...
...All over the country "I can hardly wait," he said...
...But English and prepare for their citizenship both the comfort of the familiar and the his face lit up like the little boy's when he examinations...
...I asked an exhausted delegate nificance, when they are "only" atrocities...
...People, however, also used to be scared of their assistant professor of theology at Canisius College in Buffalo, magicians...
...sor of astronomy at the University of Sydney, Australia, had Over a third of the delegates either voted against a moratorium been saying nice things about the scientific ideals of (a) uni- or abstained...
...national sample of Catholics: JOHN C. CORT 1. If the scientific community clearly agreed that X was (John C. Cori is editor of the newsletter Religion and true, while the pope and the church ruled that it was false, Socialism...
...protect themselves from people like us...
...lavia was more free with Marxist self-criticism...
...A Russian delegate was unhappy...
...The grounds for reconciliation were proposed that this notion be tested by trying two questions on a cleared, if not entirely smoothed...
...moral Society would have understood the problem, and mil- Since all parties quickly agreed that science and technology lions of workers who have learned the hard way that in union were putty in the hands of government and transnational busithere is strength would have agreed with the solution...
...cloven hoof and were looking, almost pleading, for some kind of exorcism, some kind of grace, salvation, help from the apostles of theology...
...Do the men and women who lead or work in support it if Third World countries would quit buying arms at TNC.'s constitute a special type of being...
...It is not too soon out of the debate over limits of growth, oil, nuclear energy, to note again how tempting it is for the world to look the other etc...
...We feel a that Barbara Walters summer special plants, libraries and good salaries with lifting of the heart, a sense of new begin- which caught many of us, mindless and which they attracted some of the best nings...
...SALT II was supported but a resolution.on TNC's [transnational corpotations]during this conference was unilateral disarmament lost after a Russian said he would unfavorable...
...ists and some with no visible sign of religious support...
...lovely month...
...of God and various WHY: A woman speaker, Kerstin Aner, Sweden's Underscholarly articles, whose first contribution to Commonweal Secretary of State, put it as well as anybody, "Science has was published in 1969...
...ogy as a dragon to be killed and at another remarked that the • Almost without exception the Russian delegates said eyes of tigers are in the front of their heads and the eyes of deer nothing that would have made Brezhnev uncomfortable...
...The schools had SEPTEMBER, if you say it over and "First grade this year...
...A scientist from Yugosrich and the poor nations...
Vol. 106 • September 1979 • No. 17
