How could a scientist defend the view that science has failed mankind in view of the large number of problems created?

Science has created problems for mankind. Science is a blessing all right, but it is not an unmixed blessing. Science has made life easier and more comfortable. Science has made it possible for us to communicate with each other readily and quickly and it has made travel easy and fast. Machines have enabled man to save hours of manual labour. But science is responsible for the present-day arms race and the threat of nuclear war under which mankind exists today. In view of the threat of total annihilation of mankind posed by nuclear advancement, there is the fear that science has failed mankind. How can a scientist defend this view?

It is a fact that science has given us the spirit of objectivity and positivism that is necessary for the development of human knowledge. But it is also a fact that this spirit, when carried to unreasonable lengths in an unimaginative manner, militates against the original intentions. The scientific method thus becomes misused. The spirit of positivism is exaggerated to such lengths that anything that is not proved by crude laboratory experiments is dismissed as superstition. A complacent world believing in the creation of man by God was shaken when Darwin came out with his theory of evolution and the origin of the species. Science makes us forgot that there is "much in philosophy than dreamt of in heaven and on earth."

The scientist would say that the most diabolical use of science has been in the cause of promoting the baser human instincts and that it is politicians and statesmen who are to blame for this. Man uses science and technology for purposes of aggression; he uses the discoveries of science to win wars. In the past men used only bows and arrows and swords to fight with one another. But today thanks to science, he ha. at his disposal guns, planes, ships, submarines, missiles, etc. The race for weapons has led him to the discovery of nuclear weaponry. He can even carry on biological and chemical warfare. In the Vietnam War harmful bacteria were used among peasants to spread diseases. Chemicals were used to destroy acres of food crops. This is an instance of how scientific knowledge can be abused.

The monopolisation of knowledge and machines has led to the subjugation of one class by another and of a poorer nation by a richer nation. The mass-produced consumer items have captured the market, thanks to machines. This has resulted in the craftsmen and weavers going out of job.
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