Physics invented the atom. All Science uses the atom as the basis of knowledge. Thus all Science is an offshoot of Physics. Chemistry depends on the atom of a Physics. So Chemistry is a subset of Physics.
The biggest mistake in Science is our reliance on Science to provide for our needs and to protect us from harm and danger.
Science has made tremendous progress in those directions. But at a cost. The amazingly useful plastics industry that solves so many everyday problems has now become a monster of pollution that does not want to go away and degrade. Medicine is fantastic in keeping us alive for longer and is thus creating our single most significant problem, which is helping to overpopulate the earth. Electrical power has revolutionized our lives, but generating power cannot shake off the shackles of pollution. Clean energy runs at about 10% of our needs if we are lucky and have no significant possibility of reaching 30% on a full world scale. One billion people still live without electrical energy. By producing an extra billion people every 15 years or so, we need to create more energy at a faster rate than clean energy can develop.
Nuclear power is high but has the hazardous waste disposal problems plus the threat of nuclear annihilation that makes a small nation like North Korea a world danger. New viruses and antibiotic-resistant superbugs plague the medical world. As we find a unique solution, a new risk crops up. We do not win the race against microbes, and we struggle to keep up. We eliminate measles, stop inoculating because of fear of autism, and then measles breaks out again. Which is worse, autism or the harm caused by measles? We are left guessing.
Modern drugs have done wonders to combat disease, but there is also a hidden growing army of drug addicts. Good and bad seem to march in lockstep.
Clean water is becoming increasingly scarce as the population grows, and pollution of freshwater grows with it.
Transport is essential to modern life. Yet choked streets in rush hour traffic is an accepted current hazard. More than half the world lives in cities to survive. But do not try to count all the slums and shantytowns that grow around the towns. Science has developed a throw-away lifestyle that produces mountains of garbage. Few countries have the self-discipline to enforce effective recycling programs.
Money and trade have produced great wealth, but there is no fair distribution thereof. 1% of the population controls about 90% of the wealth.
Looking into the future, there is not too much to be optimistic about. Science creates solutions as well as numerous new problems that will not quickly go away.
Science is not the Saviour that we thought it would be.
Global warming merely proves that Science has enabled us to interfere with nature on a worldwide scale. Science has educated us beyond our intelligence. We make progress but cannot cope with all the unintended consequences and pollution of that progress. The good in Science is being offset by the harm and evil that emerges as a backlash to progress. Scientific knowledge is both good and dangerous. At a certain level of expertise, we lack the wisdom to handle its consequences.
But we eat greedily of its scientific fruit.
Mother Earth is polluted, poisoned, overcrowded, and overheated. Science does not offer us a great future. What have we done to Nature’s Eden? Are we about to be thrown out? Perhaps by the God that scientific atheism has desperately tried so hard to dethrone as it endlessly teaches us that He does not exist?
