Science destroys morality

Overview

Proponents of religion, especially religious fundamentalists, often claim that science destroys morality and cheapens human life.

This is completely wrong and arguably backwards, in that religion is much more often responsible for tremendous lapses in morality, whereas science goes to extreme lengths to overcome personal bias in seeking the truth and is thus much less amenable (than religion or even everyday, non-structured moral philosophy) to corrupting influences (e.g. powermongery).

This argument frequently arises in conflicts between science and religion, in the ongoing political war on science, and in anti-science writings in general.

Links

News

• 2008: The creationist movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed argues that science leads to Naziism
• 2007-04-17 in 1999, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay stated that science was the cause of the 1999 Columbine shooting. In 2007, creationism activist Ken Ham offered the same explanation for the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings.
  • VT Tragedy Caused By Science at The Drudge Retort (with comments, but not particularly edifying)
  • The inevitable attack on science at Crooks and Liars (same post, but without comments)