Republic of the Philippines

BATANGAS STATE UNIVERSITY

ARASOF-Nasugbu
R. Martinez Street Brgy. Bucana
Nasugbu, Batangas

COLLEGE OF ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS ECONOMICS AND

INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

ACTIVITY No. 7
GEd 109-SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and SOCIETY
Second Semester, Academic Year 2018-2019

Name : VILLALUNA, ABIGAIL B. Date : March 5, 2019

Program/Year : B. S. / B. A. in HRM 1202 Score/Percentage :
Directions: Discuss on the following. Write the answer on the space provided for each number.

1. Discuss your reaction to the movie clip.

I watched a very powerful documentary clip on our subject that is related on Scientism an
approach to reduce everything scientifically to materialistic, blind, undirected causes it’s the
effort to use the methods of science to explain and control every part of human life. The video’s
title comes from a reference in C.S. Lewis that science turned into religion is just a glorified
form of magic. All of this scientism of scientific religion leads to science as power where science
becomes the dictator of the culture. Since nothing is sacred to science except its own dogma, it
can lead to some frightening conclusions, such as eugenics, euthanasia and socialist and fascist
tyranny and Lewis believed science was good, but it's sphere of influence is, and must be,
limited. As I was watching the video clip I've learned that there is strength in science like any
other great strength, if left unguarded it tends to invade property beyond its borders and If the
only principle ruling science is science, then science will expand and annex whatever it sees
including ethics but that’s not to say that scientists won’t ever restrain science, for men and
women can and often do allow themselves to be ruled by legitimate ethical principles. What
Lewis saw so clearly was what can happen when we suppose there is something in science itself,
rather than in th way of ethics, that we should let run the show. The Magician’s Twin draws
together 10 top thinkers that also gave quotation about our science and with keep interest in
science and scientism. Lewis was not anti-science he was anti-scientism, the belief that modern
science supplies the only reliable method of knowledge. Science has many positive aspects. To
1 ● SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and SOCIETY
Film Viewing-The Magicians’s Twins: CS Lewis and the Case
against Scientism
many, the abilities of science seems almost magical. Although this seems strange, there are some
key similarities and as well as differences Science and magic both have the ability to function as
an alternative to religion. Science ultimately encourages a lack of scepticism and there is a
difference in trust between scientific and historical knowledge and Science as power is the most
dangerous aspect of science's similarity to magic, which threatens the future of civilisation itself.
The critical difference between science and magic is that science work and an important concept
that’s developed in the documentary comes from Lewis comparing science with magic and
calling them twin and he does this by identifying three common characteristics like the ability to
function as a religio, the encourage a lack of skepticism and a quest for power. Lewis is
absolutely right about these. He’s not claiming that science is the same thing as magic or that we
should shun science, but that both magic and science have these three similarities and these
similarities demonstrate how science can be abused and result in terrible consequences such as
have been experienced in world history. All this is done to control or manipulate those around
him. Lastly, Lewis questioned how we can rescue science from scientism and he claimed we
need a regenerated science that respects human rights and honors human dignity that was true in
his day, and it’s still true. Scientists are not moral philosophers that can answer how we should
act or determine what’s worth spending money on and that's all I have to say about the movie
clip.

2. Listed below are the different significant quotes cited in the movie clip.
Do you agree or disagree with them? Explain your answer.

2.1 Only science can save us from natural catastrophe. – John Gray

Yes I agree because If there was ever an example of humankind being

unable to bear too much reality, it is the current debate about on climate
change and that no reasonable person any longer doubts that the world is
heating up or that this change has been triggered by human activity and a
side from a dwindling band that rejects the clear findings of science,
everyone accepts that we face an unprecedented challenge. At the same
time, there is a pervasive belief that this is a crisis that can be solved by
feelgood gestures such as eating organic foods and refusing to fly or
installing a wind turbine on the roof when it comes to deciding what should
be done, most people, including the majority of environmentalists, shrink
from the discomfort that goes with realistic thinking and as long as we adopt
new technologies that are supposedly environment friendly, such as biofuels,
economic expansion can go on as before.

2.2 Forget faith, only science can save us. – Melanie Gosling

2 ● SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and SOCIETY

Film Viewing-The Magicians’s Twins: CS Lewis and the Case
against Scientism
No I don't agree to it because even though science is now the most
important part of lfe you need also know all about understanding evidence
and also keep the faith to everything or everyone that is sorrouds you and
this is one of the many reasons why scientists study the genomes of micro-
organisms that cause disease. The idea that science can solve all problems is
arrant nonsense because here is no cure for cancer despite pronouncements
going back at least fifty years that such a cure was right around the corner.
Moreover, there is not even a sure cure for any single kind of cancer, except
perhaps for the surgical removal of certain skin cancers, if caught in time.
This is because cancer, in its numerous varieties, arises from many, often
interacting causes: genetic predisposition, genetic mutation caused by
chemicals or radiation, viral infection, the failure of the immune system, the
breakdown of body repair systems, and so on. It is the very complexity of
cancer which has thus far defeated attempts to cure. Most people would
probably approve of this kind of genetic research, but there are many areas,
like cloning and genetic modification of plants and animals, that are
controversial. Don't just depends on it we still need a faith on everything and
anything.

2.3 The future belongs to science. – J. Nehru

I need to agree to this because we all depending on science now and it can
be our future and science alone can solve the problems of hunger and
poverty, of insanitation and illiteracy, of superstition and deadening custom
and tradition, of vast resources running to waste, or a rich country inhabited
by starving people who indeed could afford to ignore science today? At every
turn we have to seek its aid and I must say that the future belongs to science
and those who make friends with science and technology. Science will
continue to surprise us with what it discovers and create then it will astound
us by devising new methods to surprise us at the core of science's self-
modification is technology and also new tools will enable new structures of
knowledge and new ways of discovery and the achievement of science is to
know new things the evolution of science is to know them in new ways and
what evolves is less the body of what we know and more the nature of our
knowing and also new informational organizations are layered upon the old
without displacement, just as in biological evolutio and we all must know that
our brains are good examples fo that.

3 ● SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and SOCIETY

Film Viewing-The Magicians’s Twins: CS Lewis and the Case
against Scientism
2.4 Future of Science: We will have the power of the Gods. – Roger Highfield

I will agree since a leading theoretical physicist has tapped the best scientific
brains of the age to provide a startling vision of the future and we have
created a form of artificial intelligence, the computer. We are making the
historic transition from the age of scientific discovery to the age of scientific
mastery in which we will be able to manipulate and mould nature almost to
our wishes. Among the technologies he believes will change our lives in the
coming decades are cars that drive themselves, lab-grown human organs,
3D television, robots that can perform household tasks, eye glasses that
double as home-entertainment centres, the exploitation of genes that alter
human ageing and the possibility of invisibility and forms of teleportation.

3. How can you prevent good from being twisted into evil ends? How can you
prevent science from becoming scientism? Explain your answer.

Science is great. But great for what? And great for getting what? That's what we
ultimately have to choose, and that has been the choice throughout the history of
science. In particular, during war, science has had relatively huge funding into fields
which can reproduce more efficient weapons. Throughout history, at least until
pharmaceuticals became big business, medical sciences have had very little value
compared to military ones. Sciences which acquire more energy get a ton of funding.
Arts which help children discover their creative talents and potentials get almost no
funding. Ultimately, I think we need some non- scientific criteria for deciding what knowledge is
most valuable what it ought to imply about our world view, and what we ought to do about it. I
think it would be dangerous to legislate this criteria as public knowledge rather than private
preference. I also think it's a little crazy to think that it might not be possible to "know" our own
preferences such that "private knowledge" is impossible. This theme also seems to parallel the
increase in the play between public and private rights in social security and freedoms in public
television and movie
dramas and science fictions. While it's a matter of emphasis, we ought to consider
whether the world we want to live in should put public knowledge first, or whether there is
something irreducibly special about private knowledge that we should hold on to.

4 ● SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and SOCIETY

Film Viewing-The Magicians’s Twins: CS Lewis and the Case
against Scientism