Better to die in the pursuit of civilized values, we believed, than in a flight underground. We were offering a value system couched in the language of science.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Flawed as they may be, science and the secular Enlightenment values expressed in Western democracies are our best hope for survival.
If we truly value humanity, life, and all that it represents in its highest form, then we need to do all that we can to promote quality of life over the quantity of life.
We learned the value of research in World War II.
We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Could that have been what happened to the human race - a willing perversity that set at naught all human values which had been so hardly won and structured in the light of reason for a span of more than a million years?
I truly believe in the value that stories have in being able to elevate humanity and make the world a better place.
If co-operation, is thus the lifeblood of science and technology, it is similarly vital to society as a whole.
If you truly believe in the value of life, you care about all of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.
We should not allow it to be believed that all scientific progress can be reduced to mechanisms, machines, gearings, even though such machinery also has its beauty. Neither do I believe that the spirit of adventure runs any risk of disappearing in our world.
On our plane knowledge and ignorance are the immemorial adversaries.