Prof. Wilkins: I have been exploring ways to emphasize certain similarities between religion and science. As I see it, the main point is that the open-minded inquiry of the scientist is not something peculiar to science itself, but is a characteristic of the good way of living for human beings in general. It is equivalent to the religious concept of love, where you are always giving attention to new developments and new possibilities. To say that the essence of science is that you are always inquiring and open-minded is to say that you are in fact living a virtuous life.This, of course, refers to how the scientist ideally works; in practice, you find that it is very different.
Most science is done by established procedures in a more or less routine manner. In my opinion, the degree of open-mindedness in most scientific work is really very little. It is a very limited open-mindedness within established ideas or in a paradigm. So in the work of most scientists today, the equivalent of religious love or the truly noble, in the sense of the morally admirable, does not exist very much. But there is a potential there which is very important. We should remember too that science and religion have in common the aim of seeking and achieving unity.
Most scientists today are being led increasingly away from the fundamental aim of science to achieve unity into rather limited ways of thinking without much open-mindedness and are doing things merely to meet limited material needs. In particular, about half the world's scientists and engineers are now engaged in war programs. This shocking fact does not receive enough attention. Can one say that science is a noble activity if about half of the scintists in the world are working on ways to destroy other human beings? Of course, there are all kinds of arguments about how "This is not for destruction but to preserve peace, to give maximum national security, to preserve freedom," and so on. But ultimately, stockpiling weapons is not the way to achieve such ends. We have to find other ways.
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