Essay/Term paper: The fear of science

Essay, term paper, research paper:  English Term Papers

The Fear of Science

To live in the today's world is to be surrounded by the products of
science. For it is science that gave our society color television, the
bottle of aspirin, and the polyester shirt. Thus, science has greatly
enhanced our society; yet, our society are still afraid of the effect of
science. This fear of science can be traced back to the nineteenth century
where scientist had to be secretative in experimenting with science.
Although science did wonders in the nineteenth century, many people feared
science and its effects because of the uncertainty results of science.

Our thrist for science can be traced back through many decades.
However, the nineteenth century society felt that science was a great
investment towards a better life. This investment in science gave the
nineteenth century society the discovery of light waves and radio waves,
the electric motors, the first photograph and telephone, and the first
publication of the periodic table. Science also caused an uproar in
society when Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, which became
the scientific basis for the study of the evolution of humans. Many people
in the nineteenth century detested Darwin's theory of the evolution of man
because it went against their religion, which believed that God created the
world. Science, soon, developed the big bang theory, which states that
earth was created by the attraction of atoms. The nineteenth century
society was afraid of science because it contradicted their beliefs, and
was afraid that the results of science would lead to the destruction of
mankind. Thus, the study of science was limited because of fear of its
effects.

The fear of the effects of science was expressed in literature.
Novels like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Time Machine, and Frankenstein
showed the dangers of science and that science would soon lead to the
destruction of mankind.

The novel Frankenstein is about a man name Victor Frankenstein who
wanted to tamper with life and death by "exploring unknown powers, and
unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation." (Frankenstein, pg.40)
He acquired the knowledge of science when he attended the university of
Ingolstadt, and once the knowledge of science was gained, Frankenstein went
to his secret laboratory to create a creature with gigantic stature. At
first, Frankenstein had doubts about creating a human being; however, with
"the improvement which every day takes place in science and mechanics, [he]
was encouraged to hope [his] present attempts would at least lay the
foundation of future success." (Frankenstein, pg.47) Once Frankenstein
created his human being, his dream was vanished because he had accomplished
his dream. His dream of creating a human being soon turned into a nightmare.
For Frankenstein created a monster who had no identity, and was willing to
murder all of Frankenstein's loved ones if Frankenstein did not create
another female creature. Victor Frankenstein refused to create another
female monster to accompany his monster. Thus, the monster felt that he had
no choice but to take away Frankenstein's family, just to show how Victor
Frankenstein would feel being alone in the world. The murder of William
Frankenstein (Victor's younger brother) caused Victor to believe that his
own creature had murdered his younger brother because "nothing in human
shape could have destroyed that fair child." (Frankenstein, pg.74)
Frankenstein knew from then on that he had "turned loose into the world a
depraved wretch, whose delight was in carnage and misery." (Frankenstein, pg.74)
Frankenstein's monster caused "the death of William, the execution of
Justine (a servant of the Frankenstein since childhood, who was framed by
Frankenstein's monster), the murder of Clerval (Frankenstein's closes friend
since childhood) and lastly [Victor's] wife (Elizabeth Lavenza)."
(Frankenstein, pg.213) Frankenstein not only blamed the murders of his
loved ones on his monster, he blamed himself for creating the monster.
Throughout Frankenstein, the words "friend, monster, daemon, vile insect,
enemy, and abhorred devil" were used by Frankenstein to describe the monster
which he had created. In a way, the monster is protrayed as science and
Frankenstein's fear of and hatred towards the monster or science is
expressed throught Frankenstein. Thus, Frankenstein is a novel which
proved to society that science is dangerous. That, we should not tamper with
life using science since it will only lead to disaster.

Another novel which expressed society's hatred and fear of science
through literature is the Time Machine. The story is about a Time Traveller
who believed that there was no difference between Time and any of the three
dimensions of space except that the consciousness of a human being moves
along Time in a single direction from the beginning to the end of his or her
life. He secretly experimented with his theory by building a machine that
could travel in any direction through Space and Time. Like Frankenstein, in
the Time Machine, the Time Traveller had doubts about his creation of the
time machine, for, he knew that the time machine could destroy him. When he
did succeed in time travelling, his machine was stolen by the Morlocks, and
he was afraid that he would be stuck in an unknown world forever, he
expressed that his invention of the time machine was useless. As he says,
The thought of the years I had spent in study and toil
to get into the future age, and now my passion
and anxiety to get out of it. I had made myself the most
complicated and the most hopeless trap that a man devised.
(Time Machine, pg.48)
H.G Wells's Time Machine gave the nineteenth century society an insight
into what the future holds, and shared that people should be afraid of the
effects of science because science could end one's life. The Time traveller
in Time Machine returned to tell his adventures which none of his friends
believed. Thus, he was so determine to bring back proof, that he went to
the future. However, during his second journey in time, the Time traveller
"just vanished three years ago, and as everybody knows now, he has never
returned." (Time Machine pg.117) In the Time Machine, the effect of science
caused the Time traveller to be captured within Time. Thus, the creation of
the Time machine caused the disappearance of a human being which led people
to fear science because it could lead to the destruction of hunmanity.

Another novel in which the immense interest in science led to the
death of a human being and provoked its readers to fear the effect of science
in the nineteenth century is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Basically the novel
is about a doctor name Henry Jekyll who wanted to expriment (using science)
with the theory that every man has a dual personality, that there will always
be an evil side and good side of a person. In proving his theory, Dr. Jekyll
mixed up a potion using chemicals that would break the chain of good and evil.
The evil side, Edward Hyde, could enjoy all the wicked pleasures and execute all
of Dr. Jekyll's angry, and vengeful wishes, yet, Dr. Jekyll does not have to
be afraid of his conscience. Since Mr. Hyde was pure evil and was affected
by science, Stevenson tells his readers that science is evil through Hyde's
actions, and through the characters like Utterson whose descriptions of Hyde
is immense horrifying. As he says,
Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish; he gave an impression
of deformity without any namable malformation, he had
a displeasing smile, ..., and he spoke with a husky
whispering and somewhat broken voice, ...God bless
methe man seems hardly human! (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde pg.20)
Like Frankenstein, the words "evil, satan, and devilish" were all used to
describe Mr. Hyde. Thus, the point which Stevenson might be getting across
to his reader in the nineteenth century is that science is evil and satanic,
which everyone in the society should be afraid of.

The nineteenth century society was not the only society that is
afraid of science. Even now, our society is afraid of the effects of
science. Take for instance the creation of nuclear energy plants around
the world. These nuclear energy plants can do wonders to our society;
however, many people are afraid of the fact that if there was an accident
in the plant the whole nuclear plant would blow up. This accident in the
nuclear plants can eliminate many cities around them. Science makes the
destruction of humanity possible. For instance, the nuclear atom bomb
which was fired on Hiroshima by the U.S.A caused many deaths and mutants
resulted in the surviving generations of the bomb. Movies like Jurassic
Park display the dangers of science, and the money wasted in building a
park that is filled with danger. Thus, like the nineteenth century society,
our fear about science have not died out.

Although science enchanced the nineteenth century, it (science) was
feared by many because of its uncertain effects. According to Chemistry
Today, "science is a human activity which is directed towards gaining new
knowledge about the composition and the functioning of matter, both living
and nonliving." (Chemistry Today, pg.2) In other words, science is
justified if a single "new fact (appears) and adds a brick to the bright
temple of human knowledge." Because science is so extensive and its effect
is uncertain, mankind will always fear science. After all, our thrist for
science can led to the destruction of mankind