GODLIGHT Volume 1 Number 1 2025

CAN SCIENCE ALONE PROVIDE MAN WITH ADEQUATE REFLECTIVE AND AUTHENTIC ENGAGEMENT WITH THE WORLD?

Prof. Sylvanus Ifeanyichukwu Nnoruka
Abstract

Formal education today has two broad divisions – humanities and science. The German educational system makes the distinction clearer: Geisteswissenschaften and Naturwissenschaften. Initially, education consisted in the reading of the original works of authors such as Homer and Hesiod. Later, it shifted to Shakespeare. In the 20th century, the rapid development of science and technology led to profound transformation in every aspect of human life. From the industrial revolution to the rise of digital technologies. Humanity’s relationship with the world has become increasingly mediated by technological advancements. The result was profound transformations in human thinking and life. Today, humanity’s relationship with the world has become increasingly mediated by technological advancements. The result is the conclusion by some that science has overtaken humanity. Even in our secondary schools, those students who offer science subjects tend to look down on the ones that offer arts subjects as their academic inferiors. Our world seems to be moving purely towards the digital direction. However, it is a truism that man is a being in the world. The question is: can science alone provide man with adequate reflective and authentic engagement with the world? This paper answers in the negative. This position is by no means a rejection of science and technology. Taking a clue from the critic of science made by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger and the mediatory Encyclical of Pope Francis, this paper rejects the dominant role assigned unreflectively to science in our contemporary world. It takes the position that a reciprocal relationship between humanities and science can aid man better in his relationship with the world enabling him to objectively face the challenges of the contemporary era. Hermeneutics can be a veritable method. As recorded in the Book of Genesis, when God looked at his creative act, he described it as Good. The meaning is deeper and more profound than what we can find in any dictionary. It means perfect, spotless. God thereby replaced darkness with light. It is not light generated by man. It is light that is God himself. God is Light, GodLight. This paper proposes this maxim to our scholars – both of humanities and sciences. Every research should end with a declaration, God is Light. That is an acceptance of human limitation and at the same time the supremacy of God.

Keywords: adequate, authentic, engagement, man, provide, reflective, science, world
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