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The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life
Ecco
June 2006
464 pages
ISBN: 0060582677
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Biotechnology is the oldest and most widespread of
inventions, providing sustenance for humankind since the
beginning of civilization. Until recently, however, its
tools were crude and its implementation was opaque. Today
new understanding in the life sciences brings both precision
and transparency to the process. Modern inventions could
alleviate human suffering, feed the world, and, at the same
time, stem the tide of earth's ecological degradation. Yet
ironically, biotechnology becomes evermore contentious. On
the left, New Age secularists rail against genetically
modified crops. On the right, religious Americans want
embryo stem-cell research to be a felony. While they share
seemingly little beyond mutual contempt, Silver argues that
both political camps are driven -- consciously or
subconsciously -- by a fundamental fear of violating a
higher spiritual authority, imagined either as the creator
God of the Bible, who rules from above, or a vague Mother
Nature goddess here on earth. In Challenging Nature, Silver offers a provocative look at
the collision of science, religion, pseudoscience, and
politics. A hands-on scientist who has actually manipulated
genes, he leaves the laboratory, traveling the globe in what
he calls “one scientist's journey from a cloistered
community, in which life is assumed to be combinations of
complex molecules and information flow between them, to a
world of humanity dominated by soul and spirits, and to the
intense chaos of Mother Nature at large.” The result is a
fascinating book that could provide a wake-up call for the
West, where the economic ramifications of pseudoscience may
be enormous: a future in which Asia becomes dominant in
biotechnological advances.
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