La cite sans Dieu (city without God)

Lesson from the tower of babel for our 21st century world.

Abstract

The power of science is dazzling: to create and clone life in the laboratory, to send words and pictures thousands of miles away by the touch of a button, etc. Today we live in a world of spaceship, of satellite, of computer and the test tube. Advances in genetic engineering have given us the power to intervene in the structure of DNA, the stuff of life itself. So in a way we are Godlike in our achievements, with the power to create and to destroy. However, it has become necessary to temper the scientific progress by the moral imperative, and to add Divine wisdom to human knowledge. To exclude God from human calculations, and to rely solely on human power, without seeking to do the will of our creator, is to build a Tower of Babel, which in itself is a symbol of self-destructive human arrogance. Therefore, religion must be seen to be very relevant and vital in our age and time, for it testifies to the spiritual values of truth, justice, love and peace, which alone can form a sound basis for lasting human fulfilment.