Science - A Menace to Civilisation?

Is Science actually a menace to civilisation? While I applaude the author of Text A of trying his best to convince us that the answer is yes, in my mind, there is just no way that science can be considered more a menace to civilisation than as a huge benefit to society and humanity as a whole. It is without doubt that science is in fact responsible for the atomic bomb being invented, but to think of it carefully, if the bomb was not dropped, more people would have died. While science is in fact responsible for the development of weapons of heavy destruction, without the advances in science, especially in the health sector, how many more would have died?

As with the author of Text B, my viewpoint is that science is definitely not a menace to civilisation, in fact, science nowadays is the essence of our lives. look around us, and we will discover that science is all around us. Why our computers are able to work, why coffee is black, why we are alive even after having a fever, these are just the tip of the iceberg when is comes to examples of science being in the world around us. Without science, the world is as dull as a world without colour. Let us take a look at the definition of science. Science is the human effort to discovermore about how our physical world works. In Latin, Scientia means "knowledge". Therefore, if the gaining of knowledge of our world, or the understanding of how things work, is not a benefit to society and humanity, then what is?

The development of science, as said before, is widely known to have played a major role in the natural evolution of Earth. By saying this, I am saying that science is the key to what is keeping us alive. Not only that, but science keeps us alive, and it lets us understand what keeps us alive, and how we are still alive. If development in Science had stalled early on, perhaps the president of some African country would have been struck with disease, perhaps the world would have erupted in an uncontrollable epidermic. A few decades ago, no one on Earth had a cure for cancer. What did we do? Scientists studied and researched and finally found that cancer was after all curable. So how exactly did they do that? We developed the cure not because we were lucky, not because we sat there an waited for nature to take its course, but because we, with the help of science, dived deep into the systems of our body, where we saw the real cause of the problem.

Many may say that the developement of science has caused many problems. But the truth is, while science has in fact caused these problems, by developing science further, we are able to solve these problems. An example would be global warming, where we agree that science is the major cause behind all the industrialisation and all the pollution of the environment. But here comes the marvel of science, and why it is useful to civilisation. In the near future, I am confident that scientists, through the development of science, will invent something that undoes all its past damage dealt to the society.

I would like to bring up another point about what Text A has said. Going back to the example on global warming, I like to break it up into three steps of action. First, the development of science which inspires industrialisation; next, the mass setting up of factories; third, the release of pollution into the air as the factories produce their products. While the development of science is responsible for the first step, it is entirely up to mankind whether science becomes constructive or destructive to society.

Therefore, concluding what I have said, the development of science is ultimately beneficial to society and civilisation, but that depends on whether mankind uses science properly, for it can save lives, but it can also kill.