Monday, November 13, 2000

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: IMPARTIALITY, HONOR AND TRUTH


VATICAN CITY, NOV 13, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The assembly has been meeting in the Vatican from November 10 to 13 and considering the theme: "Science and the future of humanity."

"All scientists," said the Pope, "through personal study and research, perfect themselves and their own humanity. ... For you as for many others, scientific research constitutes the path to a personal encounter with the truth and, perhaps, a privileged place for encountering God, Creator of heaven and earth. Seen in this light, science shines forth in all its splendor as a good that can motivate existence, as a great experience of liberty in support of truth, and as a fundamental work of service."

John Paul II highlighted that "truth, liberty and responsibility are all part of the experience of scientists," and that they must "start down the path of research," with intellectual impartiality and honor "and with the kind of 'reverence' that is fitting for the human spirit in its approach to the truth."

"The ethical and moral responsibilities linked with scientific research can, then, be seen as an internal requirement of science inasmuch as it is a fully human activity, and not as a control or, worse still, an imposition that comes from outside." Scientists know that "the truth cannot be negotiated, darkened or abandoned to free conventions or to agreements between power groups, society and States."

AC;SCIENCE; HUMANITY;...;...;VIS;20001113;Word: 250;

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