IAAP

Inaugural Convention Keynote Address

2020 World Academic Conference

Sung-Bae Jin, Ph.D. Chairman, HJ Academic Foundation, Korea

I am deeply honored and highly delighted to be able to address the Inaugural Convention of the 2020 International Association of Academicians for Peace here at KINTEX in Seoul, Korea. Today, the topic of my Keynote Address is “The Modern Science and the Renaissance of Godism.”

At this point I wish to address the issue of presuppositions in contemporary science. May I note first of all that Newtonian mechanism is the presupposition wielding the predominant influence in contemporary science. .Isaac Newton held that the main feature of natural philosophy was “to argue from phenomena without feigning hypotheses, and to deduce causes from effects, till we arrive at the very quiet cause.” We may see a common thread of causality in Laplace's ambition, Darwin's ideas, and Freudian psychoanalysis. These together produce the picture of an evolving universe endowed with no purpose and developing without any specific divine intervention.

The second point I wish to note is anti-teleological determinism. We saw Galileo abandon the teleological approach for efficient causality, neglecting the “why” for the “how”.”Thus anti-teleological determinism refers to the triumph of the mechanistic view over the animistic, of matter over spirit. Even though the rigor of determinism has been somewhat tempered by quantum indeterminacy, still mind is regarded as dependent on the mechanistic system of the physical brain.

Thirdly, I want to point out the influence of positivism, which arose in reaction against theology and metaphysics. In the 1930's, the Institute for the Unity of Science was set up under positivist auspices. Their original thesis of the unity of sciences was based on the belief that all scientific concepts are definable in the strictest sense of the language of sense data, expressed in terms belonging exclusively to positivistic language, namely, the physical language. In general, the logical empiricists came to realize that most terms in scientific theories are neither definable by, nor reducible to the so-called positivistic language. Today the claims of the Vienna Circle look rather naïve, and it has recently been dissolved. Yet logical positivism still remains powerfully influential on the ways of scientific thinking.

In contrast to general knowledge, despite the fact that science is a process of researching theories to explain objective facts, scientists carry out their scientific research based on such a presupposition, which, as I mentioned above, is mechanism, anti-teleological determinism, positivism, etc. These presuppositions are none other than the well-worn paths of materialism and atheism. Materialism and atheism are value systems of a kind that deviates from the field of science where research is made based on objective facts. And this is indeed the real state of affairs in today's science, and the irony of it — for science pretends to emphasize value-neutrality. The more science excludes God and rejects the science-theism paradigm, the more it is hailed as the most scientific of all sciences. Such is the climate of the age we are living in now.

Science today boasts of objective knowledge under the banner of “value-neutral science.” In western philosophy in general, any conflation of fact and value brings about a confusion of categories, and value assertions amount to empty talk in the sense of logical positivism. Generally speaking, one would assert that “science is value-neutral”; but this value-neutrality of science is itself a value judgment, because “value and fact cannot be separated.” Maxwell equates such value-neutrality with value-blindness, or value-insensitivity.

We reject the presuppositions of modern science, which lead to mechanism, reductionism and materialism, not because they threaten religion but because they are fallacious strategies which, by demolishing all metaphysics, demolish the very science they set out to account for. Both science and religion are human enterprises, which pursue truth, arising from puzzlement about this world. In the light of the Science of Godism, we see the prospects for harmonizing science and religion. If I point out the causes of the failure of the unity of the sciences in the Vienna Circle from the standpoint of Godism Science, it is the philosophical foundation of their mechanical materialism and materialistic positivism. If the science-atheism paradigm can be established for scientists, conversely the science-theism paradigm could also be established.

Here, we cannot but pay attention to the insights of Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, who in the 1980's set out to build the edifice that is science upon the foundation of absolute values. And we should remember their tears and sweat as they have been devoting all their energies into creating a new civilization with God at the center, by advocating the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences and investing a prodigious budget pursuing the “Renaissance of Godism.”

The “Renaissance of Godism” signifies that all the scholastic world and cultures must be newly established centering on God. God is the truth of all truths and the source of truth. The posture of learning how to define God is the beginning of all forms of learning and the foundation for solving all social problems. I would like to proclaim on the emerging world civilization, the Renaissance of Godism.

First, emerging world civilization, the most ultimate and realistically important subject in modern civilization is the matter of God, thus establishing the right conception of God. The philosophy to lead the world civilization must discover God, lost in modern civilization, and adopt absolute values centered on God as its foundation. Out of an excessive emphasis on human reason, Western civilization has dethroned God, replacing Him with a humanist philosophy, even promulgating atheism and materialism.

Second, the Science of Godism refutes Newton's mechanism and Laplace's reductionism, not for the sake of disparaging the contributions made by these thoughts, but because they reverse the cause-and-effect relationship of the whole and the part. The Science of Godism supports the stance held by the theory of organism, not mechanism. Regarding the part and the whole because the entire universe is like one united organic body. The whole is in the subject position to the part and the part in the object position to the whole. The whole is not the total sum of the parts; instead, it is something that is “more” than the total sum of the parts and something that “surpasses” that total sum. This is the principle of life and the principle of the theory of organism. Thus, Science of Godism points out that scientific statements must begin anew starting from the basis that the entire universe is a unified structure.

Third, the reason why I place special emphasis on the emergence of the world civilization here is this: First of all, the creativity and energy to lead the world civilization lies hidden in the Pacific civilization, which is now just emerging Western civilization, which began with the magnificent Mediterranean civilization of Greece and Rome, and developed through the age of the Atlantic civilization, has reached its limit and is at a standstill. The philosophy to lead a world civilization must be able to embrace both the civilizations of the East and West, that is, materialistic civilization of the West and spiritual civilization of the East.

The first task I wish to commission the International Association of Academics for Peace, is to launch the Book Project. This volume is one of a series of books intended to witness to the greatness of the revolutionary thought known to the world as the Science of Godism. Each book in this series is written by a distinguished scholar and is published within the scope of a broad category of science, such as physics, biology, philosophy, theology, etc. systematizing every academic field of study from the standpoint of the Science of Godism.

We will be approaching you in thanks and honor of your participation in this great forum with a vision to the future of seeding this new academic and literary movement. You are the forefront scholars, scientists, creative writers and producers of the new scholarly movement bringing God back into the center of the post-modern scientific paradigm. We depend on your academic contributions in accordance with your conscience, experience and wisdom. We invite you to join in this global enterprise waking up the world to the dawn of new paradigm science! Thank you.