MOTHER of PEACE CHAPTER 5 THE EMBLEM OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 7. Science is a stepping-stone
Once in a while, you hear religious people devalue science as having nothing to do with God, and secular people devalue religion as having no practical use. Both sides separate God and science. Both are in error. God wants us to develop science and technology as tools with which we can exercise the dominion of love over all things. And that is God's great blessing. We must love nature with the same heart as God, and cultivate it for the benefit of humanity. This is God-centered science and technology
In 1972, my husband and I convened the first International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS). As with any new project, we endured many obstacles and birth pangs to bring it into the world. And then, after ICUS was launched, many scholars accused us of using scientists to legitimate ourselves. In many cases, the development of ICUS went like this: A scholar would be approached with a personal invitation saying, “Professor, I sincerely invite you to attend this upcoming Science Conference.”
He or she would send a response that said, “I have heard that the founders of this forum are Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and his wife, and I am opposed to them.”
Several years later, this same scholar would accept our invitation and present his or her work at the conference. This was because he or she had realized the true motivation of ICUS. As the years passed, we received enthusiastic responses from distinguished scholars worldwide who were wary at first, then participated and became loyal supporters. This was because through ICUS they discovered the larger purpose of their work.
We always considered ICUS themes with care. The first ICUS, which convened in New York City, was on the topic, “The Moral Orientation of the Sciences.” My husband and I, as the founders, wanted to raise the question of what science could do for the sake of humanity.
'The purpose and goal of science are to realize humanity's dreams,' my husband said in his opening address. “Scientific civilization, by its very nature, must be shared by humankind as a whole.'
We convened the second ICUS in Tokyo in 1973 under the theme, 'Contemporary Science and Ethical Values.” Thanks to the participation of five Nobel Prize laureates, the conference attracted much attention. While the first conference assembled just 20 scientists from seven nations, the second ICUS drew 60 participants from 18 nations. In just one year, it had become a global forum.
By 1981, when we held the 10th ICUS in Seoul, 808 scholars attended from approximately 100 nations; ICUS had become the leading global forum of its kind. During that event, we proposed the free and generous exchange of technology among nations, something that had never been imagined in history. Our view is that because science and technology are revealed and given by God, they are the common wealth of all humanity. We emphasized that no country should monopolize these common assets. My husband and I sponsored the ICUS forums to promote the free exchange of science and technology.
Our intention especially was to see science and technology shared with the developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Put another way, we wanted developed countries to globalize the cutting-edge standards of science and technology by sharing their tools and methods with developing nations. To set an example, when we saw food shortages in some parts of Africa, we donated machinery for the development of sausage factories. We arranged for education in advanced methods of crop cultivation and livestock breeding. In South America, we raised cattle. Also, we planted trees and took other measures to keep nature green and pristine.
In Kona, on Hawaii's Big Island, we started a coffee plantation. Harvesting coffee beans is strenuous work and cultivating the plants requires great skill as well. Initially, we suffered serious losses because we did not spray pesticides, which damage human health. In time, we found a way to repel insects without using harmful chemicals, and now we're producing premium coffee that is pesticide-free.
We purchased automobile assembly lines in Germany and established automobile factories in China and North Korea. When we saw farmers doing the back-breaking work of sowing rice by hand, we acquired an agricultural machinery factory and supplied them with the equipment they lacked. Looking upward into the sky, we established Korea Times Aviation to support state-of-the-art aviation technology and space engineering. These efforts and more naturally go through ups and downs, but our vision is unchanging. We learn as we go and our investment will continue.
For years, the ICUS forums led to countless scientific collaborations and new friendships. In 2000, we entered a new phase of the providence and put ICUS on hold. I renewed the annual International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences in 2017. The 24th ICUS, held in 2018, gathered hundreds of participants devoted to pioneering new paradigms for scientific research. In my opening remarks to that conference, I cast the vision:
'To solve the many problems facing our world, whether they are religious or scientific, first you must know correctly about God, who is the origin of the universe, and about True Parents. Then you will be able to find the solutions.'
ICUS is gathering scientists, engineers and inventors to harmonize the technologies and tools in our hands with the ecology of the natural world as well as our original human nature created by God, for the purpose of realizing authentic human happiness and lasting peace. |