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| Alvin Weinberg 1915-2006 |
I often here today among nuclear energy professionals, especially the young spoiled brat millennial upstarts and the arrogant, self-assured, narcissistic snake oil salesmen hawking a new kind of technology wonderware, the phrases, "Power to save the world," and "We will bring light to the world." This kind of mentality purports that technology fixes can cure social ills, and that all that is needed is simply enough cheap energy to bring everyone into wealth and prosperity; then mankind's ills - war, famine, and pollution - will somehow magically disappear in a new age of civilization fueled by heavy metal fission. This attitude existed before among the men whom Alvin Weinberg, former Administrator of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and now deceased, once led. He himself was called a technology fixer in the title of his book, The First Nuclear Era: The Life and Times of a Technology Fixer.
Now with all due respect to Dr. Weinberg and the men who worked for him, it is utter hubris of the highest for man to even countenance the idea that he can create a heaven on earth, a re-establishment of the Garden of Eden from whence God cast him out, by simply the right application of technology and engineering. Jesus said in John chapter 12, "The poor you will always have with you," and our first Pope St Peter said in one of his epistles that God will destroy the elements with fervent heat. And St John writes in Revelation that God will make room for a new heaven and a new earth; the old will pass away. So this idea that we by our own resources can undo the effects of sin that happened when Eve partook of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the same kind of pride that motivated men in Genesis chapter 11 to erect the Tower of Babel. God scattered the people and confused their language to prevent them from reaching up into heaven by their own effort. This reminds me of the parable of the man at the weeding feast with no wedding garment. The kind said to his attendants, "Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." Not even with the power of the atom are we going to create a paradise on earth. There is NO technology fix for man's wicked heart.
For the record, I am a nuclear energy professional. And yes, I believe based on my 40 years of experience in nuclear energy that it is the best means possible of safely generating clean electricity. And it can be used to desalinate ocean water, provide district heating in cold climates, manufacture liquid hydrocarbon fuels from coal, produce hydrogen from water, and myriad other benefits. But none of these - NOT a single one - can cure the sinful heart that rages within a man's breast. there is only ONE power to save the world, and only ONE man has brought light to the world: Jesus Christ.
But for some strange reason, the obviousness of this is lost on those who fancy themselves scientific literates and the rest of us illiterate. The communists of the Soviet Union in the 20th century murdered tens of million of Ukrainians in the Great Holodomor, most of them Orthodox or Catholic Christians, in spite of the technological prowess of the former USSR. And Nazi Germany with all its technological might did not turn such an advantage to good, but sought world-wife destruction, murdering six million Jews and uncounted tens of millions of other Europeans. Imperial Japan with its great technology rampages through southeast Asia murdering tens of millions of Chinese. And communist China itself murdered almost 100 million of its own citizens instead of employing its technology to save the world.
The same is true today of Islamic fanatics and liberal progressive feminists. The former, as soon as they get technology, use it to commit terrorism of the highest order and the later use technology to slaughter unborn babies by the tens of millions - 60 million dead babies since Roe v Wade in 1973 - instead of giving birth to them and caring for them as any decent and civilized society would do.
But nuclear-environmental fanatics insist that their form of energy production can save the world. If we didn't save the world in the 20th century when we could have, then we are not going to save it today. And giving murderously evil persons like the mad mullahs in Iran and the liberal progressive feminists in the west the power of the atom is a clear recipe for disaster. The former will make nuclear bombs and the later cannot be trusted to follow regulation in safely generated electricity. Even the great Dr. Weinberg had to admit to a limit on his optimism.
The only solution is what our Blessed Lord said long ago, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand."
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