Why Ask Only One Kind of Question?

Rod Dreher, a blogging Crunchy Conservative, writes about Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think by Elaine Howard Ecklund.  Dreher mines one quotation that really caught my eye; many scientists apparently believe " [i]f the answer to a question [can] not be found through science, then why ask it at all?"

That attitude scares me. First, it carries the science fiction attitude illustrated by The Six Million Dollar Man to its conclusion.  The television program's intro begins, "We have the technology; we can rebuild him . . . .to be better than he was before, bigger, stronger, faster. . ."  That opening conveniently ignores the fact that failed technology caused the damage that necessitated turning Steve Austin into a cyborg.  Second, it assumes that being "better" is limited to physical attributes not intellectual or spiritual characteristics.

Likewise, believing that one shouldn't seek answers to questions that science can't answer ignores the fact that questions are necessary for all human endeavors.  Asking why Hamlet acts the way he does or asking what one can learn from that answer has little scientific relevance, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't ask those questions.  To the best of my knowledge, there's no scientific way to create art, but that doesn't make art whether concrete or abstract unworthy of study.  It also doesn't obviate the need to question the processes that allow one to create art.  Even at the scientific level, one may accept that the universe operates on mathematical principles but that acceptance shouldn't stop one from asking why the numbers work.

Arguing that questions that can't answer shouldn't be pursued seems to indicate a lack of curiosity, the same curiosity that enabled many of the world's greatest scientific discoveries.  In short it's a self defeating attitude.

Unfortunately, its a view that students express with alarming regularity.  If they're not curious now, there's little hope that they'll develop it in the future.  Many economists predict that the current generation of high school students will be the first American generation to be less well off then their parents.  The best way to avoid that fate seems to be to ask questions both scientific and philosophical.  If scientists don't want to ask those questions, it's doubtful these students will be willing to.