196 SCIENTIST 



values. Science puts a very high value on truth and honesty, 

 for example, if only because science itself is impossible 

 unless scientists are truthful with one another. For much 

 the same reasons science places a high value on the wel- 

 fare of the community as a whole and it therefore supports 

 all the traditional injunctions against disrupting community 

 Ufe by killing, stealing, committing adultery, and so on. 

 Indeed the results of scientific investigation emphasize the 

 unity of mankind all over the world; racial and national 

 differences seem very small to the scientist when he com- 

 pares them with the large number of traits all men have 

 in common. As we have seen in an earUer chapter, science 

 itself is a highly international activity and scientists tend 

 to think in terms of the world community more often than 

 most people do. This fact, together with the scientists' acute 

 consciousness of the destructive effects of modern weapons, 

 tends to make some scientists support proposals for "world 

 government" or at least greater international control of 

 armaments. This activity has led to accusations from time 

 to time that scientists may be less patriotic than other 

 people. This is not true except in the sense that their 

 patriotism is likely to extend to a larger community than 

 one based solely on national values. 



The results of scientific investigation of the consequences 

 of the seven deadly sins provide convincing evidence of 

 the value of traditional moral attitudes regarding individual 

 behaviors. The undesirable effects of gluttony, for example, 

 can be specified in terms of increased tendency to illness, 

 lowered efficiency, and early death. The scientist who re- 

 cords the tortured physiology of the drug addict or the 

 pathologist who observes the shrunken liver of the drunken 

 bum is just as convinced about the evils of drink as the 

 nineteenth century minister who mounted the pulpit to 

 preach hellfire to the victims of these evils. 



