In the beginning, there was nothing. According to the Book of Genesis, God created everything from scratch. God created the heavens, earth, light, darkness, sea, stars, birds, and animals. God created a man and named him Adam. God created a woman and named her Eve. Adam and Eve were put in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was filled with fruit trees, animals, and there were river flowing all the time. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had plenty to eat. They did not have to work nor make money. Adam and Eve were naked but they were shameless. Adam and Eve did not have much to worry about.

In the year 2001, we are living in the garden that is embedded with various scientific stuffs. Let’s just take a look at my life. Few years ago, I used the typewriter to write papers. Now, I am using a computer to write the paper. In the morning, the alarm clock wakes me up. I turn on the faucet to get water to brush my teeth. I pour out already brewed coffee from programmed coffee maker. I drive a car to get to the places. I wash my cloth in washing machine and dry them in the dryer. I don’t wear eyeglasses anymore because I am wearing contact lenses. Furthermore, this winter break, I am planning to have Lasik operation to correct my vision permanently. Then, I could say goodbye to my contact lenses. This is the sketch of my life, but just a part. I am living in the garden with full of scientific devices that I could no longer live without.

Wow. How did we get here from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Science? What makes the world to become such a science oriented society? What drives human beings to seek scientific knowledge of the world? Since I am a Christian who confidently believes in God’s creation of the world according to the Bible. I believe that it is a natural characteristic of the human being to seek more knowledge. The desire for more knowledge actually evolved into creating the technologies that became part of our lives. In addition, I believe that the knowledge itself is actually given by God along with the power to use them. Finally, I believe that knowledge is a good thing to posses, however; we need to be more careful and humble of using the knowledge that was given to us by our creator as a gift.

When God gave the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve. He said, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Gen. 1.16-17). Adam and Eve knew the rules and consequences. However, they ate the forbidden fruit. Why would they do such a thing when they knew the consequence, which is the death? Adam blamed Eve, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate” (Holy Bible, New Revises Standard Version, Gen. 3.12). Eve blamed serpent, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate” (Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Gen. 3.13). These are not very convincing. I don’t think that anyone would jeopardize his or her life so easily, without any question. Furthermore, it is not that Adam and Eve didn’t have anything to eat. I believe that there must have been a strong force that drove Adam and Eve to take the forbidden fruit. I believe it is the natural characteristic of human beings for wanting to obtain more knowledge. Why else would Adam and Eve take that forbidden fruit? They had everything they needed in the Garden of Eden. Yes, the serpent lied to Adam and Eve that they will not die by eating the forbidden fruit. The fact that Adam and Eve believed serpent over their creator God shows their strong desire of wanting to eat the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve desired to have more knowledge (by eating the forbidden fruit), they blindly sacrificed their lives.

In Mary Shelley’s work, “Frankenstein,” the protagonist, Victor Frankenstein, talked about his eagerness and ambition to create a ‘human being’ of his own. Frankenstein apparently had the knowledge and discovered the technique to bestow animation upon lifeless matter (232). Through this experiment, Frankenstein said, “I might in process of time renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption (232). Although, Frankenstein had started the experiment with such distinguish purpose. As the story develops, Frankenstein seemed that he had lost the purpose of his doing. Moreover, Frankenstein devoted all his time and emotional domain over his project. What drove Frankenstein to be so ambitious? Isn’t it the natural characteristic of human beings for wanting to have more knowledge? Frankenstein is a scholar who posses more knowledge than ordinary people. He must have known that what he was trying to accomplish is against the law of nature. Yet, it did not stop Frankenstein to pursue his goal of creating a human being. I believe that it is the strong force of wanting to acquire advanced knowledge and techniques drove Frankenstein to over look all the important aspects of life. Frankenstein became insensible to the beauty of nature around him. Frankenstein became isolated from his loved ones. It was not the benefit of the outcome or the purpose of the project, which drove Frankenstein to become so obsessive of his experiment. It is that characteristic we all posses to have more knowledge.

Then, what was the beginning of the knowledge? When did we use our knowledge for the very first time? In the Bible, “So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name (Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Gen. 2.19). This leads me to believe that the man was created with the intelligence and knowledge and he used his intelligence to name all the living things. Just imagine, Adam is walking around and naming all living things. Adam is pointing at each living things and say, “You are eagle, you are pigeon, you are alligator,” ……and so on. How fascinating! This is a beginning of our knowledge. In addition, God first gave Adam a power to name every living creature. Then, God gave man a power to use and care for the world, “…have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Gen. 1.28). So there, we human beings have dominion over the world with the knowledge to use. From this, we created more and more things to accommodate our lives. Since it is one of human beings’ characteristics to seek new and more information. We have never stopped. As Frankenstein has never stopped until he completed his creation. As a result, our lives are filled with advanced technologies and sciences, far from the Garden of Eden.

Finally, then is the knowledge dangerous thing? In her work, “Frankenstein”, the author, Mary Shelley, wrote, “… how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be the world, than he who aspires to become greater than his nature will allow” (231). On the other hand, in the essay, “Enemies of Promise”, Bishop said, “Resistance to science is born of fear. Fear, in turn, is bred by ignorance” (241). Personally, I agree with Bishop that we need to be educated to understand the science. In the past, I have criticized the science for a lot of things happening in our society. However, I admit that I do not posses the knowledge to understand the science and how it works. Yet, I say I cannot live without the high-techs that science has developed. I believe that knowledge is a good thing and it was given to us as a gift with good intention because it came from God. The nature of God is goodness.

Now, we need to focus on how we can utilize our knowledge. The intention was to benefit the human beings. However, are we all benefiting from the science? Majority of the products that science has developed are benefiting our lives. But, we must admit that there are side effects of these products. Some of those side effects are; pollution of the earth, air, water, which is hazardous to our health. There are more diseases and disabilities such as cancer, aids, birth defect, autism, and many more. I suggest that we need to control the desire to develop more high technology stuff. Before we engage in other scientific project, we need to stop and invest enough time and knowledge to see what are the possible side effects might be. I suggest that we use science to fix the side effects and negative outcomes rather than developing another product or method.

All in all, I do enjoy all the machines and devices that science has developed. I do not want to live without them either. I have no doubt that God has given us the ability to come up with all the technologies. I also believe that God made us to have ambition to seek more knowledge. Most of all, God gave all the power upon human beings. He wants us to have dominion over the world for our benefit and enjoyment. Therefore, we came this far. Now, I wish we can stop for a moment and look back. Ask ourselves a question, “Is everything we have created benefiting us? Are we enjoying them all?” Hopefully, our answer is yes. Even if the answer is not. Even if we are horrified by our product and want to run away from our creation as Frankenstein had felt. It is still good news that we have scientific knowledge to overcome our difficulties and our failures. We must invest more time and money to research what can benefit the human beings by using science. We must put our efforts to use science to serve as tool to clean up the side effects and negative outcomes. When it is all done successfully, I can envision the future and perhaps witness God’s approval, “And God saw that it was good” (Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Gen. 1.12) that He gave us a gift of knowledge.