Honorable chairman, eminent professors and scientists, ladies and gentlemen:
I thank you for participating in the Thirteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences. Even though we cannot physically be together, my heart is with you.
For 13 years I have addressed this assembly of distinguished scholars and have raised questions concerning the state of the world and the responsibility of the scientific and academic communities to solve global problems. While the specific contents of my addresses have varied from year to year, the underlying thematic focus has remained unchanged. This focus is essentially twofold, emphasizing the need for the unity of sciences and knowledge in general, and the need for science to be guided by absolute values and purpose to assure the welfare of human existence.
God is the source not only of religious truth but also of scientific truth. As I said several years ago at the closing of one of our ICUS meetings, “God is not only the first preacher but also the first scientist.” I firmly believe this is a fundamental truth of the universe, and I have based my life’s work on this assumption.
I sought to unify
As a minister of the living God, I have sought to enhance, clarify, and unify all aspects of God’s essential being as manifested in the whole of creation, both physical and spiritual. The search for the meaning of life as well as the desire to enhance the material well-being of human existence have been the motivating forces behind my lifelong work, despite the many obstacles that have stood in my way since I began my mission at age sixteen.
One of the greatest tragedies now facing the pursuit of knowledge is the fragmentation of the academic disciplines. Such divisive specialization of science and knowledge, like the dismantling of a machine, ultimately paralyzes the function of the whole and prevents science from fulfilling its mission.
Whether we accept it or not, the world is one. It is erroneous to think that one discipline has a more complete view of reality than another or to think that discoveries and advances in different areas are unrelated. All fields of scientific and academic study are intertwined, each having a unique yet partial view of the whole of reality. It is to the advantage of total human progress and happiness that all fields of study harmoniously work together to form an integrated view of reality.
Unity with a purpose
But the view of the unity of science and knowledge about which I speak does not mean simply reducing all knowledge to a single academic discipline. Instead, it is a unity grounded in a fundamental purpose. In science, there are many fields, but each aims at the realization of human happiness.
Although fragmentation and divisiveness face the academic world today, there is an even greater menace that turns our attention to the second ongoing theme of ICUS: the search for absolute values.
Despite the deep desire and diligent efforts of most scientists and scholars to establish peace and prosperity, poverty, illiteracy, disease, strife, and hostility still prevail in even the most advanced nations. Despite great advances in science and technology, humankind continues to suffer from sorrow, pain, and distress.
Empty promises
Many leaders are trying to eliminate this misery and establish true peace and stability, but the world echoes with empty promises of peace. Neither democratic capitalism nor communistic socialism has solved world problems. Both have allowed secular humanism to reduce human existence to materialism and thus demean the value of life. The so-called free world has allowed this through impotence and a lack of direction; the communist world dictates this through its ideological materialism. Confusion grows as a sense of purposelessness permeates the world.
How has this come about? The main reason is that the standard of value that regulates human behavior has been undermined. As ethics and morality have lost their power, the standard of goodness has all but disappeared. Part of this loss is due to the misguided foundations of science. By attempting to be value-neutral, science has often excluded the questions of humanity and moral values in the process of its development.
Over time science has gradually fractionalized, each field becoming more specialized, analytical, and materialistic, thus ignoring the questions of morality and values. Hence, human dominion over science has weakened to the point that no one can be sure of the fate of human existence on this planet.
New values needed
Another reason for the demise of values and morality is that past standards of value and morality no longer satisfy modern-thinking men and women. New, reasonable morals and ethics must arise out of a new standard of values that is clear and applicable to the modern individual. This standard can only be derived from a transcendent, unified system of thought that unifies past and present secular and religious thought.
I have long been interested in the aims of religion, philosophy, and science. As I have already stated, the conferences which I have initiated stem from these concerns. While religion has concerned itself with metaphysical and moral questions, science has limited itself to understanding the regularities of nature and the transfer of energy and motion in space and time.
Science has indeed contributed to the tremendous advances in knowledge during the last few hundred years. Nevertheless, science without a standard of value to guide it could lead to global destruction. In my view, the whole range of knowledge from theology to science has no meaning without an understood purpose and a standard of value directing this knowledge.
God-centered religion
I believe that this direction and standard of value can only come from God-centered religion. This should not be any surprise to those in the scientific community who are aware of the philosophical writings of many great scientists.
1 have proclaimed in earlier addresses at ICUS that Unification theology and ideology can be the foundation of a new, unified thought system centered on God. This ideology states that human beings are intended to have value by nature of their very being. They are each meant to have a unique parent-child relationship with God.
Hence, all people are created to lead a life with a definite value perspective by God’s purpose of creation: the establishment of true love relationships. I propose that the absolute values which we seek are grounded in the absolute true love of God. It is on the foundation of true love that the values of absolute truth, beauty, and goodness are formed.
My ardent wish is that all scientists and scholars develop their respective fields on the basis of a solid view of moral values, thus exalting human dignity by adopting a spiritual and unified method as well as a materialistic and analytical one.
Solutions to the world’s problems can only come about through this holistic approach to human existence. Rather than the clash of fragmented approaches and ideals, a harmonious effort centered on collective wisdom and knowledge is required of the many distinguished scholars gathered at this conference.
I sincerely hope that this conference will contribute to the ideals that God intended to realize at the time of the creation and to provide solutions to global concerns. May your efforts become a decisive, contributing factor toward the realization of the new cultural revolution culminating in a world of true love, goodness, peace, and happiness.
Honorable chairmen, eminent scholars, ladies and gentlemen:
It is with great pleasure that l welcome all of you to this Thirteenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS). It is because of your participation and diligent effort that each annual meeting has become increasingly important and successful.
Because my husband is not able to be here, he asked me to express his deepest gratitude to you all for coming to participate in this year’s meeting. Your presence here is a testimony to the seriousness and excellence of this conference. It also indicates the importance this meeting has for the academic community and the world as a whole.
Since this is a very unique occasion for me I would like to take this opportunity to express some of my testimony regarding the work and vision of my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
My husband does not live for himself. He lives for God and his fellow man. Now, however, he is confined to a federal prison.
Some of you may wonder why Rev. Moon has had to go the way of imprisonment. I only want to tell you that as a crusader for God, my husband has suffered attacks and persecution throughout his life.
In 1971, he was called by God to come to America and lead a movement to revive the fervor of Christianity and the founding spirit of the nation. He has often said to me that he might encounter some persecution and he might even suffer imprisonment. Despite that, he said he must go to America to do this God-given mission because the survival of the entire world depends on America fulfilling her responsibility. For the last few years, he has given his heart and soul and every drop of sweat and tears for the sake of this nation and the world.
I thank God that at this critical juncture, my husband has become a rallying point for religious freedom in the United States. The spiritual awakening in America is at last happening, and the unity of Christianity is also a fact. All these goals are so dear to my husband, and he is willing to give his life for these purposes.
The religious leaders of different creeds, races, and nationalities are showing their solidarity with my husband and their support for religious freedom. It is very heartwarming for me to see this expression of support. My husband feels that he is not alone.
He is praying every day in prison for God to bless this country. He is grateful to God that he has been given the extraordinary responsibility of leading the fight for religious freedom.
I am proud to be the wife of Rev. Moon, the mother of his children, and a firm believer in his vision.
In this hour of tribulation for my husband, my family, and our movement, I thank you profoundly for your sympathy, love, support, and most of all, for your prayers. My husband joins with me in expressing our gratitude to you all.
ICUS has always been very special to my husband. It is a remarkable example of a project devoted to building the Kingdom of God on earth. By bringing together scholars from all parts of the world and from every academic discipline, it has the potential to address and solve the world’s problems in ways that no other organization can.
My greatest desire and prayer at this time is that you will continue to support the vision and work of ICUS and find ways to actively fulfill the crucial responsibility of the academic community. If you do that, nothing more will please my husband.
find ways to fulfill the crucial responsibility of the academic community actively. If you do that, nothing more
Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon
