Disaster-preparedness requires that we organize resources and personnel for flexible, speedy response to catastrophe. Even as a child, having seen the photographs from Hiroshima, it was clear to me that sitting in the school corridor with our coats over our heads was not going to be an effective strategy for surviving a nuclear war. Little was taught about the skills of negotiation and peacemaking which might prevent one in the first place. In actuality, the creation hangs in a fine, complex balance in which predation is necessary not a violation of peace and life, death, and new life all have a place. These sociologists have raised questions about the conventional view of science as the search for ultimate truths and have shocked some scientists.
Social phenomena have a large role in science.
Science also generates some myths of its own which are not necessarily more valid than myths of other disciplines. Sociologists hope that the public will become aware that human elements can and do color scientific knowledge, and must be taken into account. Jesus cousin and forerunner, he is the archetype of the wild man, the prophet as a force of nature, Gilgamesh s Enkidu. When John wades into the stream to baptize Jesus, I imagine nature itself bemused that it should be called upon to purify the one who is Lord and Word of its creation, but a willing collaborator in the designation of the Holy One by water and a descending bird. By comparison, the enemies of Jesus appear as a brood of vipers like that first serpent of Genesis hoping to slip away out of sight before the cosmic Lord of the harvest shall appear with fire and a winnowing fan in his hand for the last baptism and purification of creation.