Son wrote: Science is good and necessary, but like you said it is directed at the opposite end of spirituality.
I've come to have mixed thoughts about science.
On one hand, humanity has benefited a great deal from scientific knowledge while at the same time creating numerous new problems. For example, on one hand humanity got rid of numerous old diseases which used to plague humanity, but cancer rates have risen as a result of industrialization and all the synthetic toxins in the environment. Get rid of one problem and another one arises.
From an anthropocentric view science is arguably quite beneficial, but it has enabled humanity to damage the planet in ways our ancestors could never have done despite all the bloodlust and conquests of past ages. The animal world has not benefited at all from science. In fact it has been harmed, maimed and permanently damaged as a result of scientific developments. Consider how many lab rats, monkeys, rabbits and guinea pigs have been put to death in the name of biological research. Think of all the dead marine life after nuclear bombs were tested in the Pacific.
On an ecological level scientific knowledge coupled with industrialization has enabled pollution on scales that are killing off vast numbers of marine and land animals. Think of the plastic garbage patches in the pacific. It ends up in the food chain damaging all the species involved (including us).
Ultimately I think science uncovered a lot of knowledge about the universe that has and continues to be used for misguided ends. Humanity is collectively too irresponsible and short-sighted to use such profound knowledge in a reasonable and sane manner. It should have remained unrevealed for the sake of animal
and human life.
The religion of progress where people believe that human progress is cumulative, eventually resulting in extrasolar colonization even if we have to jump over some hurdles, has only added fuel to the machine which is rapidly undermining ecosystems and humanity's collective well-being. However, the reality is that we're not going to leave this planet given the vast distances between earth and other star systems, to say nothing of how hostile the rest of the solar system is.
In the end in retrospect the world as a whole (all species included) might have been better off without the scientific revolution. We might not know as much about the material universe, but we earth dwellers would have been better off. A bunch of Buddhists building cozy stone temples and discussing Meru cosmology might not impress advocates of science, but those Buddhists couldn't have built a Fukushima reactor or chemical weapons.
Religions might not be so directly beneficial to humanity material-wise, but they can't cook, warp, disfigure and utterly mess up the whole planet.