If you coldly dissect the timeline of human history, you witness a bizarre plot twist. It is always science that first discovers the "absolute order (the fact)" of the real universe and plants its flag. Theology and philosophy watch the spectacle from behind, then hurriedly run after it, busy taking care of the aftermath (the interpretation) by saying, "Now, what this discovery means for humanity is…"
To put it elegantly, it is "belatedly investing meaning," but to be a bit more blunt, it is closer to "philosophical dishwashing"—cleaning up the mess left behind by a science that relentlessly shatters everything in its path. Have theology and philosophy, which once boasted grand titles as the seekers of absolute order, been relegated to a mere second-best, hidden in the shadow of science?
Science Delivers the Hard Truth, Philosophy and Theology Provide the Mental Care
Science is merciless. It ruthlessly cleaves through the beautiful illusions and pride humanity has built over centuries with a single line of data.
Science takes the stage and coldly grabs the microphone: "The universe is 138 billion years old, and the Earth is less than a speck of dust on the outskirts of a galaxy. And you were not molded from special clay; you are just organic matter sharing a common ancestor with apes." Confronted by this stark delivery of facts, humans fall into an existential meltdown: "Does this mean my life has no value? Why am I even alive?"
That is when theology and philosophy hurriedly appear from backstage holding towels to care for the wounded human psyche: "Wait, hold on! Even if we are like dust in the universe, the very fact that we exist within these intricate rules is a miracle. We can find the grand purpose hidden within the massive mechanism of evolution (theology), or we can become resilient agents who overcome the void of the universe on our own (philosophy)."
While science mercilessly drags humanity from the center of the universe to its absolute fringes, theology and philosophy soothe those wounds, constructing the final line of defense that allows humans to breathe.
From the World of ‘Is’ to the World of ‘Ought’
The philosopher David Hume left us with a famous principle: you cannot derive an "ought" from an "is." The absolute order discovered by science belongs entirely to the realm of "Is." In the physical laws where apples fall, the Earth rotates, and entropy increases, there is no sadness, no joy, and no morality. The universe simply exists, coldly.
However, that fact cannot explain the "Ought" or the value of human life, such as: "Why should I live righteously by helping my neighbor today?" or "Why should I face tomorrow instead of committing suicide in a hopeless situation?"
No matter how brilliant an astrophysicist may be, they cannot console a devastated parent who has lost a beloved child by saying, "The universe naturally moves in a direction where entropy increases, and a human is merely a temporary scattering of atoms, so there is no reason to be sad." Even if science preempts the real absolute order, the strength that keeps humans from going mad and allows them to keep living atop the blade of that order ultimately comes from the post-processing of theology and philosophy.
Attaching a Handle to a Train Without Brakes
What if theology and philosophy were to abandon this post-processing, leaving the world solely with the logic of the absolute order discovered by science? We have already witnessed that horrific tragedy in history.
In the early 20th century, there was a discipline that applied Charles Darwin’s evolutionary facts—the survival of the fittest and the laws of dominance—directly to human society without any philosophical post-processing. That was eugenics. As a result of blindly believing the scientific fact that "it is the absolute order of nature for inferior genes to perish and only superior genes to survive," humanity had to face the worst monsters in human history: Nazism and genocide.
The absolute order discovered by science is incredibly useful on its own, but it is simultaneously a cold, double-edged sword that is easy to get cut by. The post-processing of theology and philosophy is the task of attaching a handle called "humanity" to that razor-sharp blade.
The Discovers of Fact vs. The Completers of Narrative
It is undeniable that in modern society, the position of theology and philosophy looks like an excuse, making them seem like eternal runner-ups chasing from behind. It often feels like washing the dishes to clean up a mess science made.
Yet, on the grand stage of the cosmos, the role of the "director who connects facts to human life to complete the narrative (philosophy and theology)" is just as critically important as the "lead actor who discovers the facts (science)." Without this seemingly tedious post-processing, human beings would merely drift like ghosts inside the breathtaking, magnificent absolute order discovered by science—living as nothing more than "sad dust with high intelligence."
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