ABSTRACT
The pursuit of science is more often defended for what it makes possible than for what it actually does. In fact, what science actually does is readily seen as hard, boring, dangerous and often morally dubious. The parts of science that have become the signature products of the humanity, including the theories of Newton, Darwin and Einstein, are unequivocally 'good' only if one operates with a very forgiving sense of unintended consequences and extend indefinitely the time frame for the desired impacts to be felt. The three religions that have been most responsible for the rise of science, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all claim this story as their founding moment. Strangelove, who comes across as a rehabilitated ex-Nazi, proposes a US nuclear strategy that goes so far as to suggest that those few survivors of the doomsday bomb would be, as if through a process of divine election, the ones truly equipped to take humanity forwards to perfection.
