Thanks for your thoughts, expressed in such a satisfying manner. I don't know
if we can arbitrate a single right/wrong, good/evil, and as you suggest, that
model can cause defensiveness in the people you call "evil." But I think it's
vital for science to bring in a genuine moral/spiritual component which includes
some responsibility for the likely and worst-case outcomes, so some choices can
be made about whether we want that. I see this at best being done in a way
that's questioning open-minded open-hearted truly-logical (i.e., including
deeper logical discussions, like the smallness of our knowledge of the things
with which we tinker) and, as you say, value-based, more than the dogmatic
lecturing moralizing that some people associate with religion.
I call what you describe "The Einstein Lesson." In studying Einstein many years
ago, I came to know him as a deeply spiritual man, in an experiential not
conceptual sense, and I think this ability to connect to Spirit was directly
connected in his ability to do thought-experiments that took, in some cases,
decades to be proven by mere mortal means.
In studying him, I got the feeling that one big heartbreak of this life was his
encouragement to the President for the development of the A-bomb, after he saw
the harm it did and the Damoclean sword it then hung over all of our lives.
This man who wanted to serve humanity with all his heart, I think, was
broken-hearted that he might've had any role in such harm (even if it really
seemed like the right choice at the time, given the Nazi threat etc.). One of
the major themes in his talks for the rest of his life was to support peace
between nations, and that science could be a universal language of mutual
understanding (vs., I infer, a tool used for harm and separation).
I've said for years that scientists should apply the Einstein lesson to whatever
they do, to consider that they have some responsibility for the likely outcomes
of their work, even if they're "just" scientists and others turn their science
into bombs - for no words or justification can pacify a person's soul if they
see great harm come from even their most well-intentioned work....
P. Dines