Okay, HALM is not a word. But the words Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics have nothing to do with the word “stem.” I can’t find a word to express what I want to say, so I invent a word: HALM.
HALM—History, Art, Literature, Music.
STEM is the fad of the day. STEM is not bad. Science has
done wonderful things for us. But STEM is only half of what it takes to live in
fully human ways.
And there is a down side to STEM: it tempts us to think we
can control the world.
There is an old saying: science helps us understand;
understanding helps us control.
Control can ruin us. The biblical story of the tower of
Babel expresses an important human tendency. We can get so enthused about our
power to control that we think we are gods, and we replace the real God.
Science has given us nuclear weapons, which science is
warning us are only a few seconds away from destroying all human life. Science
and technology and engineering and mathematics are giving us climate change,
which is destroying much of the beauty and diversity of life that has
surrounded us since evolution produced us.
We are not in control. The wisdom of many human traditions teach
that lesson. The word “Islam” means “submission,” and there are almost as many
Muslims in the world as there are Christians. Hubris is the vice of our age.
Hubris is STEM gone wild.
That is why we need to complement STEM with History, Art,
Literature, and Music: HALM. Those activities can awaken us to the beauty and
value of humility. HALM teaches us that God is important, that we can live fully
even with our limitations, that we can be vulnerable to one another, and vulnerability
is part of love. HALM reminds us of how our best efforts can go wrong, and how
we can recover from wrong.
STEM tempts us to control. We need HALM to help us be full
human beings, enriched by the things we create, not enslaved by them.
