Dr. Alexis Carrel was born in France in 1873. After receiving higher education in Science (Medicine) in France, he went to the United States in 1905 to join the staff of Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in New York and remained there for 30 years. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1912 for his contribution to the field of medicine. He died in 1944 in France.
Dr. Carrel's book titled, Man the Unknown, which was published in 1935 and reprinted on several occasions, was his most popular work. A commentator aptly says of it: "This book sums up much of his experience of man and his life seen from a purely scientific aspect."
But, as we learn from his 312-page book, Dr. Alexis Carrel failed to find the reality of human life. That is why he titled the book, Man the Unknown. A study of this book tells us that, so far as man as a scientific entity is concerned, he was, to a great extent, 'discovered' by Dr. Carrel. Then the question arises as to why he gave his book a title of this nature. This apparent confusion stems from the fact that although Dr. Carrel had 'discovered' man, his study did not lead him to any certain knowledge of man's 'destination'. He felt that a 'known' man was heading towards an 'unknown' destination.
The truth is that what is unknown is not man, but rather his destination. A more apt title for his book might have been, "Man's Destination, the Unknown."
This is not a problem faced by Dr. Carrel alone. The same has been and still is true of all philosophers and thinkers. Although man has appeared to them to be a known entity, they have remained totally ignorant of his ultimate destination. It is this ideological vacuum between man and his 'destination', which shows us how mysterious, indeed, are the ways of God to man, so that, ultimately, nothing but bewilderment awaits him.
Man is a perfectionist by birth. By nature, he wants a perfect existence, an eternal life, unlimited happiness, no obstacles, etc. Whereas in this ephemeral world, it is quite impossible for any individual to have perfection. Although, man wants a life of happiness, in this world all kinds of unfavourable circumstances are obstacles to his achieving this. Man wants an ideal world, but here he is compelled to live in a world that is far from ideal. Man wants a world, which is the realization of human dreams. A world that is free from all contradictions. A world where man may lead his life with a sense of total fulfillment. He wants a perfect world, but despite all his efforts, he is fated to realize that finding a perfect world is an impossibility.
This apparently intractable issue becomes fully resolved when the study of man is made in the light of the Divine Scheme of things. That is to say, when efforts are made to understand the will or plan of the Creator along with an understanding of the creation. This is the only possible scientific method that is of any relevance. When we approach matters from this angle, we realize that this problem confronts us only because we attempt to understand man without keeping in mind the creation plan of God.
Man is a creation; he is not the Creator. Just as a machine is made by an engineer, it is not its own maker. This being so, if we want to know the reality of man, we have to learn about the creation plan of the Creator. Just as without the knowledge of the engineer's plan, we cannot explain the machine, similarly, without knowledge of the creation plan of the Creator, it is impossible to explain man. This is why, without keeping this creation plan in view, the meaning of man's life escapes us; whereas when we keep this creation plan firmly in view, everything becomes fully comprehensible. Everything falls into place.
