Science as Religion, Faltering
Scientism is real. Scientism describes people and cultures that take something resembling the tool of the scientific method, and turn it into a dogmatic, tradition-bound philosophy of life. Science is no longer a process used to discover—a way of looking at and questioning reality—it is a limited explanation of one group’s beliefs imposed upon society. They purport to be anti-religion. They claim to be bound by logic against faith. However, it is simply another religion among the many; an alternative faith.
As in any religion, Scientism has dogma that is closely guarded by the religious professionals—the priests in academia. Some of those Dogmas include beliefs outside the scope of science itself such as the origin of all biological diversity through natural and gradual processes resembling natural and sexual selection. In such cases the dogmas are not even held by much of academia but simply maintained for the masses.
In other cases, Scientism has precariously ventured into realms that are testable. That is something that is risky for any religion as then the statements of faith run the risk of being proven false. The man-made global climate change doctrine is the dogma of Scientism that has most recently been dominating our culture. For years now, the machinery has been fighting to silence any doubts, any evidence that raises questions of its validity. However, it is such a demonstrably erroneous teaching that even many of the “priests” are jumping ship. The most recent examples come out of Germany. (See here, here and here.)
That is a huge setback for the religion. To German culture, environmentalism has been a religion in its own right for decades. In 2008, I worked with a group of Germans working to define the most important global events of the past 30 years. They listed “Man-made Global Warming” higher than the fall of the Berlin Wall!
If science is merely a discipline for viewing and studying reality, then good science and good religious beliefs should agree in those areas where visible, testable reality are concerned. In the case of Scientism, we have bad science and bad religion.
As in any religion, Scientism has dogma that is closely guarded by the religious professionals—the priests in academia. Some of those Dogmas include beliefs outside the scope of science itself such as the origin of all biological diversity through natural and gradual processes resembling natural and sexual selection. In such cases the dogmas are not even held by much of academia but simply maintained for the masses.
In other cases, Scientism has precariously ventured into realms that are testable. That is something that is risky for any religion as then the statements of faith run the risk of being proven false. The man-made global climate change doctrine is the dogma of Scientism that has most recently been dominating our culture. For years now, the machinery has been fighting to silence any doubts, any evidence that raises questions of its validity. However, it is such a demonstrably erroneous teaching that even many of the “priests” are jumping ship. The most recent examples come out of Germany. (See here, here and here.)
That is a huge setback for the religion. To German culture, environmentalism has been a religion in its own right for decades. In 2008, I worked with a group of Germans working to define the most important global events of the past 30 years. They listed “Man-made Global Warming” higher than the fall of the Berlin Wall!
If science is merely a discipline for viewing and studying reality, then good science and good religious beliefs should agree in those areas where visible, testable reality are concerned. In the case of Scientism, we have bad science and bad religion.
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