An article in the Southern Blog of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary titled Science vs. Scientism: A Necessary Distinction describes an often fanatical worldview that has taken over much of our culture. The author uses Bill Nye, one of the worst practitioners of this worldview as an example of what happens when you conflate science with scientism. The whole article is worth the read, but one section describes the problem in a nutshell:
Scientism vs. science
Nye’s appeal to science as the bar of truth is what is known as scientism. According to John Cowburn in Scientism: A Word We Need (Wipf & Stock, 2013), scientism is a worldview where “only scientific knowledge is valid . . . that science can explain and do everything and that nothing else can explain or do anything: it is the belief that science and reason, or scientific and rational, are co-extensive terms.”
Richard Carrier defends scientism (which he calls metaphysical naturalism) in Sense and Goodness without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism (Authorhouse, 2005) and defines it as “an explanation of everything without recourse to anything supernatural, a view that takes reason and science seriously, and expects nothing from you that you cannot judge for yourself.” One’s faith is not in an imagined deity. Instead, one’s faith is grounded and justified “by appeal to the observable evidence.” In short, scientism is a full-fledged worldview that guides one’s actions and informs their beliefs. Thus, Nye’s appeal to science in the abortion issue confuses the discipline of science with the worldview of scientism.
This conflation, in its ignorance, allows for just the kinds of evil described in the article. Science and the scientific method are not the only paths to knowledge of truth. Much or all of other ways of knowing, logic and reason, historical method and revelation get thrown out if one subscribes to scientism. How do you know whether your mother loves you using scientism. How do you measure qualia using scientific method?
Betty Blonde #447 – 04/02/2010
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