Quote:
Originally Posted by paulgiamatti
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Morality is impossible without science. Slavery used to be considered acceptable because we used to believe that certain people were inferior and not human - science has told us that this is wrong. Religion teaches that women are inferior and therefore men's property - science has told us that this is wrong. We know homosexuality isn't wrong because science has observed that homosexuality occurs in all mammalian species. Morality without science is meaningless.
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Of course, with human knowledge apotheosized, the instruments of knowledge attain a quasi-divine status as well. Commensurate with this deification of knowledge is the virtual canonization of science. The word “science” is derived from the Latin word scientia, which means “knowing.” As a form of “knowing,” science is inevitably consecrated as the new incarnation of divine revelation. In fact, the consecratory processing of science was consummated years ago with the Baconian dictum: nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (“Knowledge itself is power”). As a catalyst for the potential expansion of human power, science enjoys secular humanism’s deepest veneration and has been accorded absolute epistemological primacy. This is known as scientism.
Scientism is, in essence, the fetishization of science. It holds aloft the investigational methods of science as the sole criteria for establishing truth. Premised as it is upon empiricism and quantification, scientific observation is restricted to physical phenomena. Thus, only phenomena that are observable and quantifiably demonstrable are eligible for serious consideration. From the vantage point of scientism, research regarding supra-sensible entities does not qualify as a credible field of study. In his article “The Shamans of Scientism,” Michael Shermer describes scientism as:
a scientific worldview that encompasses natural explanations for all phenomena, eschews supernatural and paranormal speculations, and embraces empiricism and reason as the twin pillars of a philosophy of life appropriate for an Age of Science. (No pagination)
Scientism should not be confused with legitimate science. Its epistemological rigidity would probably discourage the genuinely investigative mind. Ironically, many of the minds that shaped modern science were not nearly as rigid. Arguably, if the innovators of previous generations had labored under such pathological skepticism, then many of them would have never discovered the breakthroughs in science and technology that this current generation enjoys. Researcher Michael Hoffman makes the distinction between science and scientism in his book Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare:
Science, when practiced as the application of man’s God-given talents for the production of appropriate technology on a human scale, relief of misery and the reverential exploration and appreciation of the glory of Divine Providence as revealed in nature, is a useful tool for mankind. Scientism is science gone mad, which is what we have today. (Hoffman 49)
Concerning this important distinction, Rama Coomaraswamy states:
Traditional man, placing science in a hierarchal relationship to the totality of truth, sees no conflict between what is demonstrable by measurement and what he knows from Revelation. His attitude towards the “modern scientistic outlook” with its claim to the totality of truth and its refusal to recognize any moral master is, however, quite another matter. In no way can he give his assent to irrational postulates such as progress, evolution, and the perfectability of man qua man–ideas which have their origin in man’s collective subconscious rather than in God. If any conflict exists, it is not between science and faith properly understood, but between modern and traditional attitudes. (No pagination)
Convinced that their outlook encompasses the “totality of truth,” the shamans of scientism are overtly hostile towards supernatural explanations. According to their criteria, all inquiry must be restricted to this ontological plane of existence. Shermer succinctly voices this so-called “modern attitude”:
. . .cosmology and evolutionary theory ask the ultimate origin questions that have traditionally been the province of religion and theology. Scientism is courageously proffering naturalistic answers that supplant supernaturalistic ones and in the process is providing spiritual sustenance for those whose needs are not being met by these ancient cultural traditions. (No pagination)
Scientism is epistemological imperialism. It stipulates the ecumenical imposition of science upon all fields of study. No doubt, a majority of contemporary thinkers would regard this universal extrapolation of science as desirable. After all, science has contributed to the technological advancement of human society. It harnessed electricity through the light bulb, cured illnesses through inoculations, and traversed space through rockets. Surely, such a force could equally enhance the human condition if applied to questions of history, morality, and governance.
However, the contemporary mind, blinded as it is by its own chronocentricism, has failed to recognize a significant shortcoming in the investigational methods of science. Michael Hoffman reveals this shortcoming:
The reason that science is a bad master and dangerous servant and ought not to be worshipped is that science is not objective. Science is fundamentally about the uses of measurement. What does not fit the yardstick of the scientist is discarded. Scientific determinism has repeatedly excluded some data from its measurement and fudged other data, such as Piltdown Man, in order to support the self-fulfilling nature of its own agenda, be it Darwinism or “cut, burn and poison” methods of cancer “treatment.” (49)
Indeed, as a system of quantification, science can concern itself only with quantifiable entities. Items that defy quantification must be precluded. This prompts a disturbing question. Exactly what items must an exclusively scientific outlook omit? The answer is provided in The Report from Iron Mountain, a document purporting to be the product of a secret government think tank:
Previous studies have taken the desirability of peace, the importance of human life, the superiority of democratic institutions, the greatest “good” for the greatest number, the “dignity” of the individual, and other such wishful premises as axiomatic values necessary for the justification of a study of peace issues. We have not found them so. We have attempted to apply the standards of physical science to our thinking, the principal characteristic of which is not quantification, as is popularly believed, but that, in Whitehead’s words, “. . .it ignores all judgments of value; for instance, all esthetic and moral judgments.” (Lewin 13-14; emphasis added)
An exclusively scientific approach jettisons all “axiomatic values.” The “esthetic and moral judgments” that preserve man’s humanity must be totally disregarded in a purely scientistic society. In fact, man himself must be altered. Because man’s humanity poses a problem for a state governed according to a system of quantification, that particular attribute of his being must be expunged. Hoffman provides an eloquent summation:
The doctrine of man playing god reaches its nadir in the philosophy of scientism which makes possible the complete mental, spiritual and physical enslavement of mankind through technologies such as satellite and computer surveillance; a state of affairs symbolized by the “All Seeing Eye” above the unfinished pyramid on the U.S. one dollar bill. (50)
The truncated pyramid mounted by the “All Seeing Eye” represents the blueprint according to which society is being re-sculpted. It is the standard schematic for authoritarian governments, which ride into dominance astride the epistemological imperialism of scientism