Science very much isn’t a religion. (At least, it’s not supposed to be. The whole initial point of the system was to get thinking divorced from religious attachment to old ideas so progress would be quicker.)
But there are very much people for whom it has become their religion. Just listen. Any time you hear somebody talking about “the science” as though the mere fact that scientists have said something makes it true, that’s religious thinking.
And it pops up all over the place. The climate change debate is a perfect example. Doesn’t matter which side you agree with normally, the mere fact that politicians and the public talk about “the consensus” and “the science” as though the universe gives a crap about what “the majority” of scientists think should worry you. Especially when you dig into it further and find that the first surveys of “scientists” done to establish it as the “consensus” view consisted primarily of researchers in other fields who you wouldn’t expect to know much more about the subject than the average guy on the street. But once “the consensus” is rolling, it’s darned hard to stop.
Is the “consensus” view correct? Hard to say. It definitely could be, but the way everyone has started shouting down all counterevidence (because “consensus”) makes it hard to tell.
It’s the same political and religious mistakes mankind has been making since the beginning, dressed up in the fancy, new suit of “science”.
Only that’s even worse, because now you have a religion which has been ripped loose from the last 2000 years worth of studying human nature that the world’s major religions had. And worse, hostile to anything and everything religious philosophers have ever learned. A new religion that not only throws the baby out with the bath water, but does so on purpose merely because it wasn’t theirs.
And every time someone insists that “science isn’t a religion” without making sure both sides of the conversation are talking about the same thing, they’re just feeding the beast and making it stronger. If we’re not careful, we’ll end up with a theocracy of “scientific management” with “experts” taking the place of priests, prophets, and gods all at once.
Science very much isn’t a religion. (At least, it’s not supposed to be. The whole initial point of the system was to get thinking divorced from religious attachment to old ideas so progress would be quicker.)
But there are very much people for whom it has become their religion. Just listen. Any time you hear somebody talking about “the science” as though the mere fact that scientists have said something makes it true, that’s religious thinking.
And it pops up all over the place. The climate change debate is a perfect example. Doesn’t matter which side you agree with normally, the mere fact that politicians and the public talk about “the consensus” and “the science” as though the universe gives a crap about what “the majority” of scientists think should worry you. Especially when you dig into it further and find that the first surveys of “scientists” done to establish it as the “consensus” view consisted primarily of researchers in other fields who you wouldn’t expect to know much more about the subject than the average guy on the street. But once “the consensus” is rolling, it’s darned hard to stop.
Is the “consensus” view correct? Hard to say. It definitely could be, but the way everyone has started shouting down all counterevidence (because “consensus”) makes it hard to tell.
It’s the same political and religious mistakes mankind has been making since the beginning, dressed up in the fancy, new suit of “science”.
Only that’s even worse, because now you have a religion which has been ripped loose from the last 2000 years worth of studying human nature that the world’s major religions had. And worse, hostile to anything and everything religious philosophers have ever learned. A new religion that not only throws the baby out with the bath water, but does so on purpose merely because it wasn’t theirs.
And every time someone insists that “science isn’t a religion” without making sure both sides of the conversation are talking about the same thing, they’re just feeding the beast and making it stronger. If we’re not careful, we’ll end up with a theocracy of “scientific management” with “experts” taking the place of priests, prophets, and gods all at once.