Is Science our Only Source of Truth about the World??
“Scientism: Only what can be established scientifically is true, objective, and valid everywhere and for everybody.”
Eric Weil”
It's like asking, "Who discovered America - the Vikings or Columbus?" and one day determining to never consider any possible solution which comes from above the 45th latitude. (sorry Vikings) Or, like the math profession asserting, "We will no longer consider any solutions which are odd".
We have substituted a search for truth (what really happened) with a search for the best "scientific" explanation for what happened. ("scientific" meaning that which does not consider the supernatural). This limiting of science is fine if you are considering the life cycle of mushrooms, but wholly inadequate for the question of how the information, matter and energy in mushrooms came to be in the first place.
I HAVE OFTEN WONDERED at the turn which science took to arrive at its current position. Science began as a search to explain what God had created. When you read the quotes from scientific giants such as Kepler, Newton, Boyle, Faraday, Maxwell, Planck regarding their faith you realize there is no controversy here. So, what’s the problem with our current view of science? We did have two options regarding our existence- Either there is a God who created the universe and life, or, the universe and life within it formed itself. Now we're down to one.
“I’m a product of blind chance".
Let me offer an example of how “scientism” responds in its search for answers. Colin McGinn, British philosopher, writes about the origin of consciousness:
“It looks as if with consciousness a new kind of reality has been injected into the universe, instead of just a recombination of the old realities. . . How can mere matter originate consciousness? How did evolution convert the water of biological tissue into the wine of consciousness? Every time a sentient organism comes into existence, its consciousness freshly minted, we have the same transition from insentient matter to “mindedness.” How does mere meat turn itself into conscious awareness? . . . There must be some kind of natural process behind this astonishing leap, but this process is obscure. (1)
Did you notice how many possible causes for consciousness McGinn considered? Only one! If turning water into wine is deemed a miracle, shouldn’t a miracle be even considered as the cause for something so astounding as turning “mere meat into conscious awareness”?
““Whence come I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question, the same for every one of us. Science has no answer to it.” Max Planck (1858-1947)”
1. McGinn, Colin (2000) The mysterious flame: conscious minds in a material world; Retrieved at https://afterall.net/quotes/colin-mcginn-on-the-emergence-of-consciousness
Suggested Resources:
1. 10 Top Christian Scientists on Science and Faith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8XmXSMxXHQ
2. Moreland, J.P. (2018) Scientism and secularism: learning to respond to a dangerous ideology; Wheaton, IL: Crossway
3. Chesterton, G.K. (1908) Orthodoxy; (especially “The Ethics of Elfland”) available online at: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/130