The more that I dialogue with proponents of New Atheism the more I find that
scientism, the epistemological theory that scientifically proven facts are the
only source of true knowledge, undergirds their response to theistic arguments.
They generally just dismiss theistic arguments with something like Christopher
Hitchens slogan, “That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without
evidence,” or if they deal with arguments their critiques are often full of
blunders such as Richard Dawkins asking who made God. The problem with
believing that science is the sole source true knowledge is that it is
self-refuting and incoherent idea.
We can see this when we look at this argument:
- 1. If scientism is true then scientific facts are the only source of true knowledge.
- 2. Scientific facts are not the only source of true knowledge.
- 3. Therefore scientism is false.
First of all, scientism is self-refuting because it can’t be
scientifically proven that we should only believe scientific facts, and since
scientism isn’t a scientifically proven fact it should be rejected.
Scientism
destroys science
Secondly, scientism destroys science because it rejects principles that
science relies upon. Science makes several assumptions such as there is an
observable universe outside of our minds and that universe behaves in a uniform
and repeatable way. These assumptions can’t be scientifically proven true so
without the justification of philosophy these assumptions would have no logical
merit. Inductive reasoning, which is the epistemological heart of science,
can’t be scientifically proven. Inductive reasoning says that events will
probably proceed as they have in the past, but there is no way to support this
presupposition as events could change at any time.
Also, scientism invalidates
the mathematics which science relies upon since math can’t be scenically
proven. Mathematic proofs such as 2+2=4 are taken to be necessarily true. If
scientism invalidates inductive reasoning and mathematics then it destroys the
only source of truth that it claims is true.
Scientism
is a very limited view
Scientism rejects other sources of knowledge such as philosophy,
history, mathematics, literary theory and theology which can be great sources
of knowledge. Without philosophy there is no way to think about what the
findings of science mean to our lives. Important questions couldn’t be
addressed such what is to be alive and how our knowledge of physics and
chemistry relate to this question? Without philosophy science would have
trouble organizing itself. Questions that help science organize itself couldn’t
be asked such as is there such a thing as the scientific method, and if so what
is it?
Also, scientism rejects knowledge that seems intuitively true. Knowledge
such as the existence of objective moral values and duties and free will is
rejected by scientism because these things can’t be scientifically proven true.
These are things that we take to be true because we don’t have any reason to
question their existence.
Conclusion
Scientism
is an incredibly limited view that is incoherent and self-defeating. It is
question begging against faith and it destroys the principles that science
rests on. We can conclusively say that scientism is false—that scientifically
proven facts aren’t the only source of knowledge. In the case of scientism we
can say in the words of Christopher Hitchens, “That which can be asserted
without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.”
And then Jesus came upon his disciples and said, "What's this goddamn shit I'm hearing about a human sacrifice for your sins!!? What kind of Neanderthal bullshit is that!!? What are we, a bunch of goddamn lunatics!!? Blood sacrifice!!!!!!? You can take that Stone Age bullshit and shove it straight up your asses!!!!"
ReplyDelete"Praise me, praise my holy name. The rest is total donkey shit. Amen."-Jesus H. Christ