SCIENTISM Is science opposed to the Catholic worldview?
Definitions • Science – Science is an activity that seeks to explore the natural world using well-established, clearly-delineated methods. – Empirical – Quantifiable – Falsifiable • Scientism – A philosophical position which proposes that legitimate knowledge about reality can be attained solely through the scientific method. – Maintains that whatever cannot be studied by science, does not exist, cannot be rationally believed, or cannot be known about.
Examples of • “The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” –Carl Sagan Scientism • “Whatever knowledge is attainable, must be attained by scientific methods; and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know.” – Bertrand Russell • “What is the nature of reality? Where did all this come from? Did the universe need a creator? ... Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics. Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.” –Stephen Hawking
The • Self-Defeating • Limits the realm of rational inquiry Problems • Why is there something rather than nothing? with – A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing Scientism – Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, and some serious misunderstandings.
Does science • Depends on what “god” you are speaking about? • The problem of anthropomorphism disprove • The Christian understanding of God God?
Resources • The MagisCenter: Catholic Answers to Science, Faith, and Reason for further – https://www.magiscenter.com/ • American Association for the Advancement of Science study – What is Scientism? By Thomas Burnett – https://www.aaas.org/programs/dialogue-science-ethics- and-religion/what-scientism • Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli • Science and Religion: The Myth of Conflict by Stephen M. Barr, Professor of Astrophysics
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