There are reasons to believe the tide is turning

Recently a couple of encouraging events crossed my screen. 

One was the release of Dr. Jordan B Peterson’s documentary “Logos and Literacy” on the Daily Wire+, a subscription only conservative commentary and media site.  In his normally brilliant fashion, he interviews the curators of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., a Smithsonian caliber museum revealing the Bible’s effect on history, literacy, and other advances in civilization.  I was made aware of the documentary because it had a section on the Christian origins of the modern scientific method, something I had spent some time researching in my book Modern Paganism.  Dr. Peterson is a rock star in the podcast world because he applies his impressive intellect to the honest pursuit of truth, something rare among intellectuals today.  That pursuit has led him to consider the Bible’s message and influence in ever greater ways, something I’m sure has caused the modern elites to distance themselves from him, but has encouraged masses of ordinary people.  They know what modern snobs do not – you can’t consider yourself intelligent if you ignore the most influential and widely read book in history. 

The second encouraging event was to find that Darwin’s Bluff: The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished by  Robert F Shedinger just made the #1 best seller on Amazon.  In the book he reveals the shoddy ‘science’ behind Darwin’s theory and how much Darwin himself seemed to question his own ideas.  This is just the latest in a long line of works exposing the flaws of a theory all too eagerly grasped by those who look for support in their rejection of a Deity to whom they might be held accountable. 

What I find exciting about these two events is that they represent a rapidly growing trend in the population at large to reject much of the pseudo-science coming from the modern Mount Sinai of the temple of science.  The modern ‘law givers’ lament this trend, as if those questioning their instant pronouncements of the ‘settled science’, whether these be the legitimacy of a trans gender identity, or the hysterical warnings of global warming, or the efficacy of wearing masks were ‘science deniers.’ 

The population at large, who intuitively recognize a fraud when they see it, are not science deniers.  They are not, however, believers in scientism.  Scientism masquerades as science while desiring something like divine authority for its pronouncements.  Here’s a simple definition:

excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques. (Oxford Languages)

An article from Douglas Stiles on Medium is more descriptive in defining scientism:

• An excessive deference to claims made by scientists or an uncritical eagerness to accept any result as described as “scientific.”

• Also includes the concept of a SCIENTIFIC EGO – only science has the right to describe the world around us.

• The fanatical EGO-CENTRICITY of Scientism takes on many aspects of religious fundamentalism.

The third point is one I made in the chapter on science in my book – scientism is more like a religion or a cult than real science, quickly persecuting dissidents rather than defending its conclusions with evidence. 

The reason so much of what passes as modern science (or even modern medicine) has degenerated into scientism is because modern science has divorced itself from its Christian roots.  This is why the documentary by Jordan Peterson is so instructive.  This divorce has left it without any clear ethics.  The modern push for treatment of minors to transition to transgender through hormones and surgery is a modern Frankenstein story of science without ethics. 

The Hoover Institution gives a chilling example of what happens when the arrogant in authority assert something as “settled science”, with the abandonment of Christian ethics.

For the first three decades of the twentieth century, eugenics was accepted as “settled science,” and adherence to its theories was a sign of intellectual sophistication and superiority. Professors and esteemed scholars from the nation’s most prestigious universities published eugenics research and started academic programs teaching this new “science.” Mainstream magazines popularized this research for a wider readership. States passed forced sterilization laws, as New Jersey did under Governor Woodrow Wilson in 1911. The federal government passed the 1921 and 1924 immigration restriction acts in response to fears of racial and ethnic pollution from Chinese, Slavs, Poles, and Southern Italians. Apocalyptic books warning of race suicide, like Lothrop Stoddard’s The Rising Tide of Colored Against White (1920) and Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race (1916), were national bestsellers. High school biology textbooks taught eugenics and race “science.” Indeed, the high school textbook used to teach evolution in the famous Scopes Trial of 1925, Civic Biology, had a whole unit on eugenics. In one passage, the author wrote that the “lower races” were “spreading disease, immorality, and crime,” and he mused that if they were animals, “we would probably kill them off to keep them from spreading.”

The reason this turn of the public away from dishonest scientists is exciting is because we hate to see real science diluted by these arrogant frauds. Those who lied about global warming are exposed, as in Climategate. The reason this is also sobering is the same – as real science is diluted by those without ethics, an inordinate skepticism can arise when real science is presented. We need science and should applaud its progress.

I came across this graphic which can be a quick illustration of the difference:

In case you can’t read the graphic, basically, any ‘scientist’ who is not willing to have their findings questioned is no longer submitting to the scientific process. This is one of the dangers of science distancing itself from its Christian roots. In the absence of a God consciousness, which ruled all the disciplines for centuries, scientists are tempted to act like god. “Believe what I say without question.” As society refuses to bow to scientism and refuses to jettison its Christian roots in the name of such scientism, our hope of retaining real science remains strong.

There’s also a good article on this on Reason’s web site. It’s worth noting that this appeal for truth comes from a Christian apologetics group.

In summary, the way to not get deceived by scientism is to remember:

(1)  If the supposed science violates established Christian beliefs and convictions, it is probably pseudo-science.  Someone is trying to get status, a grant, university tenure, or has an axe to grind with God. If you look closer, you will find little real science there.

(2)  If the supposed science violates observable nature (men are stronger than women and thus shouldn’t compete), it’s bogus.  You don’t have to ignore your lying eyes. 

(3)  If the government, institution, or company tries to oppress you using pseudo-science (you have to get an untested vaccine, you need to reduce your carbon footprint no matter how difficult it is, your daughter has to compete with young men), you need to tell them there’s no science to support their virtue signaling. If they refuse to listen, replace them.

We need and should love real science. Only by rejecting its counterfeit can that continue to happen.