“…when God is invisible behind the world, the contents of the world will become new gods; when the symbols of transcendent religiosity are banned, new symbols develop from the inner-worldly language of science to take their place. Like the Christian ecclesia, the inner-worldly community has its apocalypse too; yet the new apocalyptics insist that the symbols they create are scientific judgements.”
Eric Voegelin
In full disclosure, I stole the above quote from Jonah Goldberg, but it’s only fair, seeing that he repeatedly steals my topics before I have a chance to write on them! I’ll do my best not to further plagiarize him.
Man is a religious animal. Even when he practices atheism or a devotion to “science”, he tends to do it with a religious fervor. Dogs seem not to be so. Oh, I know, I can’t say how conscious of God a particular canine might be, but all in all, as a group, dogs seem to spend little time considering the metaphysical particulars of creation, moral judgement, or the apocalypse. Dogs are very scientific creatures. They spend their energies discovering the nature of their world. They use their senses to formulate subconscious hypotheses and then test those hypotheses for predictability. If I bark enough will my owner bring me food? If I look sad will my owner pet me? If I piddle in the house will I get in trouble? If I follow that smell will I find a hot poodle in heat? This is pure science unencumbered by religion. The dog doesn’t care whether other dogs agree with him, the dog feels no need to proselytize. The dog makes no moral judgement of the cat who does not bark. The dog feels no need to punish or ridicule animals who don’t follow his lead. But man is a religious animal. We have been from the beginning (whenever your religion tells you that was). We have also been scientific in our nature for just as long. How we hunted, how we gathered and farmed, how we warred, how we sheltered. We harnessed fire, invented the wheel, built structures… all through science, often side by side with our religious nature.
Science can enlighten our religion, and faith can enlighten science; but things get messy when the two disciplines become intermingled. Religions of the past have, on relatively rare occasions, stood in the way of scientific discovery. Religion demanded that all believed what they decreed true, and scientists were not exempt from those decrees. Religious leaders supposed that their piety made them the final authorities on the nature of all things; humility would have told them otherwise. Too often men want to believe they have everything figured out, when in truth, what we know is always dwarfed by what we don’t know. Today we have a new religion. It masquerades as science, but it has all the hallmarks of medieval religion. It calls forth visions of apocalyptic future judgements to terrify the masses. It demands that all follow its edicts with mantras like “The science is settled!”, none shall question the authority of the science gods! Like most world religions, it is corrupt. Corrupted by the love of money and the lust for power. Unlike true science, it has agendas. Like religion it starts from a belief and then bolsters that belief with anecdotes, incomplete data, and deceptive evidence. The religion of Science is seldom led by real scientists. They are usually too busy inventing things, doing real research, and curing diseases. They assume that if they do good science, it will find a market, and it generally does. No, the acolytes of Science religion usually have liberal arts degrees and seldom really understand or practice the scientific principles they worship. Like the inquisitors of old, these high judges tolerate no heresy, no skepticism, no unbelief.
IMHO: Faith and science need not be mutually exclusive. Most faithful people believe in a scientific universe, whereby scientific principles apply. At the same time, they generally do not believe in a limited Creator unable to cut across these principles to do something miraculous. Adherents of science need not be without faith, their science can inform their faith, but it will never suffice to explain it. Today’s shaman use the complex mysteries of Science as a religion with which to secure power, influence policy, and frighten the masses for their own gain. Science is deliberate, but these high priests seldom are. Dogmatism, hysteria, and an utter dearth of healthy skepticism, normally the enemies of true science, are their dearest allies. They go on their witch hunts to find those who yet practice the black arts of creationism, climate denial, or conservative economics. There is no room in their universe for a God that supersedes their idea of science, nor for those who would admit to that possibility. In words attributed to cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, but more likely emanating from Khrushcev, it was declared that they “flew into space but didn’t see God”. And so the tyrant attributed his statement of faith to the scientist, because no one trusts a tyrant, but most people do trust scientists. These three things I have found to be good advice: don’t buy jewelry in the Home Depot parking lot, don’t look for business opportunities on the internet, and don’t get your science from politicians.
