Monday, February 03, 2014

Science as Religion

There seems to be a common drive among atheists to place Science into the same place as God in a religious structure. For example, Moldbug cites Richard Dawkins as believing in "Einsteinian religion". This involves a fundamental misunderstanding of what science is and what science can do.

Science is not Truth; it is not even truth. Science is a process, not a body of knowledge. Science is the scientific method. It is a process for testing theories that (hopefully) helps us asymptotically approach true knowledge. How rational is it to worship a process?

Oh wait. This is the same culture that believes so strongly in the rule of law. Except that all laws are interpreted and implemented by men. So there is no way around human judgment. Oops.

So why do otherwise intelligent folk who really should know better pretend to worship science? Purely as a cudgel to wield against the more conventionally religious? Or do they just feel the universal religious impulse and to deal with the cognitive dissonance they redirect it into something seemingly irreligious? That would be an inconvenient truth.