HAVE WE PUT SCIENTISTS ON THE PEDESTAL OF IMPARTIALITY?

 


Many scientists present themselves as completely impartial truth-seekers. However, the evidence reveals something very different. Scientist John C. Lennox has written:

• Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, for one, has no hesitation in saying so: “The world needs to wake up from the long nightmare of religion… Anything we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done, and may in fact be our greatest contribution to civilization.” That is the New Atheists’ stated goal in a nutshell; and the observant reader will not miss the totalitarian sounding word “anything” in Weinberg’s statement. 

• [Richard] Dawkins states the goal this way: “If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down,” even though in his next sentence he recognizes that this might just be presumptuous optimism. He wants not only to rally the faithful (atheists) and to encourage them to “come out” for their faith (for such it is, despite their protests to the contrary as we shall see); but also to proselytize —to “raise the consciousness” of others, by describing the attractions of the New Atheism —thus increasing the footprint of atheism on the demographic landscape.

“Award-winning Finnish biotechnologist Matti Leisola has written a fascinating account of what happens when a scientist follows the evidence wherever it leads. Leisola’s account of how he succeeded should inspire up-and-coming scientists who face the same challenge.” (Biologist Jonathan Wells, PhD):

• Over and over again I have encountered materialist fanaticism from people who are not ready to give up their views in the face of contrary evidence. Actually, they usually are not even interested in considering the evidence.

Why do scientists not consider any explanations outside of the naturalistic/materialize box?

• ...most scientists who go along with methodological materialism put about as much thought into it as they do breathing. I was that way. And in hundreds of discussions over the years I have witnessed a blindness to basic philosophical commitments in many kinds of people from at least thirty different nationalities. Even among scientists few are aware of their basic presuppositions. Most of them consider science a neutral search for truth.

Perhaps we have placed the scientist on an undeserved and impregnable pedestal.