Scientism, Anti-Science, and Scientific Activities as an Expression of Religious Beliefs
Jadi Sampurna Lima(1*)
(1) Sekolah Tinggi Teologi Reformed Injili Internasional, Jakarta, Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
This paper seeks to show how believers can carry out scientific activities or appreciate the results of scientific research as an expression of faith itself. This goal will be achieved by demonstrating two important distinctions, namely: 1) the difference between the rejecting scientism and anti-science stance, 2) the difference between rejecting scientism and accepting the reality of theism. Later, I will show how the narrative of conflict between the adherents of scientism and its opponents can be overcome by localizing the narrative of the conflict to local historical situations and at the end an alternative narrative taken from internal sources of the Christian religious tradition will be explained in relation to three things, namely: 1) assumptions about the relationship between faith and reason, 2) attitudes towards human critical efforts, and 3) attitudes towards nature and natural research activities. This proposal is expected to be an example of how science and faith can enrich each other in a dialogical-critical relationship.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Artigas, M., & de Toca, M. S. (2014). Galileo e il Vaticano. Marcianum Press.
Chan, E. (2018). Are the religious suspicious of science? Investigating religiosity, religious context, and orientations towards science. Public Understanding of Science, 27(8), 967–984. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662518781231
Clifford, WK (1877). The ethics of belief. First Published.
Clouser, R. (2010). A brief sketch of the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd. Axiomathes, 20(1), 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-009-9075-2
Confession, B. (1970). The Belgic Confession. Doctrinal Standards of the Dutch Reformed Church. Johannesburg: Andrew Murray Congregation, 3-21.
Corcoran, K. E., Scheitle, C. P., & DiGregorio, B. D. (2021). Christian nationalism and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake. Vaccine, 39(45), 6614-6621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.09.074
Dawes, G. W. (2018). Identifying pseudoscience: A social process criterion. Journal for General Philosophy of Science, 49(3), 283-298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10838-017-9388-6
Dawes, G. (2021). Deprovincializing Science and Religion. Cambridge University Press.
De Camp, L. S. (1968). The great monkey trial. New York: Doubleday.
De Ridder, J., Peels, R., & van Woudenberg, R. (Eds.). (2018). Scientism: Prospects and problems. Oxford University Press.
De Smidt, J. C. (1998). Fundamentalism - A Historical Survey. Scriptura: Journal for Biblical, Theological and Contextual Hermeneutics, 64, 37-49.
Dennett, D. C. (2007). Breaking the spell: Religion as a natural phenomenon. Penguin.
Descartes, R. (1641). Meditations On First Philosophy. In Haldane., ES (1911). The Philosophical Works of Descartes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dooyeweerd, H. (1976). The Epistemo-logical Gegenstand-relation and the Subject-Object-relation. Philosophia Reformata, 41(1/2), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1163/22116117-90001277
Eagleton, T. (2009). Reason, faith, and revolution: Reflections on the God debate. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ezell, J. M. (2022). The medicalization of freedom: how anti-science movements use the language of personal liberty and how we can address it. Nat Med, 28, 219. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01640-y
Finocchiaro, M. A. (2001). Science, religion, and the historiography of the Galileo affair: On the undesirability of oversimplication. Osiris, 16, 114-132. https://doi.org/10.1086/649341
Gauchat, G. W. (2008). A Test of Three Theories of Anti-Science Attitudes. Sociological Focus, 41(4), 337–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2008.10571338
Gibbons, M., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P., & Trow, M. A. (1994). The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. SAGE Publications.
Haack, S. (2012). Six Signs of Scientism. Logos & Episteme, 3(1), 75-95. https://doi.org/10.5840/logos-episteme20123151
Halvorson, H. (2016). Why methodological naturalism? In The Blackwell companion to naturalism, 134-149.
Hayek, F. A. (1942). Scientism and the Study of Society. Part I. Economica, 9(35), 267–291. https://doi.org/10.2307/2549540
James, W. (1979). The will to believe and other essays in popular philosophy (Vol. 6). Harvard University Press.
Kahneman, D., Lovallo, D., & Sibony, O. (2011). Before you make that big decision. Harvard business review, 89(6), 50-60.
Kenny, A. (2012,). True believers. Times Literary Supplement, 5699, 24. Gale Academic OneFile. Accessed on October 24 2021. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667233716/AONE?u=anon~49c28d07&sid=googleScholar&xid=c0cbafd7
Kobylarek, A. (2020). Power as knowledge. The reverse logic of the post-scientific world. The Journal of Education, Culture, and Society, 11(2), 5-14. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2020.2.5.14
Lynch, M. (2020). We have never been anti-science: Reflections on science wars and post-truth. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 6, 49-57. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2020.309
Markos, L. (2019). God and Galileo: What a 400-Year-Old Letter Teaches Us about Faith and Science. Christian Scholar's Review, 49(1), 99-102. https://christianscholars.com/god-and-galileo-what-a-400-year-old-letter-teaches-us-about-faith-and-science/
Nagel, T. (2010). “The Facts Fetish”. The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/78546/the-facts-fetish-morality-science.
Peels, R. (2017). Ten reasons to embrace scientism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 63, 11-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2017.04.001
Peels, R. (2017). The fundamental argument against scientism. In Science Unlimited?. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226498287-010
Plantinga, A. (1981). Is belief in God properly basic?. Noûs, 41-51. https://doi.org/10.2307/2215239
Plantinga, A. (2011). Where the conflict really lies: Science, religion, and naturalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Popper, K. R. (1963). Science as falsification. In Conjectures and refutations, 1(1963), 33-39.
Popper, K. R. (1972). Objective knowledge: An evolutionary approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Prasad, A. (2022). Anti-science Misinformation and Conspiracies: COVID–19, Post-truth, and Science & Technology Studies (STS). Science, Technology and Society, 27(1), 88–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/09717218211003413
Rosenberg, A. (2020). Scientism versus the Theory of Mind. Think 19(56), 59–73. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1477175620000214
Rosenberg, A. (2017). Strong scientism and its research agenda. Science Unlimited?. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226498287-012
Smith, M. A. (2010). Christian Fundamentalism: Militancy and the Scopes Trial. Clemson University.
Sutrisno, S. (2009). Kritik Terhadap Ilmu Sebagai Pandangan Dunia Modern Dalam Perspektif Kawruh Bimosuci. Jurnal Filsafat, 19(1), 23-40. https://doi.org/10.22146/jf.3448
Tibbetts, P. (1982). The positivism‐humanism debate in sociology: A reconsideration. Sociological inquiry, 52(3), 184-199. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1982.tb01249.x
Van Inwagen, P. (1996). Is It Wrong Everywhere, Always, and for Anyone to Believe Anything on Insufficient Evidence?. In Faith, freedom, and rationality. Rowman & Littlefield. 136-53.
Ward, K. (2007). Is religion dangerous?. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co.
Watloly, A. (2000). " Sosio-Epistemologi" sebagai" Program Kritis" atas Teori Pengetahuan. Jurnal Filsafat, 10(2), 225-243. https://doi.org/10.22146/jf.31348
Williams, M. (2010). Of the sceptical tradition. The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Scepticism, 288.
Williams, T. (2013). Introduction to classical theism. In Models of God and alternative ultimate realities, 95-10. Springer, Dordrecht.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/jf.75124
Article Metrics
Abstract views : 2768 | views : 4556Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2023 Jurnal Filsafat
Jurnal Filsafat Indexed by:
Jurnal Filsafat ISSN 0853-1870 (print), ISSN 2528-6811 (online)