|
By Lee
Campbell, Ph.D., Contributor
| posted 5/21/2003
Science has been under unprecedented attack with the rise
of postmodernism. Both in academic circles and in popular
culture, we see today a contempt for the sciences that many
find hard to understand. Science is viewed as the vanguard
of European exploitation, a discipline run amok, the instigators
of nuclear and other weapons systems, the handmaiden of big
business, and as the defilers of nature.
The movie, Jurassic Park was a perfect example of
the criticism of science as well as the use of quantum physics
and higher math to support mystical views of reality. Others
see science, not as the culprit, but as the victim. They hold
that science has been corrupted by westerners to make it fit
their rationalistic, "linear" form of reasoning rather than
seeing that science really supports mystical religious views.
Modernism and Science
Although the founders of science were Christians, religion
has been the traditional enemy of modernist science. Indeed,
right up to the present, Christians have often cried foul
at the arrogance of modernity. For instance, in a current
general biology text the authors, through inept philosophizing,
equate modernism with rationality and any other view with
irrationality.
"Darwin knew that accepting his theory required
believing in philosophical materialism, the conviction that
matter is the stuff of all existence and that all mental
and spiritual phenomenon are its by- products . . . In Darwin's
world we are not helpless prisoners of a static world order
but, rather, masters of our own fate . . . And from a strictly
scientific point of view rejecting biological evolution
is no different from rejecting other natural phenomenon
such as electricity and gravity. (emphasis mine)"
This extreme modernist position is all too typical of the
arrogance which has earned the ire of postmodernists along
with many others in society today, including Christians. To
them, anyone who refuses atheistic materialism is so ignorant,
they might as well deny gravity! Never mind the implicit claim
to omniscience that allows this human to know that nowhere
in the universe could the supernatural exist.
Today two groups of critics have made common cause in their
attacks on traditional science: Secular postmodernists and
eastern mystics.
Secular Postmodern Criticisms
When postmodernists criticize the sciences, they often include
the influential work of science historian, Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn
is critical of what he sees as modernist misrepresentation
of the nature of science. Modernist definitions of science
claim that science is objective because it is empirical (based
only on the data of our senses), rational (reasonable, or
logically defensible) and that its presuppositions are obviously
true. Kuhn claims science is a social enterprise and as such
is also quite subjective. He argues that, "every individual
choice between competing theories depends on a mixture of
objective and subjective factors."
Kuhn applied the word 'paradigm' to the beliefs and methods
used by a community of scientists at any point in time. Paul
Feyerabend, a prominent and more radical postmodern theorist,
uses the same word. He argues that, before scientists operating
in one paradigm can change their minds to another paradigm,
they have to undergo an irrational conversion experience in
their thinking. He claims that, because the meaning of the
words used in the first paradigm cannot be translated into
the language of the second, the paradigms are "incommensurable"
(e.g., cannot be related to each other). And, since these
theories are incommensurable, we cannot say that one more
exactly describes objective reality than the other.
He explains:
"We certainly cannot assume that two incommensurable theories
deal with one and the same objective state of affairs (to
make the assumption we would have to assume that both at
least refer to the same objective situation. But how can
we assert that 'they both' refer to the same situation when
'they both' never make sense together? . . .) Hence, unless
we want to assume that they deal with nothing at all we
must admit that they deal with different [conceptual] worlds
and that the change (from one world to another) has been
brought about by a switch from one theory to another."
We can group postmodern criticisms of science into four charges:
- 1. All observations are subjective, including those by
scientists. Therefore scientific conclusions are not objective
- 2. Although scientists claim to be guided by rationality,
the critics argue that rationality itself is guided along
the lines of dominant theories that are social fabrications.
- 3. The rules of logic are nothing but socially prescribed
ways of thinking
- 4. The presuppositions of science are only obviously true
to people from our western culture.
In The Death of Truth, we examine each of these charges
in turn. Here, we only have space to consider one choice comment
by postmodern critic, Feyerabend that gives the feel for the
postmodern view:
"The rise of modern science coincides with the suppression
of non-Western tribes by Western invaders. The tribes are
not only physically suppressed, they also lose their intellectual
independence and are forced to adopt the bloodthirsty religion
of brotherly love--Christianity . . . Today this development
is gradually reversed . . . But science still reigns supreme
. . . Thus, while an American can now choose the religion
he likes, he is still not permitted to demand that his children
learn magic rather than science at school . . . And yet
science has no greater authority than any other form of
life."
Mystical Critics: Fritjof Capra and Friends
The relationship between mysticism and postmodernism is a
complicated one, which we cannot consider in depth here. Suffice
it to say their assumptions overlap at key points (such as
their rejection of reason and their critique of western culture)
which leads to an alliance of ideologies. Mystics have often
tried to claim that science has been distorted.
Mathematician Rudy Rucker, a mystic, explains:
"The Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753) advocated
an idealistic philosophy called immaterialism . .
. It is surprising to learn that such a seemingly perverse
world view is embraced by modern physicists . . . I propose
that we stop trying to explain our mental experiences in
terms of invisibly tiny objects arranged in patterns in
3-D space. Instead let us take our actual thoughts and sensations
as the truly fundamental entities."
Once we accept the 'evidence' for monism (the belief that
all things are one), the source of authority rapidly changes
to nothing more than personal experience. Renee Weber, a postmodern
philosopher, agrees, and takes the argument one step further:
"Unlike science, which turns to the world outside the seeker,
mysticism turns within, to the laws that govern the seeker
himself. Science is outer empiricism, mysticism is inner
empiricism . . . for the mystic the inner and outer are
reconciled through the hermetic dictum: 'As above, so below...'
Both scientist and sage are transformers of energy, involved
in the dance of Shiva. The scientist makes the dense matter
dance to produce pure energy, the mystic - master of subtle
matter - dances the dance of himself . . . In the very act
of interpreting the universe, we are creating the universe
. . . as we dialogue [the cosmos changes] . . . its idea
of itself . . . It assigns a role to man that was once reserved
for the gods."
Mystical arguments are often based on quantum physics, following
the line of the very popular book, The Tao of Physics,
by Fritjof Capra. In that book he argues:
- Complementarity (quantum physics) shows that reality
is composed of contradictory truths.
- Indeterminacy and Action at a distance (quantum
physics) teach that the diverse particulars in reality are
highly integrated, or connected to each other (thus supporting
the eastern notion that everything is part of one essence,
called monism).
- The "stuff" of which the universe is made is not matter
but energy.
- All three quantum observations support the notion that
reality is brought into existence and maintained by the
action of consciousness.
In The Death of Truth, we examine each of these claims
and the reasons for them in laymen's terms.
The Rest of the Story
In The Death of Truth we also cover:
- Actual statements from prominent postmodernists fully
revealing their view
- Examination of the research they claim supports their
view
- A critical rejoinder
- Detailed explanation and refutation of mystical interpretations
Copyright © 1996 Xenos Christian Fellowship.
All Rights Reserved.
|
