Scientism is the belief that science can answer all questions, thus replacing philosophy and deciding moral values. It starts with the presupposition that our thoughts are simply the evolved secretions of our brain, with no actual meaning or significance. Here’s a reasonable summary of Lewis’s insight into the philosophical problem scientism creates:
Lewis knew that science was one of the great products of the human mind, but he insisted that it was a subset of reason and not simply equivalent to it. Scientific reason, if accurate, was valid, but it as not the only valid kind of reasoning: Noncontradiction, validity, truth, value, meaning, purpose, and obligation were necessary presuppositions of the scientific method but not themselves scientific phenomena, Lewis thought that in Alfred North Whitehead’s words, scientists who were “animated by the purpose of proving thst they are purposeless constitute an interesting subject for study.” … He believed in E. A. Burtt’s old adage that “The only way to avoid metaphysics is th say nothing,” because in some important sense language and thought themselves are non-natural, supernatural, transcendent, and metaphysical. “In orther to think,” he wrote in 1942, “we must claim for our reasoning a validity which is not credible if our ow thought is merely a function of our brain, and our brains a by-product of irrational physical processes.” – M. D. Aeschliman, “C. S. Lewis on Mere Science,” The Magician’s Twin, pp. 48–49.
Well put, to be sure. But Lewis is thinking like a philosopher. So, surely, is Aeschliman. The follower of scientism, the naturalist, does not think that way. Indeed, many such persons—Stephen Hawking, for example—have allowed us to know how much they despise traditional philosophy in general.
Their approach is so simple that it is often misunderstood, as it was by Lewis. Scientism (whose creation story is Darwinism) functions as a Last Truth. Of course it destroys all other truths, but it is the only truth you will ever need anyway.
It’s meaningless to talk about whether the evidence supports it or not. Such evidence is an illusion that dissenters concoct in order to evade the Last Truth. Suppression of dissenters, about which much has been written and filmed, is fully justified in supporters’ view.
Their dissent impedes progress toward the millennium in which scientism will rule a population purged of such illusions as the belief that they are something more than evolved animals or that there are any values “out there.”
So, when dealing with scientism and Darwinism, it is useless to argue that the supporters’ own points of view must then necessarily be illusions too. They know that. Pressed, they will admit it.
But if all goes as they wish, their illusions will have the force of law and yours won’t. Yours may get classified vaguely as “hate crime” and persecuted. That is an unavoidable implication of their beliefs and assumptions. It becomes more obvious all the time, along with the growth of lobbies and interest groups aimed at concealing the fact, especially among evangelical Christians, who are currently a battleground.
See also: Science demonstrates atheism but …
– O’Leary for News