A classic in scientism: ‘In Science Lives Hope.’

_{Denyse O'Leary

March 12, 2023

Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Science}

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At The Stream, a comment on a local billboard slogan for the city’s star research hospital:

‘In Science Lives Hope.’
I don’t want to make too much of a local city advertising campaign, but do you see the reflection of scientism in this billboard? It’s not just that science is a valuable pursuit. We live in a culture that thinks science is the pathway to hope.
This is the ultimate promise of scientism. And the first thing you should notice is that it’s not a scientific claim. You can’t do a science experiment to prove that “in science lives hope.” And you can’t use science to show that science is the only way to know things. That’s because those kinds of claims aren’t scientific. At best, they are philosophical. And in the end, they’re really religious. – Bob Perry (March 11, 2023)

Other bad things follow too (cf the potential risks of any religion):

Science gets defined as “hope,” no matter what is really going on.
Actual science gets suppressed in favour of an Establishment “hope parade.”
People who call out the bad stuff become heretics, not just critics. We saw plenty of that during the COVID crazy.

But hey, they voted for it, paid for it, they own it so…

Meanwhile, heartfelt apologies from a newly Unwokened writer. There is hope but it is not from “Trust the Science!”

Comments

I was on a message board that centered on a major U.S. city. I objected to positive comments about marijuana use. The reply was that ‘You people don’t have the influence you once did.’ So, who was this ‘you people’? Christians.
From context, the "you people" refers to people who have negative attitudes towards marijuana. Just because you see yourself as first and foremost a Christian, and you see your comments as articulating a Christian standpoint, it doesn't follow that other people will see your comments as essentially Christian. Given the rather high percentage of the US population that identifies as Christian and the rather high percentage of the US population that has positive attitudes towards marijuana (which is not the same as the percentage that actually enjoys getting high), I'm sure there are quite a few Christians who have a positive attitude towards marijuana. The fact that someone criticizes you for having a negative attitude towards marijuana says nothing at all about their attitude towards Christianity -- after all, balance of probabilities says they are more likely to be Christians themselves!PyrrhoManiac1_{March 13, 2023
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PM1 at 12, Here we go again. The much desired, but fictional "decline in the authority of religious institutions..." I was on a message board that centered on a major U.S. city. I objected to positive comments about marijuana use. The reply was that 'You people don't have the influence you once did.' So, who was this 'you people'? Christians. People need to think beyond profit, power and control. Only truth matters. Mark 8:36 "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" 37 "For what can a man give in return for his soul?" Scientism distorts truth.relatd_{March 13, 2023
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My main worry about the concept of "scientism" is that it's usually left muddled whether it's being regarded as an effect or as a cause. I think it makes sense when understood as an effect, but taking it that way highlights very different explanations as to what is causing it. For some people, scientism is due to a decline in the authority of religious institutions and the moral knowledge that they supposedly convey. Bob Perry (I think) takes it that way: he thinks that scientism is what happens when undue authority is placed in scientific methods and a corresponding downgrading of other sources of knowledge (esp knowledge of eternal truths, by which I assume he means knowledge of God's will, personal immortality and postmortem destination, etc.). But there is also a critique of scientism that can be made from the left, according to which we place undue trust in science because in our current stage of capitalism, we value what can be quantified and measured because that is what can optimized for efficiency, commodified, and generating increasing rates of profit (extraction of surplus value). Whether one regards scientism as a serious problem or not is one issue -- but there's a separate issue as to why one sees it as a serious problem.PyrrhoManiac1_{March 13, 2023
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Anthropic I thought it was appropriate to point out that the author was reading way too much into the billboard. I’m not here to defend or attack scientism. I will say that from where I sit, the term “scientism“ has gotten to be so arbitrary and ubiquitous, like “Darwinism“ or “evolution“ or “intelligent design”, that any discussion of the term at this point is pretty much meaningless. .chuckdarwin_{March 13, 2023
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I pretty sure that there are a great deal of scientists that peddled you are a meat robot with no ability to make a decision of your own. You live in a world where your decisions are illusions, you are an illusion, and you are a slave to your genetics/environment. This is PROVEN by science. Well until recently, but to my point I see no hope in thatAaronS1978_{March 13, 2023
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"Sounds like you could use some anti-nausea medication" CD, You misread my 'Vomit'. I don't feel the need to vomit, the Cutesy Slogan For The Brain-Dead Scientismist is the vomit (noun). Andrewasauber_{March 13, 2023
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Asauber Sounds like you could use some anti-nausea medication, you know, the type developed by science. Or is it scientism? I can never get them straight. I’m so confused now……..chuckdarwin_{March 13, 2023
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‘In Science Lives Hope.’ Vomit. Andrewasauber_{March 13, 2023
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I see snark, but no defense of scientism. Too hard?anthropic_{March 13, 2023
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He was simply using an illustration, the sort of thing everybody does. The fact that you don't even try to defend scientism from his arguments speaks loudly.anthropic_{March 13, 2023
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I think it is a slow news day stretch by “The Stream” to characterize a local medical center’s little inspirational message as “scientism.” And, of course, the author doesn’t “want to make too much” of it. But then he does. Oops…….chuckdarwin_{March 12, 2023
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Billboards are advertisements. Advertisements are a form of propaganda. They always exaggerate beyond what is rationally defensible. That's their function. We consider it permissible nevertheless because we consider it a form of "free speech".PyrrhoManiac1_{March 12, 2023
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We live in a culture that thinks science is the pathway to hope.
The same thing with enlightenment, nazism, socialism, comunism. Now we deal with scientism. The illusion of creating "Heaven" on Earth. The result? Millions of dead people because of few imbeciles that thought that they are smart(Saviour complex).Sandy_{March 12, 2023
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People who call out the bad stuff become heretics, not just critics. We saw plenty of that during the COVID crazy
A bigger offender is so called climate science. Look at how they treat Alex Epstein. Democrats embarrass themselves by seeing how foolish they can be.jerry_{March 12, 2023
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