Nuclear chemist Dr. Jay Wile recently wrote a review of the book Naturalism and Its Alternatives in Scientific Methodologies.
Here’s what Dr. Wile had to say:
What is the nature of science? Many think this is a fairly easy question to answer. Science is about making observations and then forming the most reasonable conclusions based on those observations, right? Well…that depends. There are many (myself included) who think that the scientific community as a whole artificially censors certain conclusions, because those conclusions don’t fit a criterion that has been imposed on science: that science can refer only to material causes. Because of this view, which is often called naturalism, many claim that science cannot deal with issues like purpose, will, the soul, or God…
I would like to suggest that anyone doing scientific research or planning to do scientific research should read this book. It will provide a lot of valuable guidance on how to do your research in a way that is unfettered by artificial constraints.
Also, this weekend was the Alternatives to Naturalism in Biology conference. It was a great time, great presentations, and we will have more to share with you as the days go on, but in the meantime I wanted to let you know about Dr. Wile’s review of Naturalism and Its Alternatives.