Adam Frank seems to be a fairly sensible science writer and here’s something he wrote that bears a look:
There are in fact many philosophical positions — many kinds of metaphysics — that you can adopt about reality and science depending on your inclinations. The good ones illuminate critical aspects of what is happening as human beings collectively go about trying to make sense of their experiences. Scientism claims to be the only philosophy that can speak for science, but that is simply not the case. There are lots of philosophies of science out there.
It is really important to distinguish between science as a method and scientism as metaphysics. The point is that a lot has happened since the metaphysics underpinning scientism emerged a few hundred years ago under very specific historical pressures. History has moved on, and that metaphysics — that view of the relationship between humans and their world — is no longer up to the challenge of meeting the most pressing issues of today.
Adam Frank, “What is scientism, and why is it a mistake?” at Big Think (December 9, 2021)
Some of us knew something was going wrong when — due to “science” — local government shut down the churches but kept the bars open. So drunks were staggering around doing whatever they wanted but grannies were kneeling on the frozen gravel in the teeth of the wind in the church parking lot…
Yay science.
No, seriously. None of that has been a banner moment for science. They’re sure not making converts.