Science vs. Scientism

Chuck Colson's essay Brooking No Debate underscores the intolerance of an aggressive strain of atheism in evidence at a conference that, in Colson's words, "turned into the secular materialist equivalent of a revival meeting." At the conference Steven Weinberg, a physicist, was quoted as saying “the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief.” Quoting from the essay:

"Another, physicist Lawrence Krauss, chided them, saying “science does not make it impossible to believe in God . . . [and] we should recognize that fact . . . and stop being so pompous about it.”

Fat chance. What’s behind all of this animosity? It is a worldview known as “scientism,” the belief that there is no supernatural, only a material world. And it will not countenance any rivals. It is a “jealous god.”

As Weinberg’s comments illustrate, it regards any other belief system other than scientism as irrational and the enemy of progress. Given the chance, as in the former Soviet Union, it wants to eliminate its rivals. It is no respecter of pluralism."

No it is not but it is worth recalling the words of perhaps the greatest of all physicists:

"The scientist's religious feeling takes the form of
rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."
Einstein (The World As I See It, p.9)

and this too from Einstein:

"Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is the same as that of the religious fanatics, and it springs from the same source… They are creatures who can't hear the music of the spheres."

Back to Colson:

"The naturalists, on the other hand, rule out even science that tends to show intelligence, because that might lead to a God. Now, who is narrow-minded?"

Narrow-minded and with a desire to control others; a most unpleasant combination.