Dear Friends,
It seems to me, every age of Man has its central fallacy, ours is that science can answer all questions. The ancient Greeks thought, we could discern the truth of any question through rigorous rational inquiry, a priori. In the Dark Ages, people believed all questions could be answered by religion, and now we worship, The Science. The reality is, moral questions require religious to answer them, metaphysical questions require philosophers to answer them, and science requires scientists to answer them. Science is a branch of philosophy as is religion. Asking a scientist to discern the nature of God, or even his existence is a non sequeter. It is no different than, expecting a clergyman to discern the quantum characteristics of an up quark, according to Biblical teachings. Both are absurd.
Science is the guiding philosophy of our age, just as Christianity was that of Middle Ages Europe, and philosophy the ethos of the ancient Greeks. There is no problem when the questions are posed to the correct authorities, problems arise when the wrong authorities issue answers… then edicts. Usually self interested edicts. A potter probably has some pretty good ideas about shoe making, but you don’t go to a potter for shoes. You go to a potter for pots and a shoe maker for shoes. How stupid would it be to have a panel of potters set regulations for shoes? When an age embraces a single facet of philosophy as the wharp and the whoof, that age is elevating a fallacy to an organizing philosophy. Adopting a fallacy as truth can only lead to disaster. History is unambiguous on this fact. Ala… the French Revolution.
The nature of God can be discussed by clergymen, laymen and agnostics all day long and no fallacy has occurred. Let those same clergy change the subject to Cosmology and their authority on the subject breaks down. When I hear a scientist claiming science has proven, God doesn’t exist, or that we no longer need God now we have science. What I hear, are witch doctors discussing how metallurgy is impossible, because the spirits of the rocks would not allow it. We become arrogant when we are told we are smart, educated and wise. That arrogance feeds back into itself making us egoistic, until we believe our own propaganda, that we are infallible like the Pope, but better. People have made that mistake from the dawn of time. Today, we have the perspective to examine it… scientifically.
Now that we have addressed the problem, the solution is close at hand. Simply keep inquiry in the arena suitable for it. Moral questions to the religious, scientific questions to scientists and philosophy to philosophers. Not that everyone shouldn’t have a say in all those areas of inquiry. In fact, unless everyone does have a say in all those areas, things go radically astray, scientists create deadly viruses in labs, religious call for genocide against unbelievers, and politicians justify lowering the population. It is through the cooling affect of popular opinion that craziness is averted. Today the scientists have no such oversight. They investigate whatever they want without a care for the morality. They push their noses into areas they don’t belong, and expect to run the show. After all, they represent, The Science.
Today science is ascendant, in a century, a millennia, or tomorrow, who knows? Eventually, some other branch of philosophy will become ascendant, and they will probably make the same mistakes the Greeks, Dark Ages, and we are making. By turning to that new way of thinking to answer all questions. In doing so they will go down many wrong roads. Unless they keep the experts in their lanes. The Holy Bible has much to say on the human condition, while The Science tells us, boys wanting to be girls and girls boys, is gender affirming. Pragmatically, (another branch of philosophy) the results speak for themselves. One creates happy families, that produce children capable of living prosperous productive lives, versus creating emotional wrecks who commit suicide at 30… our age’s fallacy of, The Science.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
