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Science: Power and Politics

Has science become a new religion?

Issue 33, 12th July 2015
| John Horgan is director of the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology and is the author of The End of Science and other books. You can read his latest book, My Quantum Experiment, for free online on his website, johnhorgan.org.
2,565 words
Read time: approx. 13 mins

We believe science is rational. But, like the church it once fought, it has its own established power structures and its own politics to defend. Has it become the new church, with beliefs tended by the faithful and heretics excluded from publication? Or is this a travesty of an institution that has brought so much advance?

John Horgan is a science journalist and director of the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He was a senior writer at Scientific American from 1986 to 1997, and has also written for The New York Times, National Geographic, Time, and Newsweek. Horgan’s most recent book is 2012’s The End of War, which argues that war should be viewed as a scientific problem to be solved like any other.

Here, he speaks to the IAI about the power of science and the twin threats of politics and postmodernism.

 

We are repeatedly told that scientific developments and technology will be able to solve all of our problems. For example, Macmillan the cancer charity claims that through advances in chemistry we’ll be able to abolish cancer. Do you think we rely on science too much to answer all of our questions?

John Horgan
Issue 33, 12th July 2015

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David Morey 2 22 August 2015

See Kate Soper on alternative hedonism:

http://philosophybites.com/2009/01/kate-soper-on-alternative-hedonism.html

David Morey 2 22 August 2015

Do we need a new culture and ethics of caution and lazy hedonism? If we are using resources too quickly and with poor technology, do we not need to take a step back, relax, keep working to improve our knowledge but produce and consume much less, take lots of time out, do much less, an ethic of as little work as possible, relax in low consumption wsys, enjoying simple pleasures, and wait for our knowledge to overcome our current limitations?

Melarish Ish 27 July 2015

I find religion is often also a way to avoid taking responsibility. "I'll be a good person and Father in heaven will take care of me". In my perception, quite a few people embrace religion because they are not ready to let go of parental figures. So this is my slightly more negative view of the "bigger than ourselves" idea. Because science leaves us with a worldview of randomness and entropy, without any guarantee that we'll ever solve our problems ourselves.

Istvan Kolossvary 23 July 2015

"Science says that there is no intrinsic meaning for our existence, that there are only meanings we invent for ourselves, and that’s a very difficult worldview for a lot of people. Therefore they go for this narcissistic, anthropomorphic view of the universe as created for our benefit – psychologically that makes a lot of sense." -- I find John Horgan's interview article deep and enlightening in many respects, I just want to add a thought to the quoted statement as a man of science and of faith. I understand the point about the narcissistic and anthropomorphic view but I don't see it that way. Faith is really about an internal conviction that we are part of something bigger than ourself. It is not at all narcissistic or anthropomorphic, quite on the contrary, it is a humble recognition that we are not the center of the Universe, we are a part of something bigger. Of course, religions have anthropomorphic characters, they are all man-made after all. Nevertheless when they operate in a healthy environment, religions help people to seek the something bigger than themselves. Indeed, science stops short of that and offers a self-contained world view, which satisfies a lot of people, but I see nothing irrational in other people looking beyond the realm of science.