Friday, March 7, 2008

She Blinded Me with Science

I understand why certain folks have devotional awe of science. Each person approaches science from a different paradigm. On the one hand, some people believe that nothing exists beyond the material, while others have faith in something that supersedes the material universe.

The materialist sees science as humanity's best tool for studying all of existence. So to him, science is the ultimate if not only arbiter of truth.

However, the genuine Christian sees science as a flawed tool, albeit a useful one--an imperfect implement forged by an imperfect people. Science is limited in its capacity to analyze reality. For him, it never can be the paramount or sole arbiter of truth.

The point is that science is a neutral mechanism. The paradigm already in place in a person's mind determines how one views science: as the Alpha and Omega, or as a method of examining merely one aspect of a much broader reality. It is the rare individual who comes to science as a tabula rasa, deriving his worldview from his scientific studies. Rather, science becomes a validator of views long possessed.

There is no such thing as neutrality in the human heart. No one lacks biases. This is why blind acceptance of "scientific" conclusions is dangerous; religious or not, doing so means subordinating oneself to the pronouncements of people who are neither infallible nor objective in their determinations.

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