Scientism: the Progressive religion
When data becomes dogma, it isn’t science. Rather, it is moral preening — yet another reason to divide people into “virtuous believers” and “heretical deniers.”
I’ve been writing about those who have embraced the religion of Scientism for as long as I’ve been writing commentary and satire.
This religion of the Progressive movement has saints, sinners, believers and heretics.
It assigns to weather and climate almost god-like power which, if we do not follow the dogma of Scientism, will grow angry with us and unleash hurricanes, floods, droughts and famine.
As I said of the adherents of Scientism back in 2017:
In the Twenty-first Century – in an industrialized, advanced culture like our own – there are people who think if we do the tribal dance of increased taxation and reusable grocery bags we will calm the wrathful oceans.
You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone who
declares as an article of faith “I believe in science.”
Which is an odd thing to say since science is about skepticism and seeking to disprove hypotheses.
It isn’t science its adherents believe in. It is Scientism.
It is Scientism that fuels the near-religious fervor surrounding Climate Change. You either “believe” or you are a heretic – or “Denialist” as the case may be.
And like any religious figure, she is not to be questioned, criticized or mocked.
And if we thought the adherents of Scientism were nuts before, the Wuhan virus has made them even more zealous. Who knew that was possible?
The other day, Daniel Greenfield had a column at
Front Page Magazine titled “Stop Believing in Science.”
No doubt the title of this column alone will be enough for the adherents of Scientism to label him a heretic.
From Greenfield’s column:
Believing in science, like believing all women, has become a mark of cultural virtue. Yet the people most likely to say that they believe in science are the least likely to value objectivity and healthy skepticism. Science, for such people, has taken the place of religion in providing certainty in an uncertain world. When science is used to signal virtue and provide certainty, it’s not science, but a hollow religion.
Science isn’t a creed you follow. No priesthood of experts can ensure you make the right decisions. To know more about a subject is important, but is not the same thing as a correct conclusion. In science, the assumptions of knowledge can be nearly as perilous a trap as ignorance. That is why every great scientific revolution begins with the overthrow of the experts. That’s why they call it a revolution.
But the modern ruling class, like ancient emperors and sultans, demands certainty. A science that doesn’t predict the world is useless and a science that doesn’t affirm their view of the world is heretical. The roots of the elite are in universities that began as divinity schools before losing the divinity, and they still want to believe in an absolute truth as long as it is the one that they already happen to believe in.
The Scientism surrounding the Wuhan panic has turned reasonable people into fanatics – from the “Karens” who call the police on anyone who is not religiously following Dr. Fauci’s edicts to the politicians and journalists who treat Fauci’s every utterance as if it emanated from a burning bush.
When data becomes dogma, it isn’t science. Rather, it is moral preening — yet another reason to divide people into “virtuous believers” and “heretical deniers.”
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