In response to: Science Under Attack

Norman Ravitch *62

7 Years Ago

That science is under attack...

That science is under attack is a sign, clear and simple, that the old "truth" that there is no conflict between science and religion is not at all true. For several centuries Christians have tried to claim that science does not undermine religion; they have done so in order to obviate the more easily understood truth that the more science discovers the more religion is uncovered -- uncovered as a primitive way of understanding which cannot stand in the light of scientific truth. It is embarrassing for Christians in advanced countries to be put in the same boat with primitives and savages, so they find a scientist or two who is willing to make the claim that one can be both religious and rational. In fact one cannot. The more science is attacked the more it becomes clear that religion is beleaguered and on the way out. It is already dead in Europe; it would be merciful if it would die more quickly here in America.

There is another non-religious reason for objecting to science, and not only in the sphere of global warming. That reason is the desire to defend capitalism and its various ways of destroying what is good in nature and in humanity. Defending capitalism goes by many names: freedom, free market, liberty, etc. All these labels are used to conceal what is really the essence of capitalism: destruction. The great economist Schumpeter some seven or eight decades ago gave capitalism its honorable name: DESTRUCTION.

Thus religion and greed are the great enemies of science. Who'd have thunk it?

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