Science as External Authority

Agents of God ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 171-200
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Guhin
Keyword(s):  
Complex Network ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Secular World ◽  
The World ◽  
Scientific Claims ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

All four schools denied the theory of evolution, distinguishing between neutral and praiseworthy “science” and atheist scientists who “preached” evolution. People in the schools liked science itself, and understood it as a kind of actor, authorizing certain practices and forms of knowledge. Unlike scripture and prayer, science was an authority largely shared with the secular world, and it gained its power through a more complex network of authorizing practices and arguments, seen most clearly in the roles of teachers and tests created by secular entities. To hold to creationist science was to situate oneself within this network of various kinds of scientific claims and authorities, attempting to leverage certain authorities against others. Perhaps ironically, it was in disagreeing with the scientific theory of evolution that science—or what they thought of as science—became most obviously an agent capable of action in the world.

Science, Scientism, and Evolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-138
Author(s):  
Michael L. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Philosophical Naturalism ◽  
General Audience ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
The World ◽  
Evolutionary Science

This chapter discusses some themes to which Lewis returned often because they reflect philosophical errors that are still influential in culture—science and scientism, evolution and evolutionism. Under the facade of science, even the science of evolution, philosophical naturalism, materialism, and reductionism serve as the paragons of knowledge and often guide social policy. Thus, “scientism” and “evolutionism” are labels for the combination of naturalism and science in general and evolutionary science in particular. Lewis defines science as seeking natural causes for natural effects, which, when successful, formulates laws of the physical operation of nature. Such an intellectual enterprise is neutral with respect to religious and theological positions and is hardly strong evidence for naturalism and empiricism. Lewis identifies the conflict as occurring, not between science and religion (or theism), but between naturalism and theism as philosophical worldviews. As a case in point, Lewis sees no conflict between the scientific theory of evolution and its increasing confirmation by empirical evidence, but he does see a conflict between evolution as interpreted by philosophical naturalism—with ideas that humanity is not of special worth, that there is no God who is ultimately responsible for the existence of the world, and so on. An item of particular interest is the Lewis–Van Osdall correspondence (recently discovered, never before published) regarding what advice Lewis would offer on Van Osdall’s contemplated book aimed at presenting science to a general audience, especially a Christian audience.

EMERGENT EVOLUTION? KLAPWIJK AND DOOYEWEERD

2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henk G. Geertsema
Keyword(s):  
Opposite Direction ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Positive Answer ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Actual Process ◽  
Living World ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
The World ◽  
Established Fact ◽  
Opposite View

With his book Purpose in the living world? Creation and emergent evolution1 Klapwijk meets two challenges. Often the suggestion is made that the theory of evolution denies any meaning and purpose to the world because everything is the result of chance. Klapwijk argues that the actual process of evolution provides arguments for the opposite view, according to which evolution cannot be properly understood without the recognition of purpose and directionality. The question posed in the main title is definitely given a positive answer. The second challenge concerns the Christian response to the theory of evolution. Should it be rejected because it is incompatible with the belief in creation? Again, Klapwijk’s answer points in the opposite direction. “Darwin’s theory does not undermine the picture of creation but clarifies it.”(Purpose 210) Evidently, Klapwijk’s Christian conviction does not urge him to reject the theory of evolution, trying to find scientific or philosophical arguments against it. The scientific theory of evolution rather is accepted as an established fact. The point is how to interpret (or transform) it in such a way that it can be integrated with the Christian faith.

Decolonizing Science, Digitizing the Occult: Theory from the Virtual South

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-104
Author(s):  
Sasha Newell
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Intimate Relationships ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Western Science ◽  
The World ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University ◽  
Second World ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

AbstractIn this article Newell uses two case studies to explore one of the central threads of Mbembe’s Abiola lecture, the idea that there is a relationship between the plasticity of digital technology and African cosmologies of the deuxième monde. One case concerns the viral YouTube video #sciencemustfall, in which students at the University of Cape Town criticize “Western” science and demand that African forms of knowledge such as witchcraft be incorporated into the meaning of science. The second case considers fieldwork among the brouteurs of Côte d’Ivoire, internet scammers who build intimate relationships on false premises using social media. They acquire shocking amounts of wealth in this way which they display on their own social media accounts. However, they are said to use occult means to seduce and persuade their virtual lovers, trapping their prey in the sticky allure of the world wide web. Newell uses both examples to highlight the overlaps between the transformational efficacies embedded in both occult ontologies and digital worldings, calling for the possibility of using African cosmologies of the second world to produce a ‘theory from the south’ of virtual sociality.

Al-Farabi and Ibn-Rushd on the Correlation between Philosophy and Religion

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-253
Author(s):  
Ainur D. Kurmanalieva
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
The World ◽  
Religious Teaching ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

Al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd interpreted religion and philosophy as two forms of knowledge which complete rather than nullify each other. This point of view was unique and novel. In this regard, both of them emphasized that, if philosophy were an instrument of a select few people for the comprehension of the meaning of existence, then religion is what gives the general populace a way to express their understanding of life. Ibn Rushd strove to draw the attention of representatives of religious teaching to philosophy, and aimed together with them at the understanding of the world which surrounds humankind. While al-Farabi tried by means of logical arguments to establish the priority of philosophy with reference to religion, Ibn Rushd did not restrict himself to the harmonizing of religion and philosophy, but attempted to use religion for the popularization of philosophy, as well as the raising of its prestige. Ibn Rushd fully realized that it was not necessary for science to argue with religious orthodoxy.

scholarly journals Agrowisata Berkelanjutan Berbasis Kopi di Satria Agrowisata Desa Manukaya, Kecamatana Tampak Siring, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali (Studi Evolusi Pariwisata)

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 262
Author(s):  
Febrytha Nur Azizah ◽  
I Putu Anom
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Tourist Attraction ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Alternative Tourism ◽  
The World ◽  
Tourism Activity ◽  
Main Attraction

Agro-tourism is an alternative tourism activity that relies on plantations and agriculture as its main attraction. Along with the development of tourism, agro-tourism has now become an economic driving commodity for the surrounding community, so that agro-tourism is increasingly taken into account in the world of tourism. The development of an agro-tourism can not be separated from the evolutionary process that occurs through various stages of the beginning of the tourist attraction built until now. This study aims to determine the evolution of developments in Satria Agrowisata. The research method used is descriptive qualitative by conducting data collection techniques through online interview as primary data, and conducting online observations as secondary data. The results show that Satria Agrowisata can adapt well to the various changes that exist and continue to innovate in order to survive in the world of tourism until now. In Darwin's theory of evolution, he put forward two key words in his theory, natural selection and adaptation. Natural selection as a mechanism for evolutionary change, and adaptations that occur in its development over time.   Keyword: Evolution, Agrotourism, Satria Agrowisata, Bali.

scholarly journals The Borders of Borders

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 516-530
Author(s):  
Kurt Appel
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Specific Task ◽  
Exit Strategy ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
European Project ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Secular World ◽  
The World ◽  
And Shifts

Abstract This article examines the significance of public space for the European project and reflects on the contribution of Christianity to the shaping of today’s public space. It is characterized by a common and shared symbolic, social, cultural, economic, political and geographical sphere that is potentially accessible and open to all people and welcomes creative participation. Today the specific task of Christianity consists not at least in the concretization of the idea of universal friendship in view of an ethos of empathy and inclusion which is perceptive of migrants and their narratives. The development of a amicable and non-hegemonic coexistence of Christianity, Islam and the secular world in Europe poses a particular challenge. In addition, it is necessary to make one’s own traditions and potentials fruitful in such a way that also the dead, who in the secular world are largely excluded, obtain a corresponding presence in the world of the living beyond nihilistic resignation. In this context it becomes apparent that the vocation of Christianity consists in providing an exit strategy to closed social and symbolic worlds. This exit includes the subversion of boundaries. It does not create an abstract boundlessness, but sets in motion a continuous process of creative openings and shifts in which public space becomes concrete as a place of ever new approaches, exits and inclusions.

Why Buy That Theory?

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roald Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Physical Phenomenon ◽  
Platonic Solid ◽  
Orbital Symmetry ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Simple Theories ◽  
Sigmatropic Shift ◽  
The World ◽  
One Step ◽  
Synthetic Chemist

The theory of theories goes like this: A theory will be accepted by a scientific community if it explains better (or more of) what is known, fits at its fringes with what is known in other parts of our universe, and makes verifiable, preferably risky, predictions. Sometimes it does go like that. So the theory that made my name (and added to the already recognized greatness of the man with whom I collaborated, the synthetic chemist of the 20th century, R. B. Woodward) did make sense of many disparate and puzzling observations in organic chemistry. And “orbital symmetry control,” as our complex of ideas came to be called, made some risky predictions. I remember well the day that Jerry Berson sent us his remarkable experimental results on the stereochemistry of the so- called 1,3-sigmatropic shift . It should proceed in a certain way, he reasoned from our theory—a non-intuitive way. And it did. But much that goes into the acceptance of theories has little to do with rationalization and prediction. Instead, I will claim, what matters is a heady mix of factors in which psychological attitudes figure prominently. A simple equation describing a physical phenomenon (better still, many), the molecule shaped like a Platonic solid with regular geometry, the simple mechanism (A→B, in one step)—these have tremendous aesthetic appeal, a direct beeline into our soul. They are beautifully simple, and simply beautiful. Theories of this type are awesome in the original sense of the word—who would deny this of the theory of evolution, the Dirac equation or general relativity? A little caution might be suggested from pondering the fact that political ads patently cater to our psychobiological predilection for simplicity. Is the world simple? Or do we just want it to be such? In the dreams of some, the beauty and simplicity of equations becomes a criterion for their truth. Simple theories seem to validate that idol of science, Ockham’s Razor. In preaching the poetic conciseness and generality of orbital explanations, I have succumbed to this, too.

New Outlines of Structural Sociology, 1945–70

2019 ◽  
pp. 63-85
Author(s):  
J.P.S. Uberoi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
World View ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Indian Point

This chapter presents a discussion of international intellectual trends in the social sciences, theoretical and empirical studies in India, the question of independence of mind or home rule in intellectual institutions. Following the swarajist project outlined earlier of viewing Europe and its systems of knowledge and practices from an independent Indian point of view, this chapter is in effect a research outline for a new structural sociology in India. We are introduced to structuralism as it exists in the world, its scope and definition and as a methodology for the social sciences. This is followed by the approach to structuralism as scientific theory, method and as philosophical world view. Finally discusses are the principles of structural analysis, structuralism in language, literature and culture, in social structure, with regard to society and the individual, religion, philosophy, politics, sociology and social-anthropology.

Projectivism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
The World ◽  
Great Propensity ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
The Way

‘Projectivism’ is used of philosophies that agree with Hume that ‘the mind has a great propensity to spread itself on the world’, that what is in fact an aspect of our own experience or of our own mental organization is treated as a feature of the objective order of things. Such philosophies distinguish between nature as it really is, and nature as we experience it as being. The way we experience it as being is thought of as partly a reflection or projection of our own natures. The projectivist might take as a motto the saying that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, and seeks to develop the idea and explore its implications. The theme is a constant in the arguments of the Greek sceptics, and becomes almost orthodox in the modern era. In Hume it is not only beauty that lies in the eye (or mind) of the beholder, but also virtue, and causation. In Kant the entire spatio-temporal order is not read from nature, but read into it as a reflection of the organization of our minds. In the twentieth century it has been especially non-cognitive and expressivist theories of ethics that have adopted the metaphor, it being fairly easy to see how we might externalize or project various sentiments and attitudes onto their objects. But causation, probability, necessity, the stances we take towards each other as persons, even the temporal order of events and the simplicity of scientific theory have also been candidates for projective treatment.

scholarly journals The Shi'ites, the West and the Future of Democracy: Reframing Political Change in a Religio-secular World

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John A Rees
Keyword(s):  
Iraq War ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
The West ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Secular World ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Religious Actors

The present article critically reviews Paul McGeough’s important analysis of the most recent Iraq war within a broader consideration of secular-religious relations in international affairs. The thesis of Mission Impossible: The Sheikhs, the US and the Future of Iraq (2004) can be summarised around two ideas: that the US strategy in Iraq was flawed because it wilfully bypassed the traditional power structures of Iraqi society; and that these structures, formed around the tribe and the mosque, are anti-democratic thus rendering attempts at democratisation impossible. The article affirms McGeough’s argument concerning the inadequacy of the US strategy, but critically examines the author’s fatalism toward the democratic capacity of Iraqi structures, notably the structure of the mosque. By broadening the notion of democracy to include religious actors and agendas, and by an introductory interpretation of the Shi’ite community as vital players in an emerging Iraqi democracy, the article attempts to deconstruct the author’s secularist view that the world of the mosque exists in a ‘parallel universe’ to the liberal democratic West. Reframing the Shi’ites as essential actors in the democratic project thus situates political discourse in a ‘religio-secular world’ and brings the ‘other worlds’ of religion and secularism together in a sphere of interdependence. Such an approach emphasises the importance of post-secular structures in the discourses on democratic change.

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