Friday, April 15, 2005
A Great Word That Is New To Me
In his entry in the Evangelical Outpost Second Quarter Symposium, friend Matt Anderson at Mere-Orthodoxy coins a term in his post "scientism." At least I think he coined it, because I have never heard it before.
Matt's post is about the fallacy of trying to use science as a basis for ethics, which is what I think he is calling "scientism." As I have said before, most notably here and here, there is no real debate between science and faith. The debate only arises when one asks too much from either discipline.
In other words, there is a debate between Scientism and Christianity because both are faiths -- one mistakenly drawn from science and the other from the Holy Word of God. That's a great word, and I hope I have not embarrassed myself by carrying on about something that all the rest of you knew already.
Matt's post is about the fallacy of trying to use science as a basis for ethics, which is what I think he is calling "scientism." As I have said before, most notably here and here, there is no real debate between science and faith. The debate only arises when one asks too much from either discipline.
In other words, there is a debate between Scientism and Christianity because both are faiths -- one mistakenly drawn from science and the other from the Holy Word of God. That's a great word, and I hope I have not embarrassed myself by carrying on about something that all the rest of you knew already.
